[ From the Media ]

2008, 2010,... Istanbul on the road to disaster? First UNESCO threatens to withdraw the "World Heritage Site" honour if the deplorable situation of the historical peninsula's architectural and archaeological heritage does not improve until 2008 (see ICOMOS report/pdf). Then, hardly a year after Istanbul was designated to be Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010, the initial enthusiasm seems to have given way to the usual disintegration, as an article in the English-language Zaman suggests. www.istanbul2010.org (see also program for 2010). In other news real estate prices in Istanbul are reported to have reached EUropean dimensions, with rates higher than in Madrid, Stockholm, and Rome.