- The Process in Istanbul Towards European Capital of Culture 2010    190 kb by    Beyazit, Eda & Tosun, Yasemin | ebeyazit@yahoo.com    Short Outline Istanbul is getting ready for the European Capital of Culture 2010 organization. This paper aims at discussing the content of the projects in terms of conserving the cultural heritage and/or taking place in competition among other cities. Abstract An Evaluation of the Process in Istanbul Towards European Capital of Culture 2010 This study aims to evaluate Istanbul’s application for the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in 2010, therefore intends to analyse the conflicting interests between ideas of conserving the city’s cultural heritage and developing it to be more competitive. Istanbul has had a close relation with the European culture throughout the history with its commercial identity and strategic location and this relationship had helped Istanbul to gain its cultural identity as the capital of three civilizations, home for different nations and the bridge between Asia and Europe. These features saddle the city with the responsibility of conserving and sustaining this cultural heritage against the restructuring processes of competition. Resisting the restructuring need of a metropolitan city in such a globalised environment is difficult. The challenge Istanbul faces is the choice between pure conservation of its historic built environment or taking its place in the competition with the city’s cultural amenities. As Istanbul is getting ready for the ECOC organization that will be held during the year 2010, there are many projects on the agenda, most of which are about the rehabilitation of historical quarters, restoration of buildings, constructing new urban facilities, organising concerts, festivals etc. When the project proposals are considered, It seems like a difficult mission. At this point there appears some issues to be questioned. Will the projects be sustainable? At what level the participation of public will be achieved? Will the projects be only for historical parts of Istanbul as to improve touristic facilities or will they spread all over the city in order to integrate the whole city and provide equal benefit to all citizens? With reference to these questions and the overall concept of ‘cultural heritage’, the paper aims to assess expectations of and proposals for the ECOC application file. Keywords The Process in Istanbul Towards European Capital of Culture 2010 Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper