afrinpost
The Turkish authorities and its Islamic militias continue to commit innumerable violations against the archaeological sites in the Kurdish region of Afrin, with the aim of changing the historical identity of the region and stealing valuable antiquities and finds.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated, on Friday 26/2/2021, that Turkish-backed factions, during the previous days, resumed the operations of excavating the vicinity of the “Roman Amphitheater” at al-Nabi Hori site in Sharan sub-district in Afrin countryside. According to the observatory’s sources, the militants swept the soil surrounding the theater with bulldozers, in search of archaeological finds, under the Turkish authorities supervision.
The site of al-Nabi Hori was previously subjected to excavation and digging work by various militias in search of antiquities and burials, as the Syrian Observatory published on 11/11/2019 that systematic theft, robbery and looting of the antiquities of “Afrin” continues in exchange for huge sums of money, and documented sources confirmed that the militias affiliated with Turkey allowed the excavating works in Afrin in exchange for huge sums of money.
The sources reported that artifacts were found at the site of al-Nabi Hori” (Cyrus), which dates back to several ancient civilizations, the oldest of which were from the Hellenistic period around 280 BC, and stolen and that the militias found mosaic panels that were smuggled into Turkey through merchants with joint facilities from the Turkish forces and its militias controlling that region.
