Archaeology as a Political Tool: Turkey and Israel Are Fighting Over Antiquities
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Benjamin Netanyahu are also competing over the material traces of the past. Excavations are a battlefield for competing visions of the past and claims to the land.
By Aleksander R. Michalak
The president did not mince his words. Speaking in August 2025 at an archaeological symposium in Ankara, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Turkey is a world leader — on two fronts: both in the scale of its archaeological discoveries and in recovering what it has lost. Since 2002, as many as 13,000 artefacts have been returned to the country — those removed from its territory during the Ottoman era.
Erdoğan also announced that Turkish experts would "carefully examine every centimetre of the country and every place where Turks have set foot," documenting the nation's heritage.
