afrinpost
Since early June, the Turkish authorities have launched a new excavation and dredging campaign in the vicinity of the “Nabi Hori Castle”, as well as in an archaeological hill west of Deir Sawan village, with the aim of extracting and stealing archaeological finds and burials using bulldozers and other heavy machinery.
In the “Cyrrhus/ Nabi Hori” site, the Turkish-backed “Jaish al-Nukhba” militia, led by the so-called “Brigadier Moataz Raslan”, renewed excavation and dredging work in a location near one of the tributaries of the Afrin River, accompanied by the uprooting of trees on both sides of the river, under the Turkish flag, knowing that the Turkish army is stationed in a nearby area north of the junction of the neighboring village of Zetounak.
The “Sultan Murad Division” militia, led by the so-called “Fahim Issa”, is also excavating the archaeological “Deir Sawan” hill, in broad daylight and using heavy machinery behind earthen mounds, to excavate and steal antiquities under the supervision Turkish intelligence, whose members frequent the site to supervise the operation.
On July 13, 2018, (Idlib Antiquities Center) published a detailed report on damage to the site and provided it with pictures, after their team did an inspection tour.
It is noteworthy that the Turkish authorities had earlier restored the mosque and the Roman pyramidal burial shrine at the site, to show it as an Ottoman monument and landmark, after (tampering the shrine, sabotaging its mausoleum, digging its floor and replacing it with modern tiles and replacing the old shrine with a modern one, as well as vandalizing the Roman house which was dicovered, restored and rebuilt by the Syrian-Lebanese mission between 2006-2011, according to the report of the Idlib Antiquities Center published on July 13, 2018). Nevertheless, its contents were stolen, its yard was excavated and the trees were uprooted by the Turkish-backed militias during the invasion of the area in March 2018; knowing that the “Cyrrhus/ Nabi Hori” site is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
