Turkish Army Builds New Border Crossing to Connect Aleppo’s Afrin, Turkey

Turkey has recently attempted to set up new crossing between Afrin region and Lawa Eskandaroun known as Olive Branch Crossing, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

The report said hundreds of trees have been cut off in Afrin to set up the crossing that is believed to be mainly aimed at sending commodities to Turkey from Syria.

“This border crossing might be an alternate for two other passages of Bab al-Hawa and Atmeh in Northern Syria,” the SOHR quoted some sources as saying.

The report comes as measures against civilians such as plundering and stealing properties of civilians as well as abduction of civilians have increased since the Turkish Army and its allied militants occupied Afrin.

In a relevant development on Sunday, sources said that the Turkish Army has looted the artifacts and archeological monuments of Syria’s historical sites in Afrin region in Northwestern Aleppo.

Turkish teams equipped with excavation instruments are excavating for artifacts in Jandaris hills in Afrin region, the SOHR quoted informed sources in Southwestern Afrin as saying.

The SOHR noted that the Turkish Army, meantime, has blocked all roads to the region, and said that another excavation operation is underway in Ma’abali region in Western Afrin and Ali Aisheh and Tal Zarafkeh regions.

This comes as plundering of civilians’ assets and abducting them as well as receiving heavy taxes by the Ankara-backed militants are still underway in Afrin.

In a relevant development on Thursday, the Syrian government announced that the terrorist groups have transferred thousands of artifacts from the country’s archeological sites to Turkey.

“A sum of 17,000 pieces of archeological works that had been stolen from Syria’s museums and archeological sites are presently in Turkey,” Syria’s director general for archeological monuments Mahmoud Hamoud said.

Hamoud reiterated that most of the stolen manuscripts had been stolen from Jobar Synagogue in Eastern Damascus and had been smuggled to Turkey from Eastern Ghouta.

This comes as the terrorist groups had smuggled thousands of artifacts from Syria to neighboring Turkey.

In a relevant development earlier this month, Arab media outlets reported that more than 142 families of ISIL commanders and foreign militants together with Syria’s historic monuments have been relocated to Turkey from Eastern Euphrates with the help of the US-backed Kurdish fighters and Ankara’s allied militants.

The Arabic-language al-Watan newspaper quoted dissident sources as saying that a network comprising tens of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Ankara-backed militants transferred the historic monuments as well as the ISIL commanders, terrorists and their families to Northern Aleppo and from there to Turkey.

The sources explained that over 142 families of the ISIL commanders and terrorists have been relocated to Turkey from Eastern Euphrates on military vehicles after paying cash up to $90,000.

Meantime, a number of Syrian militants and their families have also moved towards Idlib province.