Meditation on the Destruction of Aleppo, Homs and the Syrian urban centres
Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar Ja’afari says the current tumult in the Middle East, including the crisis in his country, is a scheme by the West to safeguard Israel’s interests, Press TV reports.
“This is a geopolitical plan that is not only targeting Syria exclusively, although Syria is very important for either the success or failure of this plan, but it is targeting the whole area,” said Ja’afari Wednesday in an exclusive interview with Press TV in New York.
He said the main goal of the Western plot “is to secure for a long time the interests of Israel and preventing the establishment of Palestinian state in Palestine.” “So they need to open up a new front, a kind of deviation, from the focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian question to another focus which might be a war between Muslims and Muslims,” he added.
Mideast crises West bid to protect Israel interests: Jaafari
An Iraqi family, who fled from the violence in Mosul when ISIS fighters showed up last week, take refuge in a tent camp on the outskirts of Arbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The Islamist group known as ISIS is about an hour’s drive from Baghdad. (Reuters)
-
-
-
-
-
Destruction of cultural heritage
Syria (formerly Aram) is home to some of the oldest, most advanced civilisations in the world. 10,000 years ago, the first crops and cattle were domesticated: the subsequent settlement gave rise to some of the first city states, such as Armi, later known as Aleppo, Ebla and Mari.
As the people of Syria continue to endure incalculable human suffering and loss, their country’s rich tapestry of cultural heritage is being ripped to shreds. World Heritage sites have suffered considerable and sometimes irreversible damage. Four of them are being used for military purposes or have been transformed into battlefields: Palmyra; the Crac des Chevaliers; the Saint Simeon Church in the Ancient villages of Northern Syria; and Aleppo, including the Aleppo Citadel.
Archaeological sites are being systematically looted and the illicit trafficking of cultural objects has reached unprecedented levels. There are alarming reports that Syrian heritage has been deliberately targeted for ideological reasons. Human representations in art are being destroyed by extremist groups intent on eradicating unique testimonies of Syria’s rich cultural diversity.
All layers of Syrian culture are now under attack - including pre-Christian, Christian and Muslim. Most if not all the sites in the open air whether under the control of the government or the rebels have sustained, in one way or another, damage by areal bombardment, shelling, looting, theft and vandalism.
Damage to the site of Ebla (Tell Mardikh, near Idlib) caused by illegal excavations and vandalization of the site carried out by locals, fighters and agents of organized trafficking in antiquities. The destruction of such precious heritage gravely affects the identity and history of the Syrian people and all humanity, damaging the foundations of society for many years to come. The protection of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, is inseparable from the protection of human lives, and should be an integral part of humanitarian and peace building efforts.
On 30 March 2012 Irena Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO made a public appeal for the protection of Syria’s cultural heritage and expressed “grave concern about possible damage to precious sites.”
On 2 October, Bokova issued a statement of regret about the destruction and fire that burnt the ancient souk in the old city of Aleppo. Calling it a “crossroads of cultures since the 2nd millennium BC”.
She called on the parties involved to comply with the Hague Convention of 1954 on the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. She furthermore promised to send a team to assess the situation and provide assistance for emergency situations in order to protect Aleppo’s heritage and to mitigate the effects of the cultural disaster and to avoid further damage.
In June 2013, UNESCO placed Syria’s six World Heritage Sites on the organization’s list of endangered sites. Clashes have damaged historical sites and buildings throughout the country, from Aleppo’s Umayyad Mosque to the Crac des Chevaliers castle dating from the 13th century Crusades.
But the most irreversible damage comes from the illegal looting of artefacts from archaeological sites for export, said the U.N. cultural arm’s assistant director-general for culture, Francesco Bandarin.
“We had it in Iraq, we had it in Afghanistan, in Libya, in Mali,” Bandarin said. “It is a typical by-product of war. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to stop.” Organised, armed gangs sometimes involving hundreds of hired men who threaten local residents against retaliation are taking advantage of a lack of security at many archaeological digging sites.
