Action taken for the Turkish nation's stolen historical artifacts

The history of Turkish art is fundamentally divided into two by art historians: pre-Islamic Turkish art and Turkish-Islamic arts. While the geography of pre-Islamic Turkish art covers a vast area, the geography where Turkey is located contains very little of this area.

Nationalist Congress Association art commission secretary Fatih Ayaz stated the following in an article he wrote for TamgaTürk:

"The places where Turkish-Islamic art is most densely found are naturally the lands within Turkey's borders. It is quite difficult to physically protect pre-Islamic Turkish art, both because it is outside our borders and because it is only just beginning to be researched.

There is also the art left behind by the "Anatolian Civilizations" of which we are the heirs. But we are unable to protect either the Turkish-Islamic art or the Anatolian art that is already on these lands.

Let us explain with a few examples how we fail to protect them, why we must protect them, and our solution proposals/actions as the Nationalist Congress Association.

This "lack of ownership" dates back a long time; in 1864, German engineer Carl Humann, working in Bergama, conducted unauthorized excavations and research in the Ancient City of Pergamon and sent what he found to Berlin. Later, with the contributions of Dr. Philip Dethier, the Director of the Imperial Museum (Müze-i Hümayun) who was also German, a regulation was prepared that left a portion of the artifacts to the landowner, a portion to the excavator, and a portion to the state.

850 THOUSAND PEOPLE VISIT ANNUALLY

However, they also bought the portions belonging to the state and the landowner with money. And naturally, the Germans moved the Ancient City of Pergamon to Berlin piece by piece and opened a museum with the same name. An average of 850 thousand people visit the museum annually.

In 2007, it became Germany's most visited museum with 1.1 million visitors. The museum that is most visited in Germany with historical artifacts found on our lands...

ONLY 2 OF THE CARPETS ARE IN TURKEY

The situation is no different in the Republican Era. Only 2 of the 12th-13th century Seljuk carpets found in the Beyşehir Eşrefoğlu Mosque in 1930 by R. M. Riefstahl are exhibited in Turkey.

These carpets, which are Gördes knotted—a type of knot unique to Turkish carpets—are exhibited in the Edmund de Unger Keir Collection in Dallas, America.

SARCOPHAGI SMUGGLED

There are 4 sarcophagi dating back to the 13th century in the Seyyid Mahmut Hayrani Tomb. Only 2 of them could be seized while they were being attempted to be smuggled.

These sarcophagi are currently exhibited at the David Collection (David Samling) in Copenhagen.

The German Consul in Konya, Dr. J. H. Loytved, had a hand in the smuggling of many historical artifacts, including these sarcophagi. In 1907, he also stole the mihrab of the Beyhekim Mosque and took it to Berlin.

You can currently visit the Beyhekim Mosque mihrab on the 2nd floor, room 5 of the Pergamon Museum Islamic Art Collection.

The German Consul, who worked like a harmful society all by himself, even wrote a book on the subject titled "Konia: Inschriften der seldschukischen Bauten"...

So what is the situation today? Are we the same as we were 100 years ago regarding all this stolen history of ours? We are worse! In our day, when everything is monitored by cameras, there is almost no artifact left that has not been stolen from our mosques. In 2014, the 500-year-old door of the minbar of the Başçı İbrahim Paşa Mosque in Bursa Osmangazi was stolen!

The 500-year-old door handles of the Doğancılar Çakırca Hasan Paşa Mosque in Istanbul Üsküdar, where we used to play ball and go to drink water as children, were stolen!

The locking mechanism of the Üsküdar Valide-i Atik Mosque door was stolen! These are just some of them."

So why and how should we protect these artifacts?

If we don't have our writings, our mosques, our mihrabs, our minbars, our carpets, our doors, and many other movable and immovable historical artifacts, who are we? What is our art? What is our history? What is this style unique to a nation and where does it manifest itself?

If we cannot protect these artifacts, which are the memory of a community, how will we protect our community? These historical artifacts, which have been formed through accumulations over the years, are the symbols of a nation's nationhood.

Both the Ottoman State and the Turkish State, as institutions, have failed in the "state of being a nation" in the care they show for their historical artifacts.

So how will we protect them?

• First of all, as the Nationalist Congress Association, we will learn the fate of any ongoing investigations by making applications to CİMER (Presidential Communication Center) within the scope of the 'Right to Information Act' regarding our recently stolen artifacts, and we will share these with the public to raise awareness.
• We will demand that deterrent, heavy penalties be introduced by amending the law to increase the penalties for historical artifact smuggling and illegal excavations.
• We will request that historical artifacts in our mosques under the management of the General Directorate of Foundations and the Presidency of Religious Affairs that are at risk of theft be moved to museums or placed under serious protection where they are, and we will follow up on this.
• We will tell the world public that the applications made for the return of our artifacts smuggled abroad are left unanswered, especially by European states, and we will announce at every opportunity to the world public that these states, which are supposedly states of law, are thieves.
• To become conscious and reach the level of contemporary civilizations, we will protect every asset of our country, even if it is a speck of dust.
• As the Nationalist Congress Association, we will explain to everyone that patriotism is not just about protecting the land, but also about protecting the people on that land and the values of that land.