9 July 2008 | Istanbul will not be excluded from UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in Danger, after the city received a year’s extension to fix problems connected with the preservation of sites, national media reported recently.

Last Friday, a committee in Quebec, Canada, which reviewed the List of World Heritage in Danger found that Istanbul had shown negligence in the protection of heritage sites. Although in 2006, UNESCO had established that the city was to complete the sites’ conservation plans by 2008, the organisation decided to extend the deadline until 2009 and not revoke its membership for the time being “because of Istanbul's universal value,” according to the Turkish daily news.

Academics and other experts blame the lack of financial sources for the authorities’ failure to complete the renovation projects, but they all agree that projects should be well though-out and long-term.

Istanbul was included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1985. “With its strategic location on the Bosphorus peninsula between the Balkans and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean,” the organisation’s explanation says, “Istanbul has been associated with major political, religious and artistic events for more than 2,000 years. Its masterpieces include the ancient Hippodrome of Constantine, the 6th-century Hagia Sophia and the 16th-century Süleymaniye Mosque.” UNESCO underscores that they are “all now under threat from population pressure, industrial pollution and uncontrolled urbanization.”

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