Turkey supports heritage in Bosnia

SARAJEVO - Anatolia News Agency

The Turkish International Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TICCA) aims to implement important projects to restore the educational and cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2012.

“TICCA is providing a significant contribution to the restructuring process in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Dr. Zülküf Oruç, TICCA’s Bosnia coordinator, told an Anatolia news agency correspondent in Sarajevo. “We are planning to support 100 of the country’s schools that possess Ottoman cultural heritage. TICCA’s science and technology centers, which have been built for Cemal Biyedic University in Mostar, will soon be inaugurated,” Oruç said.

Oruç said TICCA will also restore the Drina Bridge in the city of Visegrad and the Kursumliya Mosque in Maglay. It will also build the Museum of Sbrebrenica in Sarajevo this year.

TICCA aims to renovate Ottoman heritage, in Bosnia particularly and the Balkans generally, and wants to make them valuable for tourism, Oruç said. “We build not only the history or tradition; we also build the common future of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Oruç said they have also implemented some projects dealing with livestock, greenhouses and fisheries around the country.

Noting that TICCA focuses on educational projects, Oruç said TICCA restored six schools in 2010 and continued restoration projects in 2011. “In a very short period of time we will also build a dormitory which will host 130 students in the city of Gorajde.”