The Macro Level: Cultural Heritage in Turkey

In this chapter we use the concept of the Heritage Chain to present a detailed overview of the heritage sector in Turkey. Turkey is extremely rich in material remains of the past, but faces serious challenges: many sites and monuments are not officially protected or adequately conserved, and only a small selection are put on display for the public, often with little interpretation. By providing a detailed overview of Turkey’s Heritage Chain we present the nature and extent of such problems within a single picture: we provide a clear description of the division of labor within the Turkish heritage system (legal and administrative), we investigate how one element of the chain affects another and, finally, we underline which part of the chain suffers major problems.