US Archaeologist Wants to Become Citizen of Turkey
BalkanTravellers.com
“I have dedicated more than half of my life to Turkish seas,” Bass said, quoted by the Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review. “I now feel that I belong to these lands. That is why my wife and I bought a house in Bodrum to spend the rest of our lives and applied to obtain Turkish citizenship.”
Bass became known as the leader of the world’s complete shipwreck excavation on the seabed off the Turkish coast. “I have been working in and around Bodrum for 50 years, and I have made great friends during this time,” the archaeologist said.
“Bass has worked hard to unearth treasures underwater, helped the Bodrum Museum become one of the best in the world and made great contributions to Turkish experts like Can Pulak, Harun Özdaş and myself,” Oğuz Alpözen, the former director of Bodrum Underwater Archeology Museum, said in support of Bass’s application.
Dr. George Bass, according to the publication, first came to Turkey in 1957 when he carried out excavations at the ancient city of Gordion. A year later, he bagan working in Bodrum. He was a significant force behind the restoration of the Bodrum castle, which opened as a museum in 1962.
In 1973, Bass founded of the Institute of Nautical Archeology, or INA, an organization devoted to the archaeological history of shipbuilding and seafaring around the world. In 1985, he was declared a citizen of honor by the Bodrum local governor’s office.
“It will be an honor to see the father of underwater archaeology as a Turkish citizen,” Tufan Turanlı, Chairman of the Bodrum and Karia Region Culture, Art and Promotion Foundation, BOSAV, told the publication, adding that Bass was in the town long before it became a famous tourist locale and did everything to promote it.
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