United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

Maribor – Sebastijan Pregelj is the winner of this year’s Večernica prize for the best youth and children’s book written in the past year. He won the award given out by the Maribor-based newspaper Večer for his book Vrnitev (Return), Večer reported online.

Pregelj will accept the award worth EUR 3,000 at a literary festival in the city of Murska Sobota on 19 September.

Turkey has managed economic difficulties arising from the pandemic well, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sept. 16.

Unique historical artifacts and mosaics, including those unearthed from the UNESCO heritage ancient site of Göbeklitepe, are carefully being cleaned by expert teams at the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum.

Istanbul residents will be able to visit Göbeklitepe, one of the first settlements in the world, thanks to a digital model twin of the ancient site made by an Istanbul Municipality subsidiary.

Göbeklitepe's digital model twin was obtained by calculating 1,800 photographs taken with an 80 percent overlap rate, with photogrammetry software that produces millimetric precision data.

Archeologists are tracing ancient seal impressions found in the 7,000-year-old Arslantepe Mound in the eastern province of Malatya to understand how bureaucracy was born.

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Seal impressions found in excavations at the mound, which is on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Permanent List, shed light on the bureaucratic structure of the period.

A traditional Kyrgyz horse game commonly likened to polo continues to be played in eastern Turkey.

Kök Börü is a synthesis of traditional practices, performances and the game itself.

It is played by two teams on horseback where players try to maneuver a goat's carcass or goat fur and score by putting it into the opponent's goal.

By George Gilson

When in July, 2020 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned the Hagia Sofia Museum into to a mosque, he sparked an international outcry.

Over a year later, addressing members of his AKP party in Rize, Erdogan accused the opposition of trying to keep Hagia Sophia closed.

The Akdamar Church, a 1,100-year-old Armenian church in Turkey's eastern Van province, hosted its ninth special mass on Sept. 5 since reopening in 2010 after a hiatus of 95 years.

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A limited number of people were taken to the island by boat to attend the ceremony due to the ongoing pandemic.

Dozens of graves and the remains of houses were found during excavations in the 7,000-year-old ancient mound of Arslantepe, a governorate in eastern Turkey said on Sept. 4.

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The roughly 7,000-year-old ancient mound of Arslantepe in eastern Turkey is now attracting 10 times more visitors after it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in July, an official said on Sept. 2.

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