Disturbing news for historians and archaeology comes out of Turkey. Reports are filtering out that historic Byzantine structures have been bulldozed.

Turkey: Istanbul’s Historic Lettuce Fields Fall Victim to Urbanization

There’s a very interesting aside in this article:

This week, workers from the local Fatih municipality started bulldozing the fields with little warning, as part of a plan to create a large park in the area. While there’s nothing wrong with building parks, the scant details given by the municipality about its plans have left locals and historians concerned, particularly since the Yedikule gardens are considered part of an area that is under UNESCO protection as a cultural heritage site. The fact that the local municipality is the same one that was responsible for the complete tearing down of Sulukule, a nearby neighborhood with a long-standing Roma population whose own history in the area went back for centuries, only raised concerns that little would be done in terms of preservation when it comes to this latest project.

Everybody knows about Gezi Park, but the systemic destruction goes much deeper. There have been further heavy handed actions, including naming a bridge after a Sultan who killed off truckloads of Alevis and placing an airport on a wetlands and migratory bird route. And a forest.