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Turkish Military Evacuates Soldiers Guarding Tomb in Syria Turkish Military Evacuates Soldiers Guarding Tomb in Syria
(about 7 hours later)
ISTANBUL — The Turkish Army rescued its guards and removed remains from the Tomb of Suleyman Shah in Syria, which had been besieged by Islamic State militants, the prime minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, said in a televised news conference on Sunday. One soldier died in an accident during the operation. ISTANBUL — The Turkish Army sent armored troops deep into Syria late Saturday on a rescue mission, to recover the remains of a major historical figure and to evacuate the guards at his besieged tomb, the prime minister announced in a televised news conference on Sunday.
The military operation late Saturday did not involve international assistance or approval, but the authorities in the region, as well as allied forces engaged in an ongoing military campaign against the Islamic State, were informed of the operation, the prime minister added. The tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, is 20 miles south of the Turkish border, but it has been considered Turkish territory under a 1921 treaty with France, which ruled Syria at that time. Fighters from the Islamic State extremist group have controlled the surrounding area and have kept the Turkish soldiers there trapped for months, although they did not assault the tomb.
A Foreign Ministry statement said that clashes and instability in Syria had prompted the operation to rescue about 40 military personnel, including 20 elite special forces, who were encircled by Islamic State militants around Karakozak village in Munbic town, about 20 miles outside Turkey’s southern borders. There were no clashes during the evacuation of the tomb, Mr. Davutoglu emphasized, while one soldier, according to a statement provided by the Turkish Army, was killed in an accident during the movement of the troops. The prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said there were no clashes during the mission and only one casualty, a soldier who was killed in an accident.
Suleyman Shah was the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. His tomb is considered by the government here to be Turkish territory, and it has been guarded by Turkish soldiers. He said Turkey notified the Syrian government, rebel leaders and the coalition forces fighting the Islamic State about the operation. It appeared to be Turkey’s first significant ground incursion into Syria since the civil war there began almost four years ago.
A few days ago, Ankara received warnings from personnel at the tomb that clashes between Kurdish pesh merga fighters and Islamic State militants could erupt and the tomb was likely to be targeted, Mr. Davutoglu said 572 troops, 39 tanks, 57 armored vehicles and 100 other vehicles were involved, and that the column reached the tomb shortly after midnight.
the news channel NTV said; these warnings prompted the operation, it said. “A religious ceremony was held for the transfer of the tomb remains while other items of cultural significance were removed with similar care,” he said. “Our troops were safely removed from the area." Finally, he said, the Turkish flag was lowered, and the tomb and security station were destroyed to prevent any possible use by extremists.
Mr. Davutoglu said, “Turkish armed forces, with 39 tanks, 57 armored vehicles, 100 vehicles and 572 personnel entered into Syria and, by 00:30, our troops have reached Sah Saygi Station.” The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the operation was prompted by the chaos and instability in Syria. The Turkish news channel NTV reported that the government had received warnings in recent days that clashes were likely to erupt nearby between forces of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and Kurdish troops known as pesh merga, and that the tomb could become a target.
“A religious ceremony was held for the transfer of the tomb remains,’’ he continued, “while other items of cultural significance were removed with similar care. Our troops were safely removed from the area.’’ “The Suleyman Shah tomb has been a point of vulnerability for Turkey for a long time, and with this operation, such weakness has been eliminated,” said Sinan Ulgen, the chairman of the Istanbul-based Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies and a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels. “The Islamic State could have used the presence of the tomb as leverage in case of any confrontation with Turkey.”
The burial site, including a security station, was destroyed to avoid possible use by the extremists, he added. Mr. Davutoglu said that, in accordance with the 1921 treaty, a new tomb for Suleyman Shah was being established in a part of Syria that is under Kurdish control, the Ashme district in the Rojava region. Turkish television showed images on Sunday of the Turkish flag being raised there.
In March, Mr. Davutoglu, the foreign minister at the time, said that Turkey would take any measure necessary to safeguard the security of the tomb, referred to as Turkish soil based on an accord signed between Turkey and France in 1921. Suleyman Shah, who died in 1236, is believed to have drowned in the Euphrates River, which flows south from Turkey through Syria and into Iraq. His tomb by the banks of the river has been relocated several times before, most recently in the 1970s to avoid being submerged by the reservoir of a new dam. Mr. Davutoglu said that when conditions in Syria permitted, the tomb would be moved back again to the site that was evacuated, near the village of Karakozak.
