Historically, Turkey and Greece have not necessarily seen eye to eye. Turkey has in the past however supported Greece in their attempts to reunify the Parthenon Sculptures.

Following the recent loan by the British Museum to the Hermitage of one of the sculptures originally removed by Elgin, Turkey has once again come out in support of Greece’s restitution requests.

Visitors passing a sculpture from the Parthenon marbles at the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia

From:
Hurriyet Daily News

Turkey backs Greek fight for Elgin Marbles
ATHENS – Anadolu Agency
December/07/2014

Turkey on Dec. 6 announced its support for Greece’s fight to get back from Britain the famous Elgin Marbles – ancient Greek sculptures also known as the Parthenon Marbles which were taken from Athens in the 19th century.

The dispute over the British Museum’s possession of the sculptures, taken by British diplomat Lord Elgin in 1803, flared this week when Greece learned of the unprecedented loan of one sculpture to a Russian museum.
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The return of the Mausoleum of Halicarnasus from the British Museum has been one of Turkey’s longest running restitution claims, but so far with no signs of success.

From:
Hurriyet Daily News

Bodrum seeks return of mausoleum pieces
September/25/2012
MUĞLA – Anatolia News Agency

Some pieces from Bodrum’s famous Mausoleum of Halicarnassus are on display at the British Museum, and work continues to bring them back to Turkey. Lawyer Remzi Kazmaz recently spoke about the mausoleum at a press conference

Work continues to get parts of Bodrum’s Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, which are currently kept at the British Museum in London, returned to Turkey.
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Following on from our start to the year with a story about Turkey, here is another one.

The idea of highlighting disputed artefacts by the original owners is not a new one – Greece has deliberately created casts in the New Acropolis Museum, which contrast with the portions of the portions of the Parthenon Frieze that are original.

From:
Hurriyet

Turkish ministry complains about Louvre Museum to visitors
December/25/2012
Ömer Erbil – ISTANBUL / Radikal

Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry has placed a plaque next to the tomb of Sultan Selim II located in the Hagia Sophia complex to notify visitors that the grave’s tiles are replacements as the originals are in France’s famous Louvre Museum.

“These tiles are an imitation of the original ones. The original tiles are exhibited in the Louvre Museum,” the information plaque states in three languages, Turkish, English and French.
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Ertuğrul Günay, Turkey’s Culture Minister, believes that the museums of the west are now panicking because of his country’s intensive focus during the last year on the recovery of looted artefacts from their collections.

From:
Hurriyet Daily News

Turkey’s artifacts move panics West museums
Barçın Yinanç
December/24/2012

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
Western museums appear to be panicking as Turkey continues to facilitate the return of many stolen artifacts, says Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay

Turkey remains committed to repatriating all the artifacts that have been stolen from its soil over the years, Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay has said while expressing hopes that regional neighbors will also receive back their ancient treasures.
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The Egyptian Museum in Berlin is celebrating the centenary of the discovery of the bust of Nevertiti. Perhaps this would be a fitting point, for them to also enter into serious discussions with Egypt, who also claims ownership of the artefact.

From:
Hurriyet

Berlin marks 100 years of discovering Nefertiti
BERLIN – Agence France-Presse

Berlin’s Egyptian Museum has said that it will celebrate the centenary of the discovery of the 3,400-year-old fabled bust of Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti amid an ongoing feud with Cairo over its ownership.

The museum said it would open an exhibition on Dec. 6 honoring the famous sculpture and other jewels of the Amarna period in its collection on the German capital’s Museum Island.
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To accompany his new book, Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk has released a manifesto for museums – a re-thinking of what the aim of museums should be. It is an interesting contrast to the idea of the Universal Museum put about so much by the British Museum in recent years, as being of paramount importance.

In the end, there can be many different types of museum – each has the right to decide what form they take, but at the same time, they should not see this as having the authority to dictate outside the borders of their funding country, that they have the right to remove artefacts for safekeeping, or to make them part of a grand collection that suits their own principles, despite this being at odds with the views of those who believe they are the rightful owners of the artefacts.

