![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/banner_tarihimiz1.jpg\" "\\"banner_tarihimiz\\"")
The New York Times reports on Turkey\u2019s renewed demands that artifacts in museums around the world be given to them.<\/p>\nThe New York Times reports on Turkey\u2019s renewed demands that artifacts in museums around the world be given to them.<\/p>\n
After years of pleading in vain for the return of Anatolia\u2019s cultural treasures from Western museums, Turkey has started playing hardball. And it is starting to see some results.<\/p>\n
This month, Germany reluctantly agreed to return a Hittite statue taken to Berlin by German archaeologists a century ago. \u201cIt was agreed that the statue will be handed over to Turkey as a voluntary gesture of friendship,\u201d the German government said after weeks of negotiations between the countries\u2019 foreign ministries.<\/p>\n
Days later, Ankara announced it was stepping up a campaign to obtain a breakthrough in a similarly longstanding dispute with the Louvre in Paris over an Ottoman tile panel that went to France in 1895.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n
Although the Turkish cases for restitution of the sphinx and the tiles have always been more compelling than those for other treasures, like the Pergamon Altar, that were exported with permission of the Ottoman authorities, Ankara\u2019s requests for their restitution went unanswered for years.<\/p>\n
Then, Turkey changed tack. Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay announced earlier this year that he would kick German archaeologists out of the excavations at Hattusa, where they have been working for over a century, if the matter was not resolved. \u201cI am determined not to renew the excavation license for Hattusa if the sphinx is not returned,\u201d Mr. Gunay said in February.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n
In a first that rocked the archaeological world in Asia Minor, the digging licenses of two longstanding excavations conducted by German and French teams were revoked earlier this year.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n
The leader of the canceled German dig at Aizanoi, Ralf von den Hoff, said in an e-mail that his excavation had fallen victim to the ministry\u2019s \u201cextortionate demands\u201d over the Hattusa sphinx.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n
But Germany says the return of the sphinx is a one-of-a-kind deal. \u201cBoth sides agreed that the sphinx is a singular case that is not comparable to other cases,\u201d the German government said.<\/p>\n
Turkey disagrees. \u201cThis is a revolution,\u201d Mr. Gunay said last week about the agreement with the Germans. \u201cThis is a great development for the restitution of all our antique artifacts from abroad,\u201d adding, \u201cWe will fight in the same way for the restitution of the other artifacts.\u201d<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n
Mr. Gunay said he foresaw a long struggle ahead, of a century or more, but added that he believed that \u201cin the end Europe will return all of the cultural treasures that it has collected from all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
All governments take note. Turkey\u2019s goal is nothing less than that \u201call of the cultural treasures\u201d be \u201creturned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article has much more. Is there any irony in the fact that in order to get some old artifacts returned Turkey would cancel excavations which would fill their museums with new discoveries?<\/p>\n
HT: Jack Sasson<\/p>\n
via BiblePlaces Blog: Turkey Cancels Excavations of Foreign Countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The New York Times reports on Turkey\u2019s renewed demands that artifacts in museums around the world be given to them. After years of pleading in vain for the return of Anatolia\u2019s cultural treasures from Western museums, Turkey has started playing hardball. And it is starting to see some results. This month, Germany reluctantly agreed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":34404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[5651],"class_list":["post-34402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-antiquities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}