“Turkey’s support for terrorists from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Al-Nusra Front and other Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups has not satisfied the country, and today it (Turkey) made a clear violation of the Syrian territory,” the foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Speaking to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Sunday, a source close to the Syrian foreign ministry said that Turkey’s move was a violation of “Treaty of Ankara” which was signed between France and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in 1921.
Although Turkey had notified Syria’s consulate in Istanbul of its intention to move the Tomb of Suleyman Shah to another place, it should have waited for an approval from Damascus, the source said.
He added the fact that ISIL militants have destroyed churches and tombs in the area except the Turkish mausoleum signifies the deep relations between Turkey and the terrorist group.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday that the soldiers guarding the tomb in the city of Aleppo have been successfully evacuated to Turkey in a military operation overnight.
The Suleyman Shah Tomb, which became Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921, when France ruled Syria, was moved to another location on Syrian soil, closer to the Turkish border, Davutoglu said.