Turkish Government, Not Collectors, Facilitates Antiquity Smuggling

Syria's culture minister Issam Khalil accused the country's northern neighbor Turkey of not doing enough to stop the smuggling of antiquities and other items across their shared frontier. The UN Security Council resolution passed on Feb. 12 "maintains that groups such as Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's affiliate in the Syrian war, are generating income by selling antiquities looted in the conflict". Turkey supporting groups fighting the Syrian government.

Khalil criticized Turkey for "facilitating" smuggling across the 910-km (560-mile) border which he said was the main route for antiquities leaving Syria illegally [...]. Damascus says Ankara has extended support to jihadist groups including Islamic State, which has seized wide areas of northern Syria at the border with Turkey. Ankara denies that charge and says sealing the frontier completely is impossible. "The United Nations knows for certain that the Turkish government is facilitating the smuggling of antiquities to the black market," said Khalil. Tension between Damascus and Ankara flared anew on Sunday when Turkish forces crossed into northern Syria to evacuate around 40 Turkish soldiers who were guarding the mausoleum of a figure revered in Turkey as the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. In a move described by Damascus as a "flagrant aggression", the Turkish forces relocated the tomb of Suleyman Shah to a more secure area. Khalil said the operation showed the Turkish government's links to Islamic State, which controls the area surrounding the site. "The tomb that was used as an excuse for this Turkish aggression ... was under the protection of the terrorists who destroyed (other) tombs, shrines, churches and mosques, but did not go anywhere near the Turkish tomb," he told Reuters by telephone on Monday. 

Turkey pursues an aggressive retentionist policy towards its own antiquities, but obviously has no problem with acquiring precious artefacts from its neighbors' territory for internal sale to collectors. It should be stressed that none of this material is passing onto the US market - despite the claims of anti-collecting archeologists.

Laila Bassam and Tom Perry, "Syria says must be part of fight against antiquities theft" Reuters Feb 23, 2015.