From:
Hurriyet Daily News

Orhan Pamuk issues museum manifesto
April/21/2012

Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has issued a “manifesto” to explain and accompany his Museum of Innocence, a visual manifestation of aspects of his novel of the same name, which will open in Istanbul at the end of this month. The manifesto was published in daily Taraf before being released to the international media.

Pamuk says he loves museums and has felt very happy in museums in the past. “Because I take museums seriously, I sometimes get angry about them, but I don’t want to speak about museums with anger. There were too few museums in Istanbul in my childhood; most of them were historical structures under protection. Later on, small museums in European cities made me feel that museums could tell the stories of individuals. I never forget that places like the Louvre, the Metropolitan [Museum], Topkapı [Palace], the British Museum and the Prado [hold] great richness for humanity. But I am against the idea that these big monumental treasures should be the models for future museums. Museums should represent humanity… but state-supported museums aim to represent the state, not individuals. This is not a good or an innocent goal,” Pamuk’s manifesto reads.
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Turkey is taking a similar line to the one taken in the past by Egypt & Iran, by withdrawing co-operation, in an attempt to secure the return of disputed artefacts.

Their plans to follow this approach are not entirely surprising, as in both of the previous cases mentioned above, it was successful in speeding up negotiations or getting the museum in question to reconsider their stance on the issue.

From:
Hurriyet

Turkey refuses to lend artifacts to British Museum exhibition
March/05/2012
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

According to Britain-based The Art Newspaper, Turkey is refusing to lend artifacts to leading British and American museums until the issue of disputed antiquities is resolved.

The ban means Turkey will not lend artifacts to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and London’s British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), reported The Art Newspaper.
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More coverage of the threats by Tehran to cut ties with the Louvre, due to dispute over artefact loan agreements.

From:
Tehran Times

February 1, 2011
Iran may cut cultural ties with France over Louvre’s perfidy
Tehran Times Culture Desk

TEHRAN — Iran has threatened to break its cultural links with France if the Louvre continues to renege on agreements with the country.

The Louvre has not fulfilled its commitments of organizing a showcase to display a collection of its Persian artifacts in Iran, Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization Director Hamid Baqaii said in a press release on Sunday.
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Further coverage of the recent conference in Cairo on the restitution of looted antiquities.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 23:31 GMT, Wednesday, 7 April 2010 00:31 UK
Egypt calls for antiquities unity

States which say artefacts have been stolen and displayed overseas should unite to recover their stolen heritage, Egypt’s top archaeologist has said.

Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), urged culture officials from around the world to draw up lists of missing items.
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Much like the Elgin Marbles, the Aphrodite of Milos was removed from Greece whilst the country was under Ottoman occupation during the nineteenth century.

From:
Hurriyet

Greece and Germany fight over Aphrodite of Melos
Monday, March 1, 2010
Ariana Ferentinou

I am sure that no one these days has heard of the name Georgos Kentrotas or Botonis, least of all the German editors of the Magazine Focus who chose to act somewhat like modern archaeologists or restorers and added one of the two missing arms of Aphrodite of Melos to their cover page.

But if it was not for this poor Greek farmer, this whole uproar over the “fingers up” symbolism against the European Union would never have been created.
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More coverage of Greece’s response to statements made by the British Museum following the opening of the New Acropolis Museum.

From:
United Press International

Greece urges Britain to return sculptures
Published: June 22, 2009 at 10:27 AM

ATHENS, Greece, June 22 (UPI) — Greece used the opening of an Acropolis museum to renew its call to Britain to return sculptures taken from Athens’ Parthenon 200 years ago, authorities said.

Dimitris Pandermalis, director of the New Acropolis Museum, at an opening ceremony Saturday told Greek and world dignitaries now the time to rectify what he called an act of barbarism in the sculptures’ removal, the Athens News Agency reported Monday.
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Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be among other world leaders attending the opening ceremony of the New Acropolis Museum on 20th June.

From:
Hurriyet (Turkey)

11/5/9
PM and FM to visit Greece

ATHENS – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will visit Greece on separate days in June, the Elefteros Tipos newspaper in Greece reported.

Erdoğan requested to attend the opening ceremony of the Acropolis Museum on June 20, the newspaper wrote, as a return for the visit of Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis in 2008. Davutoğlu will attend the foreign ministers’ summit of European Security and Cooperation Organization on June 28 to 29.