Destroying heritage, risking health

As of the end of 2015, there are 13.947 archaeological conservation sites, 267 urban conservation sites, 159 historic conservation sites, 32 urban-archaeological conservation sites and 77 mixed conservation sites, in Turkey. 358 of these sites overlap with natural conservation sites (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, statistics of conservation sites in Turkey according to their degrees). Building regulations for conservation sites, vary- ing among different types of sites, are being weakened by various legislative interventions under the influence of Turkey’s land–, real estate– and construction-based political economy of recent years. The theme of this pa- per is the process of weakening building regulations that safeguard archaeological conservation sites, as part of the above-mentioned process. Discussed more specifically is the amendment of an article (with the addition of paragraph ‘g’) in Principle Decision no. 658 on the Regulations for Conservation and Use of Archaeological Conservation Sites, which creates the risk of enabling development in 1st and 2nd degree archaeological con- servation sites through ‘temporary works’, with the excuse of public safety and natural disasters.

2014

At the turn of the 21 century, theory and practice of conservation started to be respected within a broader building stock by including the 20 century architectural heritage. Since it is an example that opens “to bring the significance of the modern movement to the attention of the public, the authorities, the professionals and the educational community concerned with the built environment” expression of 1990 Eindhoven Statement of DO.CO.MO.MO international working party into discussion, conservation effort of Talimhane residential area in Istanbul, Turkey, can be appreciated as a typical 20 century architectural heritage problematic. Talimhane exemplifies an integrated symbol for Istanbul; besides its substantial physical characteristics, this historically valuable area is respected in terms of functional, aesthetic, social and economic value contexts. However, because of its proximity to major tourism nodes, Talimhane become attractive to associated governmental authorities. Start...

F. Daftary, E. Fernea & A. Nanji (2010) Living in Historic Cairo: Past, present in an Islamic city. Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK: Azimuth Editions (ISBN 978-1-898592-28-0) http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=111248, 2010

The meaning or “character” of a place is defined not only by its built form, but also by the living context within and around it. This paper presents a model through which we explain how the weakening of local character, the blurring of our heritage, is occurring in historic parts of Cairo, Egypt, Damascus and Aleppo in Syria. We assume that the meaning of a place corresponds to the latent function of that place; and can be measured by assessing the perceived value of the place to various users. The weakening of meaning is occurring through vandalism by the users and vandalism by the professionals. This is because each party is interested in a different set of perceived values. Everyday users of the place are interested in maximizing those values that are significant to their daily life, namely, social, economic, psychological, and cultural values. Using inappropriate means at hand, they often minimize the aesthetic and historic value of the place; two values where they lack in awareness. Planners and designers on the other hand, focus exclusively on the aesthetic and historic values of the place. In the effort to maximize those two values they ban the other sets of values regarding them as encroachments and acts of vandalism, and thus diminishing the meaning of the place, the heritage. By realizing that any intervention, use, or perception, can either contribute to, or detract from, the “heritage” of a place, and that the meaning of a place encompasses more than just the aesthetic and historic values, we should rethink our attempts at preserving or rather sustaining this “living heritage”.

2021

World Heritage, Place Making and Sustainable Tourism: Towards Integrative Approaches in Heritage Management, 2020

A constant influx of global influences has ensured that the unique culture has kept morphing into a new form, each encapsulating the new along with the old. Most historic cities have been a premise of traditional settlements which are superimposed by today’s urban way of life. Due to various constraints, historic cores around the country are either developed to suit the growing aspirations and thus losing its historic character or left to decay. These historic cores have, over a period of time become the cores of commerce to the corresponding new city that have grown and expanded around them, and yet there is always a bias for conservation in the development front. Traditional approaches to the conservation of cultural heritage, that do not address the social and economic dimensions of the problem prove to be insufficient to ensure the survival of historic settlements that are irreplaceable witnesses to the development of human civilizations. In India, a country with strong roots of cultural heritage, the idea of heritage-driven regeneration is different for precinct conditions. Conservation of Historic cores calls for a multi-disciplinary approach with active citizen/ community participation. The process of heritage has to be looked at holistically with the social, cultural, and economic aspects as underpinnings. The idea of multi-disciplinary approach and inter-disciplinary approach has to be realised as a method to arrive at an inclusive development. Heritage Tourism is a flourishing industry around the world, and it is a great responsibility to promote heritage tourism hand-in-hand with the protection of the site and its surroundings. Any context of heritage, Urban or Rural, demands a great deal of infrastructure to support tourism. Thus, the need for development does not stop. It is key to understand that the historic environment is the heart of economic development. Realising its potential and working towards combining the material assets with community participation can help achieve an ideal management model. This paper compares historic precincts that are contextually different, yet with similar issues and elaborates on the possibilities of community and stakeholder contribution.

International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 2019

We have been doing archaeological surveys in the west of Turkey for 17 years. Also, in this region we carried out excavations in "Dede Mezarı", MBA Cemetery for five years. During these studies, it has been found out that the thousands of years old sites were destroyed by illegal digs and agricultural activities. The most important way to prevent these ruins to raise the awareness of the security units and local community. It should be explained that the sites and the works that have come out of here have universal character; they should be protected and the archaeologists, art historians or historians who are expert on their fields can do excavations here. It should be emphasized that when the studies are carried out on a scientific level, the results will make a contribution to the development of the region, as well. Because people should be gathered from the local community in order to carry out these studies and certain amount of money will be paid for them. Moreover, the historical area will be brought in tourism and the works extracted from here will be exhibited in museums. S o a long-termed and permanent source bearing no risk has been produced. These informative studies which are for local administrators and local people should be as regular workshops, conferences or field practice. It is crucial that the protection awareness of the archaeological sites should be gained at early ages. Index Terms-Archaeological sites, illegal digs, the preservation of the ancient sites. I. THE DESTRUCTION PROBLEM OF CULTURAL HERITAGE The earliest settlements in Turkey date back to the Prehistoric periods. From the first cave settlements in Turkey on, people have consistently lived for tens of thousands of years round [1]. The geographical location of this country, the asset of water supplies and fertile lands have been effective on

