In a post shared on his X account on Monday, Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced that Ankara's "Planning and Construction of a Modern Republic Capital" heritage site file has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.
The Minister added, "Many iconic structures, from the Turkish Grand National Assembly buildings to Gençlik Park, Güvenpark to Kızılay, reflect Ankara's urbanisation model, which sets an example for the world. I congratulate everyone who contributed to its UNESCO journey."
The nomination file, prepared by the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO, the Concrete Cultural Heritage Specialisation Committee, and expert academics under the leadership of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, with contributions from the Ankara Governorship and Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, was approved by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
The dossier submitted to UNESCO emphasises that Ankara is a city that has been inhabited continuously since the Neolithic Age and contains important archaeological heritage from the Roman and Ottoman periods.
Ankara, chosen as the capital with the proclamation of the Republic, was planned and built as a modern capital city starting in the 1920s, and with the contributions of German architects, it gained a contemporary urban identity along Atatürk Boulevard. The dossier states that Ankara, as a successful synthesis of international architectural and urban planning approaches, symbolises Türkiye's modernisation and nation-building process, and that its urban fabric and public spaces have preserved their uniqueness and integrity.
