Tahrir al-Sharm turning to Syria’s antiquities to compensate lack of Turkish finance

Aya Ezz

Tahrir al-Sham, one of the largest militias in northern Syria, faces a difficult financial crisis due to a drop in Turkish financial support to it.

To make up for this drop in support, Tahrir al-Sham is turning to the theft of Syrian antiquities. It is even searching for the antiquities in the areas in controls in preparation for selling them.

Tahrir al-Sham recently used its bulldozers to search an area in Afes village, which is located in Idlib province, claiming that it was doing this to remove dust barriers away from main roads.

The bulldozers were in effect searching for antiquities in the area.

According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Tal Nawaz, which is located near Kafr Naseh town in the western countryside of Aleppo, has turned into an excavation site.

Tahrir al-Sham uses equipment to remove layers of ground and dig for antiquities, the observatory said.

It added that the militia had already found ancient pieces in several areas.

Syrian political activist, Rayan Maarouf, referred to a drop in financial support to Tahrir al-Sham for several months now.

He said the drop especially happened after the Covid-19 outbreak around the world.

“This is why the militia is turning to looting and theft,” Maarouf said.

He told The Reference that Turkey had assigned some of its officers in northern Syria to buy the antiquities Tahrir al-Sham and other militias unearth.

The same officers also get these antiquities out of Syria.

“Turkey is the prime instigator behind all this,” Maarouf said.