The Memory of the World Register lists documentary heritage which has been recommended by the International Advisory Committee, and endorsed by the Director-General of UNESCO, as corresponding to the selection criteria regarding world significance and outstanding universal value.

Impetus came originally from a growing awareness of the parlous state of preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage in various parts of the world. War and social upheaval, as well as severe lack of resources, have worsened problems which have existed for centuries. Significant collections worldwide have suffered a variety of fates. Looting and dispersal, illegal trading, destruction, inadequate housing and funding have all played a part. Much as vanished forever; much is endangered. Happily, missing documentary heritage is sometimes rediscovered. 

The face value of the Programme is the Memory of World Register – founded in 1995 and got registered to firstly in 1997.

To achieve what has been determined globally on a national level, Turkish National Commission for UNESCO is responsible for identifying heritages assumed to be essential for enrolling into the Memory of the World Register and offering them.

Documental heritages offered by Turkey and acknowledged in the Memory of the World Register:

• Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute Manuscripts (2001)
• The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Bogazköy (2001)
• The works of Ibn Sina in the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library (2003)
• Evliya Çelebi's "Book of Travels" in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library and the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library (2013)
• Merchant Archives of Kültepe (2015)
• Compendium of the Turkic Dialects Divanü Lügati’t-Türk (2017)
• The Piri Reis World Map (1513) (2017)