Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change:

The Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change preserves millions of historical documents within the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre.

The General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, which secures citizens’ property rights, restores approximately 11 million documents that have survived from the Ottoman Empire to the present day through the Archive Department. According to a written statement from the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, as of 2007, the Document Conservation and Restoration Unit has completed the restoration of 121,401 sheets of documents.

The Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change carefully preserves documents and land registry books that have cultural and historical significance. To ensure that documents of historical and cultural importance are reliably passed on to future generations, worn-out documents and land registry books that have reached from the past to the present are being restored through intensive work. The Document Conservation and Restoration Unit, established within the Archive Department, not only repairs damages in property registers but also responds to repair requests from other institutions.

Restoration is carried out in three main units: ‘Classical restoration, leaf-casting, and classical binding.’

The General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, through the Document Conservation and Restoration Unit established in 2007 under the Archive Department, has completed the restoration of 121,401 sheets of documents to date. In this context, worn-out property registers identified as needing restoration are renewed with a team of experts, preserving their authenticity. Depending on the document’s condition, the classical method restores the document manually, while in the second method, the document is renewed with the help of a machine. In the second application called Leaf-Casting, the missing parts of documents whose ink does not spread are completed using paper pulp. Thanks to the leaf-casting machine produced with local and national manufacturing at the request of the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, the process is completed much more quickly compared to the manually performed classical restoration. Historical documents sent in bundles from the classical and leaf-casting units are covered with new bindings and recorded before being delivered to the relevant unit.

The 1463 Ayasofya foundation document has also been restored.

The Archive Department of the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre has also restored the Ayasofya Foundation document, which has historical document status. The 65-meter-long Ayasofya Foundation document dated 1463 was renewed through meticulous work done by hand using classical restoration methods.

“Restored registers are still valid as a basis for inheritance disputes today.”

Nursel Demir, a Restoration Specialist in the Archive Department, emphasized the importance of the restoration works, stating, “The registers in our archive still maintain their validity as a basis for inheritance disputes or objections to cadastral determinations today.”