Turkey secures return of manuscripts from Canada

Turkey has completed the repatriation of a group of manuscripts and calligraphic works from Canada, marking what officials described as the first formal return of cultural property from the country. It was not immediately clear whether any prior returns had taken place outside formal legal channels.

Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said in a statement last week that the objects were handed over in Ottawa following a legal process initiated by the Canada Border Services Agency and finalized by Canada’s Federal Court in September 2025.

The items were intercepted by Canadian authorities in January 2024 while being transported from Istanbul to Vancouver, according to officials. The works have been displayed in Ankara following their return, though officials have not specified their final institutional home.

“We are safeguarding our heritage, reuniting the treasures of history with the lands of their birth,” Ersoy said in his statement.

The returned materials include seven manuscript pages dating from the 17th to 19th centuries, two rare printed book pages, and two modern works of calligraphy.

Such manuscript pages and calligraphic works are valued for preserving Ottoman-era intellectual and religious life, where handwriting itself functioned as a central artistic practice.

Ersoy described the restitution as the result of a “meticulous scientific and legal effort,” adding that the case could serve as a precedent for future international claims involving cultural property removed through illicit means.

Turkish authorities said the process involved coordination between multiple institutions, including the country’s General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, and the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa.

The return reflects a broader push by Turkey to identify and recover cultural artifacts taken abroad, with officials emphasizing ongoing efforts to track and reclaim items removed from the country unlawfully.

In December, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts said it returned 41 ancient polychrome terracotta relief fragments to Turkey after an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Ersoy also previously said that 180 cultural artifacts were repatriated to the country in 2025.

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