Managing cultural heritage conservation in divided and contested cities: The case of Nicosia

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2023

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: EMİNE REİS

Danışman: Neriman Şahin Güçhan

Özet:

Managing cultural heritage in divided and contested cities is complicated. In spite of the plenty of guidelines aiming to create conceptual frameworks for the management of cultural heritage, a framework that overcomes the management and good governance challenges of cultural heritage in divided and contested cities is missing in conservation field. This research aimed to close this gap by investigating cultural heritage management in Jerusalem, Mostar, Belfast and Beirut through secondary research and the case of Nicosia. The divided capital city of Cyprus is selected as a case study due to its frozen conflict on one hand and on the other hand due to integrated tools related to heritage conservation such as Nicosia Master Plan (NMP) and bi-communal Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage  TCCH). The qualitative data is collected from documents, in-depth interviews, observation, and visual data. In-depth interviews were conducted with key experts in the field, TCCH members, and inhabitants. By comprehensive evaluation of cultural heritage management in divided Nicosia, this research revealed a special conceptual framework for an integrated heritage management in divided and contested cities generally and for Nicosia in particular.The framework encompasses three main aspects for managing cultural heritage conservation in divided and contested cities. The adequate legal and administrative system and good governance with fair management of cultural heritage in a democratic and human rights context. On the other hand, whatever the political situation is a consensus building process for cultural heritage conservation of the city to be established as soon as possible so that the urban heritage of the city does not suffer from the facts of division.

Keywords: Divided Cities, Contested Cities, Cultural Heritage, Consensus Building,

Management