ABSTRACT: As we enter the 21 century we find many of the old cities with important cultural heritage sites facing pressure of unprecedented force. Urban planners along with urban management entities of cities find that they need to reach a balance between the pressure of development of areas that encompass such heritage areas and , the needs for tourism , the needs of transportation planning and infrastructure , as well as the socio economic needs of citizen of near by areas. The financial, legal, and environmental constraints play a role to complicate decision making further Egypt as one of the old civilizations in the world is facing such challenges. The project of the ring road around greater Cairo and its route that is near the pyramids of Giza, the commercial buildings near the Citadel, and the project of revitalization of Luxor inner city are only some examples of urban development projects that have great effect. These projects also have created lot of conflicts and arouse many debates, especially from stakeholders defending cultural significant areas at risk from development projects. The paper tries to present different case studies of such urban projects within historical old cities , evaluating them from different points of view .Then it tries to High lighting the success and failures of such projects taking into account both the cities and citizens development needs along with vulnerable heritage sites requirements. The paper aims at emphasizing the importance of assessing the risks and effects of such developments on heritage areas in the early planning stages before any implementations are on going .Only after such assessment is undertaken can the urban management and planning entities take the right decision among alternative plans towards sustainable development.

Volkgeist, 2024

Banyumas Old Town, once the capital of the district, is home to numerous historical buildings recognized as cultural heritage or potential cultural heritage sites. Since 2010, this area has been designated as a protected zone focused on environmental preservation. This research aims to describe and analyze the policies implemented for the preservation the historic buildings in Banyumas Old Town, as well as to identify and address the challenges faced in the preservation efforts. Utilizing legal research methods, particularly a case study approach, the study employs qualitative analysis. The data include secondary sources, comprising both primary and secondary legal materials. Additionally, field data were collected through observations and interviews. The findings indicate that the revitalization plan for Banyumas Old Town has been successfully implemented. Key action include designating the Banyumas sub-district as a protected area, conducting an inventory of suspected cultural heritage objects (ODCB), officially recognizing cultural heritage sites, and securing funding through the local government budget (APBD). These policies are formalized through the establishment of regional spatial planning and cultural heritage regulations. The primary obstacle to protecting cultural heritage buildings is the significant number of sites that have been privatized, alongside the limited opportunities for transferring cultural heritage or ODCBs that have received government renovation support following the revitalization of Banyumas Old Town.

Transfer of development rights for the effectiveness of the conservation plans: A case from Historic Kemeraltı, Izmir, 2020

A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Transfer of development rights (TDR) Heritage conservation TDR as a Planning tool Success factors Management of cultural heritage TDR as a market-oriented tool. A B S T R A C T The "Cultural and Natural Asset Protection" law implemented the transfer of development rights as a new tool for land use planning and management incorporated in the heritage conservation of Turkey in 2004, but no substantive implementation has yet been developed. There is no question that the inclusion of the transfer right is a significant advantage by statute, but the design and execution of TDR needs a guideline, a model proposal. The objective of the study is therefore twofold: 1) to explore the potential and pitfalls of incorporating TDR to conserve heritage sites with a set of factors derived from existing literature and 2) to propose a model for creating and calculating TDR to achieve density limitation in built-up heritage sites. Based on empirical evidence and actual implementation of TDRs, some generic factors in the literature affect the success of TDR programs, particularly in the United States. We, therefore, decided to use a set of fundamental factors to fully evaluate the efficacy of TDR in the Turkish planning system. On the other hand, there is also a lack of research for a successful framework that uses TDR for heritage conservation in general in literature. This study aims to overcome all these shortcomings by making a general evaluation of the integration of TDR into to the planning systems, to show the intrinsic quality of heritage conservation and TDR potentials, and finally to provide a straightforward guide to a TDR model. Evidence indicates that while TDR provides the potential to preserve Kemeraltı's cultural heritage as a new market-based instrument, its use should be carefully designed and regulated by public authorities, Izmir's municipality, and the community at all.

Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences (PEN)

Erbil city is recognized by its historical monuments. The citadel which is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited civilized settlements was listed on UNESCO's permanent World Heritage List (2014). A comprehensive preservation plan for the citadel was approved by the local authorities in 2006. This plan included recommendations for what was later called the Citadel's buffer zones. The buffer zone includes the traditional sectors of Erbil. Enormous efforts were done during the last decade by local authorities, UNESCO, NGOs, and local individuals. This study aims to assess and categorize preservation efforts implemented in these areas. The literature review diagnosed three main approaches for preservation that are followed in various parts of the world. These approaches can be categorized into two main approaches (dead and living heritage approaches). The preservation methods followed in the selected maintained structures within Erbil's traditional sectors were assessed by detecting 40 criteria that represent both approaches. The assessment was conducted through fieldwork in which 222 samples (vernacular and traditional buildings) were included. Statistical analysis depicted that the local authorities' approaches can be regarded as a dead heritage approach, while the recommended approach in the approved plan for the revitalization of Erbil Citadel and other traditional sectors can be regarded as a living heritage preservation approach. The paper recommends the living heritage preservation approach as a rescue from the at-risk status of built heritage structures of traditional sectors in Erbil city.