A delegation from the UNESCO World Heritage Committee received a briefing Friday on the restoration of wooden homes in Istanbul's Suleymaniye and Zeyrek districts.

- 09 / 05 / 2008 13:05

A delegation from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee received a briefing Friday on the restoration of wooden homes in Istanbul's Suleymaniye and Zeyrek districts.

Turkish officials from the Istanbul Municipality gave information on the history, management and restorations of wooden residences in Suleymaniye and Zeyrek.

The briefing lasted two hours and was closed to the press.

Istanbul has 600 wooden homes that will be go through restoration.

The UNESCO delegation will observe all corners of Istanbul and hold talks with Turkish authorities.

It will then prepare a report that would either keep Istanbul in the list of World Heritage sites or take it out.

The report will be submitted at the committee's meeting that will take place in Quebec, Canada, between July 2nd and 10th.

The World Heritage Committee had discussed the situation in Istanbul at its meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania two years ago.

It had proposed certain measures to be taken by Istanbul city and granted a timeframe until 2008 to remedy all deficiencies.

Istanbul's historical fields were included into the list of World Heritage sites in 1985.

The possibility of taking Istanbul out of the World Heritage list had come up due to concerns on provincial development and the preservation of protected areas.