Turkey, elected with an unprecedented 121 votes to the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the elections held in Paris on 19 November 2013, is serving on the Committee for the first time after an interval of thirty years, on its 38th session that is underway in Doha, the capital city of Qatar.

During the discussions held on Sunday, June 22 at the Doha meeting, the cultural properties: “Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire” and “Pergamon and its Multi-Layered Cultural Landscape” were inscribed in the World Heritage List as properties number 998 and 999 respectively, by consensus of the 21 members of the Committee, without the need to hold a ballot.

Thus, while Turkey has been engaged in an active membership at the World Heritage Committee, owing to its rich cultural heritage belonging to the multiple layers and the diversity of the thousand-years Anatolian civilizations, the number of its properties inscribed in the World Heritage List has increased from eleven to thirteen.

Turkey, which supports the work of UNESCO in an effort to bring to the fore the common cultural values of humanity instead of tensions and conflicts between civilizations, will continue to use its soft power towards its goal of universal peace and further strengthen its active role within the organization.