Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas said a delegation from UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre had conducted a four day study of Istanbul’s historic peninsula, the Galata-Pera district and the Halic basin earlier this month.
“The delegation will prepare a report which will later on turn into a decision,” he said. “As far as I see now, the report will be positive. This is what officials expressed.” Topbas said that he had been told by Francesco Bandarin, the head of the World Heritage Center, that Istanbul made a remarkable progress in recent years and the center did not have any concerns regarding the city’s future.
