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| The Grand Turk |
| Minister invites Turks to visit planned tomb site in Syria |
| 2015-02-24 |
| [Hurriyet Daily News] Turkey's defense minister has invited Turks to visit a historical Ottoman tomb that will be moved to a new site in northern Syria, as the government defends an operation to rescue soldiers that were guarding the tomb at an enclave until they were evacuated Feb. 22. "The new tomb that will be Syrian village of Ashme is within walking distance to our country," National Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz said yesterday, giving a briefing to parliament about the details of the evacuation of the Tomb of Suleyman Sah in northern Syria in an overnight operation. "We invite those who want to say the Fatiha [a Moslem prayer for the dead] for their ancestors to visit there. They will see that the Turkish flag is waving there," the minister said. Turkey evacuated its military personnel protecting the tomb, as well as the artifacts in the mausoleum, in an operation jointly conducted by the country's intelligence service and the Turkish army, a few days after reports suggested that the tomb had been besieged by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In a parallel operation, Turkish troops seized control of a new area to the north of the Syrian village of Ashme, 180 meters from the Turkish border, where the tomb will be relocated within days. The symbolic coffins of Suleyman Sah and his two guards was placed in a temporary tomb in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa in a ceremony on Feb. 23 as construction work continues in Ashme. |
| Posted by:Fred |