A comparison of satellite images from before the crisis and today at Apamea, known for its extensive Hellenistic ruins, shows clearly the scale of looting and destruction, UNESCO said.
Precious objects have been identified for sale in Beirut and international police agency Interpol has confiscated 18 Syrian mosaics and 73 other artefacts at the Lebanese border, the agency said. It has appealed to neighbouring countries to better control their borders against the trafficking of art.
There is now secure (if imprecise) evidence that, like the other parties to the Syrian civil war, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham/the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) is using the looting and trafficking of antiquities to fund its fighting. However, more interesting – and concerning – than the unsurprising news that ISIL are trafficking antiquities as well, are the implications for the relationship between the trade and the conflict.
Last night, Guardian journalist reported that Iraqi military intelligence had recovered just such evidence of fundraising antiquities trafficking by ISIL. Iraqi military captured and interrogated a courier/messenger, Abu Hajjar. They used his confessions to target the head of ISIL’s military council, Abdulrahman al-Bilawi. It’s not clear whether they tried to arrest al-Bilawi or intentionally assassinated him but, after they had killed him, they recovered 160 memory sticks from his home.
As well as extremely detailed intelligence regarding the paramilitary’s organisation, they recovered extremely detailed intelligence regarding its administration and funding, which appears to include up to 36 million dollars’ income from the looting and trafficking of commodities from one Syrian region alone, al-Nabuk(1), which a British(?) intelligence official presented in the context of antiquities trafficking.
The British(?) intelligence official observed to Chulov, ‘[t]here was no state actor at all behind them. They don’t need one.‘
‘ The $875m that they raised in total – through extraction from oil fields, the theft of cultural and other assets, and the trafficking of antiquities and other commodities – enabled their recent operations, through which they have accumulated another $1.5b.
All roads lead to Baghdad and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is following them all, north from Syria and Turkey to south. Reading Western headlines, two fact-deficient narratives have begun gaining traction.
The first is that this constitutes a “failure” of US policy in the Middle East, an alibi as to how the US and its NATO partners should in no way be seen as complicit in the current coordinated, massive, immensely funded and heavily armed terror blitzkrieg toward Baghdad. The second is how ISIS appears to have “sprung” from the sand dunes and date trees as a nearly professional military traveling in convoys of matching Toyota trucks without explanation.
In actuality, ISIS is the product of a joint NATO-GCC conspiracy stretching back as far as 2007 where US-Saudi policymakers sought to ignite a region-wide sectarian war to purge the Middle East of Iran’s arch of influence stretching from its borders, across Syria and Iraq, and as far west as Lebanon and the coast of the Mediterranean.
ISIS has been harbored, trained, armed, and extensively funded by a coalition of NATO and Persian Gulf states within Turkey’s (NATO territory) borders and has launched invasions into northern Syria with, at times, both Turkish artillery and air cover. The most recent example of this was the cross-border invasion by Al Qaeda into Kasab village, Latikia province in northwest Syria.
We, the Syrians
We, the Syrians, belong to a country which was a cradle of civilization, taking part in creating the first civilizations known to mankind. Even in prehistoric times and before the invention of writing, Syria recorded in the amazing pottery of Tell Halaf (circa 7000 BC onward), the awakening of the artistic spirit in mankind and their early attempts to express themselves in images, patterns and shapes.
Our lands witnessed in the Neolithic, the human revolution which introduced the first agricultural settlements and the domestication of animals. The first settlements or small villages led gradually to the building of the first cities, Damascus is the oldest existing city, some say Aleppo. Civilization and humanity will not depart from Syria.
Even if the world chooses to forget Syria or tries to distort its picture in order to ease its conscience, even if the Super powers continue to stand aside, just watching emersed in an ambivalent stupour or resort to support the regime against the people, thinking that by doing this they might deceive themselves and deceive history.
