Posted by meb at February 29th, 2008

The decision by the Four Seasons Hotel to enlarge its existing building over an archaeological site in the historic Sultanahmet neighborhood of Istanbul has sparked debate over whether the desire to preserve the city’s heritage is being sacrificed to possible profit from tourism.

The hotel, a transformed prison from Ottoman times which itself was built on Byzantine and Roman ruins, currently has a 130-room capacity that it plans to increase by 50 with the additional building. The extension has drawn severe criticism despite the fact that the hotel has been granted the legal right to do so.

Atilla Öztürk, CEO of the holding company responsible of the additional building, said at a panel organized by the History Foundation of Turkey yesterday that everything they did was legal. He said the Four Seasons Hotel was granted the right by the cabinet to build a 303-bed capacity building on the site 17 years ago.

Professor Doğan Kuban, a founder of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and an experienced architect, said tourism cannot protect history since it goes against its nature. “Tourism has a management rule that is based on expanding and I am afraid that will be the same in the Four Seasons [Hotel] case,” said Kuban.

“Tourism business means that it is not checked and controlled,” said Bahattin Yücel, former tourism minister. Yücel also said the entire issue is about the hunt for profit. Yücel accused officials at the Four Seasons Hotel of concealing the truth about the ruins below the additional building. Their claim that there are no ruins below the building is impossible, he said.

Yalçın Özüeken, who designed the extension, dismissed Yücel’s statements and said they had found Roman, Byzantium, and Ottoman ruins and had preserved them. “We dug the ground for six years and strengthened the ruins that will be exhibited in an open museum.” He also said that the additional buildings were built on two big poles to protect the area underneath.

Kuban agreed with Özüeken, noting that the ruins were protected, but warned that the nature of the tourism sector encouraged expansion. “History is not protected in Istanbul, but we should at least preserve what we have within the historic city walls,” he said.Kuban also complained about the indifference of people to the protection of the historic places in Turkey. “Turkish people are protecting neither Byzantium nor Ottoman history,” he said.

Source: Turkish Daily News