The Director of the Troia Museum, Rıdvan Gölcük, reminded the journalists at the opening that this year is the 150th anniversary of the excavations in the Ancient City of Troia.
Emphasizing that the first excavation permit was given on June 29, 1871, Gölcük said, “This is a very controversial period of 150 years. The artifacts, excavators, and the abduction of artifacts from that time until today are controversial. There are many problems in this regard. Of course, only the 150th anniversary of the excavation was made. Not only that, the Minister of Education Saffet Pasha had expropriated this land, Hisarlık Tepe, 10 days before the excavations started here. At the same time, this is not only about the land ownership, but also the 150th anniversary of the expropriation of Troy. Maybe it’s also about the ownership of Troy idea and philosophy. 150th anniversary.” said.
Rıdvan Gölcük stated that the Troy Excavations were mostly narrated through the diaries of Heinrich Schliemann, with his subjective narration.
“But this time we said that it is not something we can only read from Schliemann’s diaries. I wonder how the Troy issue took place in our state archives? For example, we will see from this exhibition that we had a law before the Troy excavations started. Asar-ı Atika Regulation was issued in 1869. and it was the Minister of Education Saffet Pasha. Then, when Schliemann applied for the excavations, he wanted to buy a 40-decare land from the villagers. He expropriated Hisarlı Tepe, that is, the land of Troy, almost 10 days before the discovery, and prevented the artifacts from being Schliemann. Did a sultan’s edict or the bureaucrats here help? What do the documents tell us, no.”
Explaining that Schliemann fraudulently took the Trojan Treasures abroad, Gölcük said, “Our state archives say when talking about Schliemann, ‘The one who plagiarized the artifacts abroad.’ In 1874, we opened a court in Athens. This court is the first court opened for the recovery of ancient artifacts. With this exhibition, we wanted to share with our visitors the artifacts of Troy, showing the extent of this protectionism in the Ottoman State Archives, and how the city of Troy was claimed and unknown issues until today. This exhibition we have made will be in the Troy Museum until November 1 and will shake up many of the things that have been wrong until now.” he said.
Afterwards, the participants of the exhibition visited the exhibition where the records in the Ottoman documents were transferred.
AK Party Çanakkale Deputy Jülide İskenderoğlu, Çanakkale Mayor Ülgür Gökhan, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMÜ) Rector Prof. Dr. Sedat Murat, Çanakkale Wars Gallipoli Historical Site Head İsmail Kaşdemir, Troia Ancient City Excavation Delegation Head Prof. Dr. Rüstem Aslan and ÇOMÜ History Department Lecturer Prof. Dr. Ali Sönmez and many guests attended.