Why will civilization not forsake its birthplace no matter what transpires, no matter the destruction and the annihilation? It is because Syria knows Syria and knows that the whole world is indebted to its cradles and because the Syrians know Syria and its great heritage and indeed what is greater than that: its human legacy.
Iraqi experience
-
-
-
-
The looting in Iraq took place after the American-led invasion, but still under American occupation, including, but not limited to, the National Museum of Iraq. Following the looting during the chaos of war, the British and American troops were accused of not preventing the pillaging of Iraq’s heritage. Furthermore, many U.S. military and civilian personnel were subsequently caught in U.S. airports trying to bring in stolen artifacts.
The occupying forces, busy with combat missions, failed to protect the National Museum and Library in Baghdad from Iraqi thieves. While the Iraqi Ministry of Oil building was quickly and famously secured in the hours following the invasion for its reported wealth of geological maps, museums, national archives and government offices were vandalized.
The troops were criticized: “American officials came under sharp criticism from archaeologists and others for not securing the museum, a vast storehouse of artifacts from some of civilization’s first cities.”
After the U.S. troops entered Baghdad on April 9, 2003, at least 13,000 artifacts were stolen during the looting by Iraqis, including many moved from other sites into the National Museum for safekeeping.
U.S. troops and tanks were stationed in that area but, but without orders to stop the looting, “watched for several days before moving against the thieves.” Sergeant Jackson of the 1st Marine Battalion explained that “…our orders were to avoid engaging religious Muslims who were unarmed. So when groups of Imams demanded to remove religious items to prevent them from being defiled by the infidels, how were we supposed to know that they were thieves? Our captain didn’t want to create an international incident by arresting religious leaders.”
The Boston Globe writes: “Armies not of fighters but of looters, capitalizing on a security vacuum after war, have pillaged Babylon.” Donny George, the curator of Iraq’s National Museum says about the art looting: “It’s the crime of the century because it affects the heritage of all mankind.”
The horror of art looting in general is made clear by Hashem Hama Abdoulah, director of the museum of antiquities in Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdish-controlled zone of northern Iraq. “When your history is stolen from you, you lose your sense of that history. Not just the Iraqi people, but all of civilization that can trace its roots back to this area.”
Many other looted art objects ended up in black markets with rich art collectors and art dealers, mostly in the United States, Great Britain, Italy and Syria; in 2006, the Netherlands returned to Iraqi authorities three clay tablets that it believed had been stolen from the museum.
One of the most valuable artifacts looted during the plunder of the National Museum of Iraq, a headless stone statue of the Sumerian king Entemena of Lagash, was recovered in the United States with the help of Hicham Aboutaam, an art dealer in New York. Thousands of smaller pieces have remained in Iraq or been returned by other countries, including Italy and the Netherlands.
Some of the artifacts have been recovered, custom officials in the United States intercepted at least 1,000 pieces, but many are still advertised on eBay or are available through known collectors and black markets. “U.S. troops, journalists and contractors returning from Iraq are among those who have been caught with forbidden souvenirs.” The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs maintain a list and image gallery of looted artworks from Iraq at the Iraq Cultural Property Image Collection.
List of heritage sites damaged during the Syrian Civil War (proxy war)
The destruction of Syria’s cultural heritage must stop
Destruction of Syria’s cultural heritage must stop: UN joint statement
Syrian War Takes Heavy Toll at a Crossroad of Cultures
Syria’s Aleppo: civil war has destroyed what was once the cultural jewel of the Middle East
Syria’s ancient heritage in danger – France 24
Robert Fisk: Syria’s ancient treasures pulverised
Mourning for Syria’s Cultural Heritage
Damage to Syria’s cultural heritage (lists and maps); belated rescue attempts
Iraq/Syria: ISIL/ISIS fundraising by antiquities trafficking
NATO’s Terror Hordes in Iraq a Pretext for Syria Invasion
Syria’s cultural heritage being looted, destroyed
Radical Islamists take hammer to Syrian artifacts
Filed under: Uncategorized
