When did Troy and the surrounding area become the History of Troy National Park?

In the seventies, teams of various specialists prepared several national park projects in Anatolia and many of these projects were later implemented. Unfortunately, there was a twenty five year delay in the case of Troy's national park status. Reasons for this were probably the geopolitical-military significance of the area and lack of a consistent effort made for the realization of this project. However, the area of Troy was under protection by the state as an archeological site since the 19th century excavations. The desire to turn this area into a national park first came from Professor Osman Korfmann and his team, who had been doing excavations in this region (Beşiktepe, Troy, Kumtepe) since 1982. Various efforts on this issue were supported by his Turkish colleagues such as Bozkurt Güvenç, Halet Çambel, Mehmet Özdoğan, who wanted to protect the authenticity of Troy and Homer. During this process, the struggle between the archeologists and land speculators was won by the archeologists, thanks to the support of the politicians and academics. After a twenty five year delay, on September 30th, 1996, a part of Troy was officially declared a national park. This area, which is a 12 km x 12 km square, has various structures that commemorate the periods starting from the prehistorical ages to the World War I. It is obvious that this area is of importance for the cultural history of the world.