Two key awards for cultural heritage
While Istanbul still faces being left out of the United Nations “World Heritage List” due to negligence toward historical and cultural pieces, those making efforts to preserve cultural heritage in Turkey were given two important awards by leading organizations in the world.
One is the New York-based World Monuments Foundation (WMF) and the other is “Europa Nostra”, the pan-European Federation for Cultural Heritage.
The WMF gave the “Hadrian” Award to the Koç Family, one of the big industrial conglomerates in Turkey. The Europa Nostra presented the top prize to philosopher Dr. Yusuf Örnek.
I was lucky to have the opportunity to attend both award ceremonies.
Two days after attending Örnek’s ceremony in Istanbul, I flew to New York to follow the ceremony in which members of the Koç Family, Semahat Arsel, Rahmi Koç and others, were given the award for their outstanding efforts in preservation of historic heritage in Turkey.
The Hadrian Award has been given to Carlo De Benedetti, David Rockefeller, His Highness The Aga Khan, Lord Rothschild, Prince Charles, Paul Mellon before.
It is a prestigious award promoting the protection of world heritage arts and architecture.
Since the award went to Turkey, detailed information about the country has already been posted on the WMF’s web site.
A small historic church and a windmill next to it were opened to visitors last summer through the tremendous efforts of Rahmi Koç.
A Byzantine church of the 12th century
As for the winner of “Europa Nostra” prize Mr. Örnek, let me first share with you small piece information about the Europa Nostra.
The Europa Nostra is the representative platform of over 220 heritage NGOs active throughout Europe.
It is dedicated to putting heritage and its benefits in the mainstream of public consciousness and to making heritage a priority for public policies both at European and national levels.
The organization supports national and international campaigns for the preservation and rescue of Europe’s heritage at risk.
Mr. Örnek received the top prize for his restoration project on the “Sarıca Church” standing out as a rare example of a successfully restored and revitalized rock-carved church in Cappadocia. The church was selected from among 158 projects from 32 countries aiming to preserve cultural heritage
A couple of years ago I had visited the Sarıca Church opening to the Kepez Valley, one of the breathtaking valleys, in Cappadocia.
Cengiz Kabaoğlu, the architect, beautifully restored the rock-carved church from the Byzantine period in 12th century.
As I said, the location of the structure is unprecedented.
The interior of the church is simply decorated with religious motifs mostly in red color.
Mr. Örnek is a travel agent with a Ph.D. in philosophy from Germany.
Tourism’s contribution to cultural heritage
Mr. Örnek is the owner of Vasco Tourism Industry and Trade Inc., which brings a considerable number of foreign tourists to Turkey.
He knows the land of the world’s first monks, Cappadocia, through the region’s contributions to philosophy of religion
He learns that philosophers from the Central Anatolian cities of Kayseri and Nevşehir were Christian.
Therefore, Mr. Örnek has a different eye on the rock-carved cave-like church in the region that he later visited many times as a travel agent.
The reason why he is interested in the Sarıca Church is the natural process of surface erosion due to water leakage.
He decided to rescue the church in 1997 and struck a deal with Kabaoğlu.
Restoration works continued until 2002.
Mr. Örnek’s prize was presented by the Vice President of Euoropa Nostra, Costa Carras, emphasizing how crucial his work was.
“The rescue of the Sarıca Church and its winning the Europa Nostra’s top prize shows that cultural heritage can be protected through the medium of tourism,” he says.
Tourism, indeed, makes great contributions to the conservation of century-old cultural heritage.
It is the time for Ankara, which earns big money from tourism and aims to do so in the future, to see this fact.
But unfortunately the significant part of Turkish cultural heritage is damaged by public entities today.