As the Turkish flag was being lowered at the tomb site early Sunday, Turkish troops had cleared an area close to the Ashme district in Rojava, a Syrian Kurdish region, for Suleyman Shah’s new burial site in line with the accord from 1921, the prime minister said. Turkish television footage showed images of troops planting the Turkish flag at the new site. Tensions have mounted around the tomb since March, when the Islamic State took control of the surrounding area and began threatening to destroy the tomb unless guards there lowered the Turkish flag.
The tomb has already been moved twice, most recently in the 1970s when the burial site on the Euphrates was flooded after the construction of a dam. The militant group raided Turkey’s consulate in Mosul, Iraq, last June and seized 46 Turks and 3 Iraqis as hostages; they were released three months later on terms that were not disclosed. That crisis discouraged Turkey from joining the United States-led military coalition conducting strikes against the Islamic State, though Turkey has cooperated with the United States in other ways, including an agreement signed on Friday to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels on Turkish soil.
Tension has been mounting around the Suleyman Shah tomb since last year when Islamic State militants took control of the surrounding area and in December released a video threatening to destroy the enclave unless guards lowered the Turkish flag. Turkey has lobbied intensively for international military action in Syria, including no-fly zones and a presence on the ground to strengthen the more moderate Syrian rebel groups who are fighting both the extremists and the Syrian government. Turkey is also concerned about containing the flow of refugees from Syria, more than three million of whom have already been sheltered in Turkey.
In June last year, the Islamic State took 46 Turkish and three Iraqi nationals hostage after a military raid on Turkey’s consulate in Mosul, a crisis that prompted Ankara into joining the United States-led international coalition against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The hostages were released on terms that were not disclosed. The Syrian government issued a statement on Sunday calling the military operation a “flagrant aggression” because Turkey did not wait for permission from Damascus to mount it. The Syrian government said the mission’s success showed that the Islamic extremists were Turkey’s “puppets."
The operation at the tomb came after Turkey signed a deal with the United States on Friday to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels in combat against the Islamic State as well as the Syrian forces over three years. The armored rescue column entered Syrian territory through Kobani, the border town that was recently cleared of extremists by Kurdish forces after a long siege. The Kurds were aided by airstrikes and other support from the American-led coalition.
Turkey’s operation strengthened its position in the region, some analysts said. Mr. Ulgen, the analyst, said the choice of route was a sign of some improvement in relations between the Turkish government in Ankara and the Syrian Kurds, whom the Turks have regarded with deep suspicion. Turkey has opposed Western military assistance to the pesh merga, arguing that they were an extension of outlawed separatist groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., that are fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.
“The Suleyman Shah tomb has been a point of vulnerability for Turkey for a long time, and with this operation, such weakness has been eliminated,” said Sinan Ulgen, the chairman of the Istanbul-based Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies and a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels. “Islamic State could have used the presence of the tomb as leverage in case of any confrontation with Turkey.” “The coordination prior to Saturday’s military operation displays some agreement with the Syrian Kurdish groups,” Mr. Ulgen said. “This cooperation, however, should not be regarded as a game-changer in Ankara’s approach.”
In 2012, at a time when the Syrian conflict had intensified and started to threaten the security along Turkey’s southern borders, Ankara revised its military engagement rules and licensed the army to launch cross-border operations as deemed necessary.
The Turkish Army entered into Syria through Kobani, the Kurdish territory in Syria that had recently been freed of Islamic State militants in an American-led military operation, and corresponded with the Syrian Kurdish authority in the region before beginning the operation.
The cooperation was taken as a sign of some easing of relations with the Syrian Kurdish group, which Ankara considers an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the P.K.K., which it lists as a terror organization fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Turkey has opposed any international military support that the United States-led coalition provided to the Syrian Kurdish group, upon fears that such support could inspire separatist tendencies among Kurds in Turkey.
“The coordination prior to Saturday’s military operation displays some agreement with the Syrian Kurdish groups,” Mr. Ulgen said. “This cooperation, however, should not be regarded as a game-changer in Ankara’s approach towards Syrian Kurds.”