BAKU, Dec. 30. /TurkicWorld/
Some 1,120 cultural and historical artifacts were returned to Türkiye thanks to the work carried out by teams from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the General Directorate of Museums and the Anti-Smuggling Department, with the support of the police and the gendarmerie, reports TurkicWorld with the reference to DailySabah.
The teams of the Anti-Smuggling Department of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, track cultural assets and historical artifacts both in the country and abroad and add them to the country's inventory. In 2022, 1,120 artifacts of Anatolian origin were returned to Türkiye from abroad as a result of the efforts of the Anti-Smuggling Branch of the Department with the support of the police and the gendarmerie. The total number of artifacts returned from abroad in the past 20 years is 9,042.
On the other hand, 393,544 artifacts in 2022 were smuggled inside the country, making it a total of 890,158 artifacts in the past three years. They were seized before being smuggled abroad and handed over to museum directorates.
Burcu Ozdemir, director of the Fight Against Smuggling Abroad, stated that the collections of museums abroad, the sales in galleries and catalogs of auction houses are closely followed for the return of artifacts smuggled abroad as part of the fight against cultural property smuggling. Besides extensive reports prepared by academics and museum experts, thousands of archival documents and criminological data also provide evidence of the artifacts thought to be of Anatolian origin. After sufficient research, the items were examined and extradition requests were forwarded to the relevant countries through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Underlining the important role of international agreements in the return of cultural assets, Ozdemir said, "The number of countries with which Türkiye has bilateral agreements to prevent cultural asset smuggling and ensure the return of artifacts to the countries of origin increased to 12 in 2022 with agreements signed with Serbia, Ecuador and Switzerland."
Stating that it is important for the relevant countries to support the work in a transparent manner for the return of artifacts to prevent the smuggling of international cultural property, Ozdemir said: "The countries where cultural property trade can be made need to work in a very transparent and cooperative manner with countries of origin such as Türkiye. Many countries have contributed positively to these processes.
"The collaborations developed with the prosecution offices in the U.S. in recent years have made a very positive contribution to this process. We expect such approaches from countries that create markets for cultural property trade."
Anti-smuggling branch manager Ozgur Mehmet Irkin explained that there are three branch directorates, namely the Domestic Anti-Smuggling Branch, the International Anti-Smuggling Branch and the Training and Awareness Branch, within the scope of the Anti-Smuggling Department. Each unit works under the Presidency and carries out organized technical studies within its own field, he added.
