afrinpost – Special
The corespondent of afrinpost reported that Sultan Murad militia, affiliated with the Turkish occupation and the Muslim Brotherhood, started digging and bulldozing operations a few days ago at the “Jabal Hanna” site near Qastal Kishk village – Shara / Sharan district, by using heavy machinery.
The reporter explained that the militia brought a “Bagger” machine owned by a person from Idlib governorate named Abu Ahmed, pointing out that eyewitnesses told him that the gunmen had found some artifacts without indicating their type and importance and to any period back, adding that the site is located next to the train tracks.
In conjunction with this, the Endowments Directorate of the Turkish state of Hatay announced that it had completed the two projects of restoration of the Omar bin al-Khattab mosque and the “Nabi Huri” shrine, in the occupied Afrin region, and the new photos that were circulated to the Nabi Huri site clearly show the size of the changes introduced to turn the site into a tourist place more than an archaeological site.
The Endowments Directorate of the Turkish state of Hatay announced on 15/5/2020 the restoration of the archaeological shrine of “Nabi Huri” and the Mosque of Omar Ibn al-Khattab. The Director of Hatay Endowments, Umit Gökhan Çiçek, said in a press conference: “The General Directorate of Endowments attaches great importance to restore and revive the monuments left by the ancestors in Syria. Thus, the restoration work aimed at imparting Ottoman features to the place, erasing any trace of any other culture, and changing the historical connotation.
The site of Nabi Hori witnessed a lot of sweeping and excavation by the Turkish occupation militias in search of finds and archaeological pieces, as the soil was bulldozed over an area equivalent to 60 hectares (2 km in diameter), which is a large area, and thus the external appearance of the place were completely lost, and the goal behind this cover is one of the largest theft of antiquities that took place in Afrin region.
The archaeological site has a long history and a witness to multi-ethnic civilizations whose features have changed today, and it has become an Ottoman monument, especially the Roman cemetery.
The occupation authorities organized an organized campaign to search for antiquities and bulldoze archaeological sites, using heavy machinery away from the scientific methods used worldwide, in clear revenge against the region’s civilization and culture.
