A Proposal for an administrative structure for cultural heritage management in Turkey

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2017
Bozkurt, Ela
It is generally accepted that cultural heritage, a valuable, limited and non-renewable resource, is today subject to many pressures, including tourism. Globalization, rapid urbanization and the consequent development pressures, the demands and pace of modern society have all created an overwhelming appetite for new housing, which compete for the shrinking areas of urban land available, all combine to constitute an environmental threat to cultural heritage. To respond adequately to these threats, it has become a crucial obligation for conservation areas to be managed effectively in order to prevent the irredeemable loss or uncontrolled and detrimental changes to examples of cultural heritage. This requires detailed studies of ‘cultural heritage management’ to provide models of good practice involving participation and sustainability; primarily the values of the conservation of cultural and natural resources. As part of providing for this necessity, the ‘Site Management’ concept was promulgated in Law No. 5226 in 2004 in Turkey. At present, the administrative structure of site management is not integrated with the current administrative organization and conservation system of Turkey, largely as a consequence of the financial discrepancies related to Law No. 5018 on Public Financial Management and Control (10.12.2003) and other related laws and vi regulations. These disparities between need and provision lead to crucial flaws in the functionality of the site management concept regarding Law No. 5226 (14.07.2004) and it can be seen that the difficulties caused by these inconsistencies are increasing. Unless these issues are resolved, the viability of the site management concept will become fatally compromised. The purpose of this study is to determine the present status of the site management concept, to identify and analyze its administrative and financial processes, to determine the degree to which implementation in the current situation is possible and to establish the relationship between Law No. 5018 on Public Financial Management and Control, within the current administrative system of Turkey. Therefore, this thesis aims to identify and describe the problems concerning the administrative structures of site management related to Law No. 5226, by reviewing some implementations subsequent to the law. Istanbul, Bursa, Edirne, Efes and Çatalhöyük comprise national examples within Turkey. Case studies of these examples are compared with international examples of World Heritage Sites such as Edinburgh, Albi, Florence, Regensburg, Graz and Corfu which are similarly examined. In this context, the conceptual evaluations, the legal, administrative, financial, technical and social aspects of conservation in Turkey and cultural heritage management practices at the national level in the years between 2004 and 2016 are discussed using a holistic approach in the light of examples of good practice in heritage management at the international level. This study thus proposes the establishment of an ‘independent administrative authority’ that will provide a central mechanism for the execution, monitoring and supervision of cultural heritage management in Turkey, in conjunction with the formation of local administrative units within local municipalities to act under the framework determined by the proposed central authority of heritage management. 

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Citation Formats
E. Bozkurt, “A Proposal for an administrative structure for cultural heritage management in Turkey,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2017.