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The examples of Turkish architecture can be found all across the vast Ottoman Empire covering the time span of over 600 years. The extent of this architectural heritage has been fully documented only in the Europen lands of the Empire in Balkans, thanks to the work of Ekrem Hakki Ayverdi. His work, published between 1980 and 1982, documented Turkish architectural examples of 235 in Romenia, 725 in Hungary, 6941 in former Yugoslavia, 1015 in Albenia, 3370 in Greece and 3340 in Bulgaria. These, totaling about sixteen thousand, do not include the examples in Rodos, Istankoy, Sakiz, Limni and other islans in the Agean Sea as well as the island of Cyprus. If one looks at the breakdown of these at just two contries, Bulgaria and Greece, the folowing picture emerges: In Bulgaria, 2356 mosques, 420 schools, 42 buildings for charity (imaret), 174 religious meeting houses (tekke), 116 inns, 113 Turkish Bath houses, 27 mousoleums, 24 bridges, 75 fountains, 26 kervansarays. In addition, there are clock towers, bazaars, tombs, forts and castles and uncountable number of houses. If we look at Greece, a similar picture emerges with 2336 mosques, 504 varius types of schools, 307 religious meeting houses, 207 various buildings for charity, 171 inns, 134 Turkish bath houses, 30 mousoleums, 25 bridges, 22 castles, 10 kervansarays, 10 fountains, 6 aquaducts, 5 watch towers. As in everywhere else, there are also uncountable number of markets or bazaars, tombs and houses. Examples to some of these historical heritage can be found in the link below. Examples of Ottoman and Seljuk structures represent many centuries long Turkish heritage and culture over vast areas of these empires. Some still survive today despite mindless cultural barbarism exercised in many countries from former Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Greece to Arabic countries such as Saudi Arabia.
Fury Over Mecca Castle Demolition
Turks say the Saudis are destroying Ottoman heritage
Turkey has accused Saudi Arabia of a "cultural massacre" following the reported demolition of an historic Ottoman castle near the holy city of Mecca.
Ankara says it is lodging a protest with Unesco - the United Nations organisation responsible for the preservation of cultural relics.
It compared Riyadh's actions to the destruction of the giant statues of Buddha by the ousted Taleban in Afghanistan last year.
The Saudi authorities are said to have agreed to pull down the al-Ajyad Castle to build a housing complex to accommodate Muslim pilgrims visiting the holy shrines every year.
The BBC's Roger Hardy says the dispute is straining the normally close ties between two pro-Western Muslim states.
The castle - on a hill overlooking the Grand Mosque - was built in 1780 by the ruling Ottomans to protect the city and its Muslim shrines from invaders.
'Massacre'
Turkey's Culture Minister Istemihan Talay said his country wanted Unesco to condemn the Saudis.
"There is a similarity between the Taleban's destruction of the Buddha statues in Afghanistan and the Saudi authorities' enmity toward this legacy of the Ottoman era," Mr Talay told the Associated Press news agency.
"This is a crime against humanity and Unesco should expose this disgraceful and ugly destruction and cultural massacre," the minister said.
The Saudi authorities have not confirmed the destruction of the fort.
The Turkish Government says it was given assurances last year that the castle would be preserved.
Anger
Reports of the castle's destruction angered many in Turkey.
"The Saudis appear to have made destroying Ottoman relics their goal," AP quoted Orhan Arslan, deputy chairman of the pro-Islamic Great Unity Party. "Ottoman cultural heritage is being eradicated."
The Turkish media followed suit.
"King Fahd is erasing Turkish footprints," Hurriyet Newspaper said in a front-page headline.
Ottoman Turks once ruled a vast empire ranging from the Arabian peninsula to the Balkans and north Africa.
The empire finally disintegrated at the beginning of the 20th Century - when modern Turkey was set up as a secular state.
Ankara says everyone should protect the cultural legacy of the Ottoman empire. The Turks suspect that the Saudis saw the fort as an unwelcome reminder of Turkish rule.
"Cultural heritage in every country is everybody's common property, no matter what their origin or the period they belong to," the Turkish culture minister said.
Reference: BBC NEWS , 9 Jan 2002
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