Turkish occupation bulldozes Dreamiyeh archaeological hill in Afrin to steal antiquities

The Turkish occupation and its mercenaries continue to plunder and steal the antiquities in Afrin canton, along with other crimes it commits against the canton's residents.

The archaeological hill of Dreamiyeh is located about 20 km northwest of Afrin city, and the nearest village to it is Arab Oshghy village of Shera district in Afrin occupied canton, and the hill is about 1.5 km away from it at its northwestern tip. It is one of the hills registered with the Syrian Ministry of Culture and the Syrian General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums by Resolution 244 / A of 1981.

According to the documents obtained by the Antiquities Directorate in Afrin canton stating: "On 11-07-2019 and another on 28-08-2019, we received two photographs of the archaeological hill that were taken from the northeastern side of it, and the two photos show that the hill was subjected to a vertical and horizontal shoveling operation in depth of about (4) meters, and an area estimated at about (1) hectare, according to the attached satellite images and based on the size of the areas available in the Google earth program.

From the two photos and the satellite image, it appears that the razing and vandalism operation was carried out with bulldozers and heavy machineries, so that olive trees dating back more than seventy years have been uprooted and removed from the hillside, according to the sayings of the indigenous inhabitants of the villages adjacent to the hill.

Through our monitoring of the archaeological hill through satellite images, we obtained a satellite image dating back to 08-07-2019, which proves the aforementioned sabotage and bulldozing of the hill with heavy machineries in search of valuable artifacts and the uprooting of trees planted on its surface in a step aimed at damaging the history of the Syrian region of Afrin and the property of the indigenous inhabitants of the region, with the aim of displacing them in implementation of the plan of cultural cleansing and demographic change."

D.H

ANHA