Cultural Heritage Work in Turkey: a Roundtable

This round table highlights the experiences and perspectives of individuals engaged in projects of cultural preservation in Turkey. Its participants work on, what might be called, the heritage of “minority” cultures – including that of Armenia, but also those of Alevi, Chaldean, Georgian, Greek, Syrian, and other communities that run counter to mainstream political narratives about indigeneity and autochthony. It addresses the challenges of heritage preservation in Turkey, the role of state policy and that of the public, questions of intangible versus tangible heritage, concepts of minority/majority cultures, and reflects on recent successes and failures of conservation in Turkey.