Speaking at the “Historical Cities Union and UNESCO Meetings”, Mansur Yavaş said, “As the Historical Cities Union, we will protect all the values in our country and work to promote them to the world.”
The capital hosts the “Historical Cities Union and UNESCO Meeting” organized in collaboration with Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, UNESCO Turkey National Commission, Historical Cities Union and ÇEKÜL Foundation.
The “Historical Cities Union and UNESCO Meeting” held in the ATO Assembly Hall was attended by Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and Historical Cities Union President Mansur, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Dr. Batuhan Mumcu, UNESCO Turkey National Commission President Prof. Dr. Öcal Oğuz, Historical Cities Union Secretary General Dr. Mahir Polat and many academics and local government representatives.
POLAT: “THIS MEETING WAS FORMED BY MANSUR YAVAŞ’S VERY DIFFICULT AND DESIRING AGENDA”
Deputy Secretary General of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Secretary General of Historical Cities Union Dr. Mahir Polat, in his opening speech, said, “I would like to thank all our friends who contributed and presented this beautiful day. First of all, our mayor, because this project was actually formed with his very diligent and very eager agenda of sharing a good model with our other mayors in the example of Beypazarı since the moment he took office. He personally started it with his own vision, saying ‘let's immediately hold an intangible cultural heritage and experience sharing meeting’ and we are very happy to meet in Ankara for this purpose.”
UNESCO Turkey National Commission President Prof. Dr. Öcal Oğuz also made a presentation about UNESCO’s existence and fields of work and said, “All organs of the public, central administration, local administration, civil society and our other stakeholders, scientists are important companions in terms of sharing the experience and awareness formed at UNESCO. We, as UNESCO, held the Historical Cities Union UNESCO meeting for the second time, the first one in Kars in 2008. We had not been able to hold such a meeting since then. In this respect, I would like to thank those who made this meeting possible and those who participated and contributed.”
At the end of his speech, Oğuz drew attention to the signboard problem in historical cities and said, “Our historical cities need to solve the signboard problem. There are very important world cities, they can be taken as examples. Our state and local governments can produce solutions that are suitable for the texture of historical cities and the texture of the heritage. There is another issue that I am very sorry about. We are a country with a coastline from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. We insist on building a highway even on the seashore. For some reason, we never use the sea for transportation. I am also bringing this to your attention.”
Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mansur Yavaş, who started his speech by talking about the products with geographical indications during his term as Beypazarı Mayor, continued his words as follows:
“Then we realized that the unique values in our cities are very important and that the people living in that city are not aware that they produce many of them uniquely. Later, when tourists started coming and asked, ‘How do you do this, what do you put in it?’ that woman or that producer realized that what she produced was something different.
WE WILL PROTECT WHATEVER THERE IS VALUES IN OUR COUNTRY
We have made various attempts with the awareness of how important cultural heritage is for this country. We have talked about this many times in every office. We also met with the ministers of culture at that time. We did not get very big results. But now it also has a general directorate. The Minister and the History City Union are also working very hard on this issue. Because many of our values are being lost as my dear professor just mentioned. It is very important to catch them before they are lost and to keep them in the light of day. We have a candidate list for UNESCO. As the History City Union, we will take ownership of all the values in our country and work to promote them to the world. In terms of marketing, promoting them to the world definitely has a cultural value. Thousands of people come to see it. Therefore, I think that Turkey is also one of the richest places in the world with this cultural heritage. Because there is a culture in every district, town and city of ours. Therefore, I hope that our meeting today will be an example for all our municipalities, especially in terms of both UNESCO and intangible cultural heritage. We state that we will apply to UNESCO for their promotion and recognition, and in this way, God willing, the great wealth of our country will increase.
