{"id":116118,"date":"2024-08-17T10:36:40","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T10:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/?p=116118"},"modified":"2024-08-17T10:36:42","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T10:36:42","slug":"turkish-backed-faction-excavates-archaeological-site-in-syrias-afrin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/116118\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish-backed faction excavates archaeological site in Syria&#8217;s Afrin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>AFRIN, Syria (North Press) \u2013 <\/strong>The Turkish-backed Mu&#8217;tasim Division, a faction within the opposition Syrian National Army (SNA), has started excavating an archaeological site in Afrin countryside, northwestern Syria, a source said on Saturday. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Footages and photos North Press correspondent has sent shows a bulldozer digging a site near the Yazidi village of Qibar in the northeastern countryside of Afrin. The correspondent said the site is ancient and contains historical monuments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to exclusive sources, a bulldozer and members of the Mu&#8217;tasim Division were seen excavating near the Qibar Mount using digging equipment and a metal detector to search for artifacts, gold, and other metals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The same site was previously subjected to excavation in 2019 and 2020, and the new digging began ten days ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Qibar is a Yazidi village which is a home to a Yazidi shrine called &#8220;Chel Khana&#8221;. Before Turkish forces occupy Afrin, Yazidi families used to visit the shrine for blessings. However, in 2020, it was subjected to desecration and destruction by the Turkish-backed SNA factions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Kurdish-majority region of Afrin has been occupied by Turkey and controlled by the SNA factions since March 2018 following the so-called \u201cOlive Branch\u201d military operation to push away the Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG) under the pretext of protecting \u201cTurkish national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There were 58 Yazidi villages in Afrin at the onset of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century. Prior to 2011, there were nearly 60,000 Yazidis in Afrin with 22 villages being co-habited by other communities. However, following the occupation, Yazidis of Afrin have been a double target for extremist groups embracing Islamist ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>By Siwar Hamo<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Turkish-backed faction excavates archaeological site in Syria&#039;s Afrin\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LbWIbHnmgE0?wmode=transparent&amp;rel=0&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFRIN, Syria (North Press) \u2013 The Turkish-backed Mu&#8217;tasim Division, a faction within the opposition Syrian National Army (SNA), has started excavating an archaeological site in Afrin countryside, northwestern Syria, a source said on Saturday. &nbsp; Footages and photos North Press correspondent has sent shows a bulldozer digging a site near the Yazidi village of Qibar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":116119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,39,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-home","category-syria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Turkish-backed faction excavates archaeological site in Syria&#039;s Afrin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AFRIN, Syria (North Press) 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