Thank you Mister Chairperson,

Let me begin by taking this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment as Chair and our thanks to India for the organization of this committee meeting and for the warm hospitability.

We believe that we will have a successful meeting under your able leadership.

I would like to thank the Director of the World Heritage Centre for presenting this comprehensive report on the activities in implementing the Committee’s decisions.
As a newly elected member, Türkiye is committed to further strengthening the role of the World Heritage Convention which serves as an inspiration for the protection and preservation of tangible natural and cultural treasures in the world.

Recognizing the imperative of safeguarding these invaluable assets, Türkiye became a party to the Convention in 1983. As a long-standing State Party to the Convention, we have tirelessly endeavoured to maintain the principles of the Convention.

Our commitment is also coming out from our dedication to preserving the essence of our common cultural identity for future generations.

During our tenure on the Committee, we will do our utmost to uphold our responsibilities for the better implementation of the Convention.

A priority during our membership will be achieving a more balanced World Heritage List. In this regard, we encourage nominations from non-represented and under-represented countries bearing in mind the maintenance of the quality and high standards of the World Heritage List.

Acknowledging the Committee’s vital work in safeguarding global cultural heritage, we welcome the on-going initiatives in terms of capacity-building in the framework of “The World Heritage Capacity-Building Strategy” and highly appreciate the Secretariat’s activities to support State Parties lacking World Heritage properties in training their local experts and providing technical support by developing Tentative Lists, as well as preparing nomination dossiers.

We would like to particularly emphasize the significance of transparency, improvement of dialogue, providing early advice to States Parties and strengthening efforts to ensure better regional representation, taking into consideration the divergence of expertise views based on profession, geographical and cultural perspectives.

Türkiye believes in the importance of increasing dialogue between State Parties and the advisory bodies and the World heritage centre at different stages of the nomination process and in evaluations of the state of conservation of listed properties.

In addition, we also agree that the Preliminary Evaluation is significant in terms of enabling rich and constructive exchanges of views on the nominated strategies, and helps to prepare more effective and robust nominated dossiers.

We appreciate works carried out by the Open-Ended Working Group of States Parties established by the Decision 45 COM 11 by the World Heritage Committee and we actively participated in its meetings.

We believe that the Working Group meetings so far have been fruitful in terms of the discussions especially on reducing the gap of the representation of State Parties on the world Heritage List.

After the 46th Session of WHC, Türkiye will continue to contribute to the working Group and we hope the work of the WG will be concluded by the 47th WHC.

We are ready to strive to further strengthen the role of the World Heritage Convention and provide our expertise to help achieve the objectives of the Member States and UNESCO.
Thank you Chairperson and I wish for a fruitful discussion.