Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said Greece recently returned 1,055 ancient coins smuggled from Turkey during the first Turkey-Greece Culture Forum in Cappadocia earlier this month. The coins had been seized by Greek authorities in 2025 and identified as having been illegally removed from Turkey, according to a June 6 statement from the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry. The whole affair unfolded through ministries, forums, and official ceremonies, with ordinary people nowhere in the frame except as the public whose history gets managed by state institutions.
Who Controls the Past
Ersoy said the forum was formed to “strengthen cultural bridges between the two societies.” Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni was also present at the forum. The visit included a trip to the Tokali (Buckle) Church in Cappadocia, where the two ministers were able to “examine our cultural heritage sites” and review the status of the restoration work being done there, Ersoy said in a post to X/Twitter. The language is all about stewardship from above: ministers touring sites, ministries issuing statements, and heritage treated as a diplomatic asset to be handled by officials.
Mendoni said at the ceremony that the launch of the first Greece-Turkey Cultural Forum in Cappadocia, “a place of unique historical and cultural significance, where peoples, traditions, religions and civilizations have met for centuries, leaving an extremely dense and multi-layered imprint on the history of the wider region, lends special symbolism to our meeting today.” She said, “Culture is not just another area of bilateral cooperation. It is perhaps the deepest and most enduring field of communication between our societies.”
What They Call Cooperation
Mendoni also said, “History has brought our two peoples together for centuries, creating interactions, exchanges, shared experiences and mutual influences that have been imprinted in memory, art, architecture, language and the very cities and landscapes of the Eastern Mediterranean.” She added, “Its protection is not only a national obligation. It is a universal responsibility. It is an act of respect for historical memory and future generations.” The ceremony wrapped the language of universal responsibility around a process still controlled by state actors, with the public asked to admire the symbolism while the institutions decide what gets protected, returned, displayed, or negotiated.
The two ministers held several talks regarding future cooperation between the two countries in the field of culture and the fight against antiquities trafficking. Ersoy reaffirmed Turkey’s commitment to supporting Greece in its fight to return the Parthenon Statues from the United Kingdom, as well as any resolutions spearheaded by Greece regarding the return of artifacts to their home countries. He said Turkey’s support reflects the importance the country places on preserving cultural heritage within its historical and cultural context.
The Official Line on Heritage
Ersoy said combatting the illegal trafficking of antiquities “would be a gain not only for both countries but for humanity's shared memory and the scientific world as a whole.” That is the language of the apparatus: heritage framed as diplomacy, memory framed as a shared asset, and the movement of objects handled through state channels after seizure, identification, and formal return.
The return of the 1,055 coins came after Greek authorities seized them in 2025 and identified them as having been illegally removed from Turkey, according to the Turkish ministry’s June 6 statement. The forum in Cappadocia, held earlier this month, provided the stage for the handover and for the ministers’ talks about future cooperation. The facts are plain enough: the states seized, identified, negotiated, and ceremonially returned the coins, while presenting the process as a bridge between societies rather than a reminder of who gets to control cultural property in the first place.