July 30, 2008

Four Seasons Hotels faces opposition to Istanbul hotel plan

ISTANBUL, Turkey

Most tourists to Istanbul inevitably make their way to its historic core along the Golden Horn, a peninsula rich in relics and monuments from the mighty Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires.

These days, the area is host to a modern-day battle over the expansion of a five-star hotel amid the ruins of an ancient palace.

The dispute pits government-backed developers of a site housing the luxury Four Seasons Hotel, occupying a converted, Ottoman-era prison, against critics who say work on a 60-room annex desecrates the remnants of a palace built by Constantine the Great in the fourth century.

“It is right on top of the most important remains in the ancient city of Constantinople,” said Gunhan Danisman, a member of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey. He drew a comparison to show how “unthinkable” it is to embark on such a project:

“Go to the Roman Forum,” he said, “and start excavating to build a hotel.”

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee discussed concerns about Istanbul’s historical locations at the recent annual meeting in Quebec City. The committee said it would give Istanbul until 2009 to design plans to protect the sites; failure to do so could land the city’s cultural treasures on an endangered list.

The European Union has designated Turkey’s biggest city as its “cultural capital” in 2010, and being on the UNESCO danger list would embarrass a country seeking entry to Europe’s club.

The location of the hotel complex in Sultanahmet district — a short walk from the domed Haghia Sofia church and the Blue Mosque — underlines Turkey’s struggle to balance tourism and preservation. The government has lacked the resources or will to showcase and protect all of its world-class attractions, and now neglect, uncontrolled building and shoddy restoration work have degraded many historical sites in Istanbul, the centre of great civilizations over the centuries.

“There’s very little that’s accessible,” said David Michelmore, a British archeologist. “There are lots of things that you can’t get into and are not being promoted at all.”

That’s the crux of the Four Seasons case: A Turkish company, Sultanahmet Turizm A.S., made a deal with the government to build the annex and also develop an adjacent archeological park that will bring to light remnants of the Great Palace of Roman and Byzantine emperors.

They say the park, which is expected to open by the end of the year, would have been impossible without the funds generated by the hotel deal.

“In order to conserve a thing, you have to make use of it,” said developer Atilla Ozturk, who started work on the park in 1997 and on the hotel extension in 2006. “If somebody did not attempt to make that extension, we would not be able to see this area.”

Ozturk said the area used to look like a “junkyard” and that he had spent US$14 million on the park so far, with at least US$6 million to go. He has 25 archeologists on his payroll, and the Istanbul Archaeological Museum is overseeing the project.

Some Turkish and foreign experts say the work on the Great Palace of the Roman and Byzantine empires generally meets international standards, but critics insist the annex is an insult to Turkey’s heritage and could end up damaging the archeological site.

A Four Seasons spokeswoman in Istanbul declined comment. The role of the Toronto-based hotel chain in a case with nationalist overtones has intensified the dispute, with Milliyet, one of Turkey’s biggest newspapers, describing the hotel extension as a “historic wrong.”

In March, an administrative court ordered a halt to the extension project on the grounds of possible harm to cultural heritage. The Istanbul municipality and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism appealed to a higher panel, and development continues at the site.

The hotel and its annex, still under construction, sit atop or next to the ruins of palace walls, baths, wells and floors. The three buildings of the extension are perched on four-metre-high steel pylons, leaving intact remnants of ancient structures that are visible beneath.

In a May letter to Istanbul’s mayor, Francesco Bandarin, the Paris-based director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, spoke of the need to “come to terms” with the Four Seasons extension.

But Bandarin said: “a different solution could and should have been found to allow a full respect of the heritage values and at the same time ensure the economic viability of the hotel.”

Associated Press

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