Scotland’s extraordinary built heritage is among its most precious treasures, something that enriches the life of our country and its people in many different ways. It’s also, of course, something we can share with the rest of the world, as the tens of thousands of tourists who visit every year can attest.
Nowhere is the importance of heritage more apparent than in Edinburgh, which has rightly garnered a reputation as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, not to mention World Heritage status.
With this in mind, it is entirely fitting that experts from the city are to travel to Turkey to work with specialists there on the restoration of two historic sites that have suffered due to political and social upheaval in the country. Edinburgh World Heritage, a charity, has been awarded £1.2m to fund a three-year programme in the historic cities of Mardin and Diyarbakir aimed at documenting buildings at risk, conserving structures, developing heritage conservation skills in the local population and helping implement a long-term sustainability plan.
Scotland’s expertise in this area is clear and the fact it can be shared on the global stage is to be warmly welcomed. Built heritage is vital in helping nations and communities understand their past, present and future, and we wish the Edinburgh experts well in their work in Turkey.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here