Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Turkey) in the context of DÖSİMM

A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizations) and measures to protect the national heritage of a country and cultural expression of a country or subnational region. This responsibility usually manifests in the accompanying ministry (also called a "department"), governing the following:

• an official registry of protected historic sites and other sites of cultural importance
• maintaining national archives of cultural work, including public museums, galleries and libraries
• creating a department or ministry of culture or arts
• creating arts councils, which disburse funding to artists and arts organization
• providing funding and other forms of support to artists and arts institutions.

In some countries or subnational jurisdictions (e.g., provinces, regions, Länder), the minister of culture may also be responsible for sport, youth issues, or tourism (e.g., in Turkey). In a few cases, the minister of culture is also responsible for foreign affairs (e.g., in Scotland), education (e.g., Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia), science and technology policy (e.g., Japan), communications/media (Singapore, UK), or a geographical area associated with national heritage (e.g., Ireland).

The following is a list of ministers of culture and tourism of Turkey.

Levantine archaeology is the archaeological study of the Levant, a region encompassing the modern areas of Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and sometimes Cyprus. The field examines the material cultures of both the Northern and Southern Levant from prehistory through late antiquity. While older scholarship was dominated by biblical archaeology, Levantine archaeology in the 21st century has relegated biblical concerns to a less dominant position, functioning as a "big tent" incorporating multiple archaeological practices. The Levant has displayed cultural continuity during most historical periods, leading to the increased study of the region as a whole. Besides its importance to biblical archaeology, the Levant is highly important when forming an understanding of the history of the earliest peoples of the Stone Age.

Current archaeological digs in Israel are carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and in the areas governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), by its Ministry of Tourism and Antiquity, working under the auspices of the IAA. The Palestinian Authority prohibits unrestricted excavation at sites of archaeological importance. There are equivalent and similarly named authorities in Jordan and in Cyprus, a Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in Syria and a department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Turkey).

Mehmet Nuri Ersoy (born 1968) is a Turkish businessman and current Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism.

Ersoy was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1968. After completing his secondary education in the Deutsche Schule Istanbul, he studied Business Administration in the English language at Istanbul University. In 1991, he founded the tourism company "Ersoy Turistik Servisleri" (ETS), together with his twin brother Murat. More companies in the tourism branch followed with "Voyage Hotels Group" in 1999, "Didim Tur" as part of the ETS in 2001, and the airline company AtlasGlobal, known as Atlasjet, joining the group of companies in 2004.