Following the demise of Zahi Hawass’s restitution campaigns after the Arab Spring & the fall of Mubarak in Egypt, Turkey has recently made restitution requests for a large number of artefacts located in foreign museums around the world. Apparently, this is just the tip of the iceberg though – there are many more items on their list of requests than have been revealed so far.

Quite why they are aspiring to – or even using the term Encyclopaedic Museum (also known as a Universal Museum) is unclear though – as this is the justification regularly put forward for retention of the artefacts that they want returned by the museums that currently hold them, I’d have thought that they would be desperate to steer as far away from that term as possible.

From:
The Economist

Turkey’s cultural ambitions
Of marbles and men
Turkey gets tough with foreign museums and launches a new culture war
May 19th 2012

IN THE spring of 1887 a Lebanese villager named Mohammed Sherif discovered a well near Sidon that led to two underground chambers. These turned out to be a royal tomb containing 18 magnificent marble sarcophagi dating back to the fifth century BC. The Ottoman sultan, Abdul Hamid II, ordered the sarcophagi exhumed, placed on rails and carried down to the Mediterranean coast, where they were sent by ship to Istanbul. The largest sarcophagus was believed to contain the remains of Alexander the Great. The coffin is not Turkish and Sidon is now in Lebanon, but the sarcophagus is regarded as Istanbul’s grandest treasure, as important to the archaeology museum there as the “Mona Lisa” is to the Louvre.

The mildly Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, led by the Justice and Development (AK) party, likes to think of itself as the heir of the Ottoman sultans. The Turkish authorities have recently launched a wave of cultural expansionism, building new museums, repairing Ottoman remains, licensing fresh archaeological excavations and spending more on the arts. A grand museum in the capital, Ankara, is due to open in time for the centenary of the Turkish republic in 2023. “It will be the biggest museum in Turkey, one of the largest in Europe; an encyclopedic museum like the Metropolitan or the British Museum (BM),” boasts an aide to Ertugrul Gunay, the culture and tourism minister. “It’s his baby, his most precious project.”
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unfortunately cancelled his official visit to Athens for the opening of the New Acropolis Museum due to health problems.

From:
Haber (Turkey)

20/06/2009 14:45
(DIP) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER CANCELS HIS VISIT TI GREECE

ATHENS (A.A) – 20.06.2009 – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cancelled his scheduled visit to Athens, Greece.

Erdogan called his Greek counterpart Kostas Karamanlis on phone and told him that he could not come to Athens due to some health problems.

Prime Minister Erdogan was set to meet with Prime Minister Karamanlis of Greece and attend opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. (UK)

More coverage in Turkey of their Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s planned attendance at the opening of the New Acropolis Museum in June. Turkey has in the past also requested the return of numerous items held in the British Museum, so in many ways this is an area of common ground & belief for both countries.

From:
Today’s Zaman

Erdoğan, Davutoğlu to visit Greece
26 May 2009, Tuesday
MUSA TAŞPINAR ANKARA

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will attend the inauguration ceremony of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, which will take place on June 20, sources from the Prime Ministry said yesterday. Erdoğan is expected to have bilateral talks with his Greek counterpart, Costas Karamanlis, while in the Greek capital, the same sources noted.

Also next month, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will travel to the island of Corfu, Greece. Davutoğlu will participate in a two-day informal meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which will focus on the OSCE’s role and security in Europe on June 27-28.
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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.