This article analyses Turkey’s efforts to institutionalise community involvement in the management of sites on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Drawing upon Sally Merry’s idea of ‘vernacularization’, it traces the strategic and contentious process by which Turkish politicians and bureaucrats interpret and implement UNESCO's best practice standard of community involvement in the management of heritage sites. It examines how global notions of cultural heritage preservation become entangled with local politics, resulting in competing claims about ethical norms and governance. Through an in-depth ethnographic exploration, the article looks at the effects of the resulting policies and social practices at the Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2012. The transnational World Heritage arena challenges state and public awareness; but it also has the unintended consequence of corroborating the existing hierarchies upon which governmental authority rests.
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