Weltkulturerbe Istanbul
World Heritage Istanbul

08:00 Min., ORF - kulturmontag June 2008

With its strategic location on the Bosphorus peninsula between the Balkans and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Istanbul has been associated with major political, religious and artistic events for more than 2,000 years. Its masterpieces include the ancient Hippodrome of Constantine, the 6th-century Hagia Sophia and the 16th-century Süleymaniye Mosque, all now under threat from population pressure, industrial pollution and uncontrolled urbanization.

Turkey has signed the World Heritage Convention in 1983 and through the work carried out under the responsibility of the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage and Museums, 9 properties were inscribed on the World heritage List. Among these properties are Historical Areas of Istanbul.

Istanbul has been saved from the possibility of being excluded from the U.N.'s list of World Heritage in Danger -- at least for now. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee extended the deadline until 2009 for the completion of the city's site protection projects, according to a report prepared by the committee, which visited Istanbul. The committee reviewed the state of the preservation of the sites inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The experts from the member countries of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization discussed the issue of whether or not to revoke the membership of Istanbul considering the present negligence over the protection of heritage sites.

The program presents the critical points mostly as a result of the uncontrolled urbanization that may lead to an exclusion from the list of World Heritage: the Sulekule district gets pulled down because of uncontrolled speculative operations; during the construction of a new subway station the antique port of Byzants was discovered.