Bergama to represent Türkiye in UNESCO youth campaign

İZMİR

The western province of İzmir’s Bergama district has been selected to represent Türkiye in the 2025 edition of UNESCO’s World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) Campaign, an international initiative aimed at promoting the preservation of cultural and natural heritage sites through youth engagement and community participation.

Organized under the theme “Working for the Future,” this year’s campaign drew proposals from 41 countries, and Bergama was chosen among 89 heritage sites worldwide.

The WHV campaign, launched by UNESCO in 2008, mobilizes young people aged 15 to 25 to actively contribute to the protection, promotion and transmission of heritage.

Volunteers take part in workshops, site conservation projects and cultural exchanges, working alongside experts and local communities.

By fostering awareness and practical involvement, the campaign not only safeguards heritage sites but also helps cultivate a new generation committed to cultural preservation.

From Sept. 1-11, Bergama will host a series of activities at the İzmir Painting and Sculpture Museum and the Cultural Arts Factory.

The project is being coordinated by the İzmir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, under the leadership of Sadık Doğruer, the provincial director, with the support of the İzmir Governor’s Office, the Bergama Museum, the district’s chamber of commerce, local NGOs and international partners.

Around 50 young volunteers from Türkiye and abroad will join cultural heritage experts and local residents to explore Bergama’s multi-layered history and rich traditions.

Activities will include guided tours of ancient landmarks, legal and academic workshops on heritage protection, site clean-up projects and hands-on sessions in parchment-making and traditional crafts.

The program also involves interaction with local artisans, tradespeople and residents to ensure that heritage is not only preserved as a monument of the past but also lived as a culture of the present.

Bergama — known in antiquity as Pergamon — is one of the world’s most significant archaeological and cultural landscapes. Once the capital of the Hellenistic Attalid dynasty, it is famed for its monumental architecture, the Asklepion healing center, its contribution to parchment production and living traditions in handicrafts and cuisine.

The campaign in Bergama will officially open with a ceremony at the Asklepion Theater on Sept. 1.

Alongside Bergama, another of Türkiye’s heritage treasures, the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, was also selected for the campaign.