Özet:

The aim of the article is to develop a policy recommendation that will allow Gaziantep, which has the feature of being the only city to represent Turkey in 116 cities in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative Cities Network (UCCN), to formulate a required membership monitoring report by 30 November 2019, by using the self-evaluation and membership monitoring reports already published. Within the scope of the research, membership monitoring reports of 17 cities and self-evaluation report of 1 city published by UCCN were subjected to descriptive analysis by document examination method. The findings were evaluated according to the Gaziantep’ creative city concept on the basis of the format and classification of the membership monitoring report established by the UCCN. The study aims to provide a guide for strengthening the identity of Gaziantep will display on the global stage as the creative city with the theme of gastronomy, as well as filling the research gap in this area, given the lack of guiding work in the context of UCCN membership monitoring reports. The results of the study are also considered to have a precious value by key stakeholders, especially urban policy makers, in terms of transforming contemporary urban politics into sustainable development on the basis of creativity. However, it will be possible to broaden the scope of work and to multiply the proposals as new reports are produced in the context of the Creative Cities Network, where UNESCO guarantees continuous participation in the preservation of creativity and the development of creative industries.

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