Two Turkey sites win World Heritage status

Cumalikizik in the Turkish province of Bursa, known as the birthplace of the Ottoman Empire and the cultural landscape of Pergamon in the Izmir province are among the sites awarded the Unesco World Heritage status recently.
The decision was announced at the recent 38th World Heritage Committee meeting, held at Qatar’s National Congress Centre in Doha.
“This is truly an honour for us,” said Mustafa Ozdemir, cultural & information attaché, Cultural & Information Office, Turkish Consulate General in Dubai.
“Bursa was the first capital city of the Ottoman Empire and the village of Cumalıkızık has a 700-year history, so these places are both culturally and historically significant for the Turkish people. In addition Pergamon in Izmir was once considered the heart of the literature and art scene in Turkey, housing some of the biggest libraries of the Hellenistic period.”
Turkey now has 13 cultural and mixed locations – with the new addition of Bursa and Pergamon – listed as World Heritage sites under Unesco’s Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
The other 11 sites include the Historic Areas of Istanbul, the Great Mosque and Hospital of Divrigi, Hattusha, Mount Nemrut, Xanthos-Letoon, Troy, Goreme National Park and Cappadocia, Hierapolis-Pamukkale, the City of Safranbolu, the Selimiye Mosque and its Social Complex and the Neolithic Site of Catalhoyuk.