Turkish occupation’s mercenaries intensify the excavations in Syria’s Afrin city to loot antiquities

Aleppo, (ST) –  The mercenaries of the Turkish occupation have intensified excavations for antiquities under the direct supervision of Turkish intelligence bodies in the archaeological area of Tel Dodari in the Turkish-occupied city of Afrin in Aleppo northern countryside, as part of their organized criminal practices against the Syrian heritage.

Civil sources told SANA that terrorists backed by the Turkish occupation forces intensified in recent days the digging and bulldozing operations in search of antiquities in the archaeological Tel Dodari in the Afrin region. They used modern equipment provided by the Turkish occupation authorities which directly supervised the excavations.

The sources added that the Turkish occupation forces ‘criminal practices come within the Turkish occupation’s plan to undermine the cultural identity of this Syrian area after evacuating it from its original inhabitants.

They have worked to direct its mercenaries to search for antiquities in order to sell them to Turkish antiquities dealers, who in turn sell them to antiquities dealers in various countries of the world.

The terrorists, under the supervision of Turkish, American and French archaeologists and excavators, during the previous years of the aggressive war on Syria, excavated archaeological sites and stole many findings in them in order to destroy the Syrian cultural heritage, which constitutes a war crime in addition to the crimes committed against the Syrian people, its history and civilization.

Raghda Sawas