Turkey evacuates tomb, troops in Syria incursion

ALMOST 600 Turkish troops staged a daring incursion overnight Sunday deep into Syria, evacuating Turkish soldiers guarding a historic tomb who had been stranded in territory controlled by Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the mission had succeeded, with the soldiers returning safely home and also bringing back the tomb containing the remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman empire’s founder, Osman I.

He also made the surprise announcement that the Turkish troops had seized control of a new area inside Syria close to the Turkish border where the tomb will be relocated within days.

Turkish television showed pictures of troops planting the Turkish flag at the new location in the nighttime operation.

There were reportedly 40 Turkish soldiers guarding the mausoleum complex of Suleyman Shah on the Euphrates River, which under a 1920s treaty is considered sovereign Turkish territory and carries huge symbolic importance to Turks as a link to their pre-Ottoman past.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated the armed forces on the operation — codenamed Shah Firat (Shah Euphrates) — and confirmed that the tomb would be relocated in the Syrian district of Eshme, just 200 metres (650 feet) from the Turkish border.

“Our flag will continue to wave in a new place to keep alive the memory of our ancestors,” he said.

Eshme is close to the town of Kobane, which is now controlled by Kurdish fighters after a long battle with IS.

A soldier was killed in an accident during the operation to relieve the guards at the tomb, which according to state media is some 37 kilometres (23 miles) inside Syrian territory, the Turkish army said in a separate statement.

It said the soldier lost his life in the “initial stage” of the operation but emphasised there were no clashes during the mission.

The army said the decision to evacuate the guards and relocate the tomb was taken because of the worsening security situation in the area, part of Syria’s Aleppo province that is under the control of IS jihadists who have captured swathes of Iraq and Syria.

Turkish authorities denied press reports last week suggesting that IS may have kidnapped one of the guards.

Davutoglu said the operation had posed “considerable potential risks” but in the end Turkey had left nothing behind.

“It was a highly successful operation to the last degree,” he said.

He said that 572 Turkish soldiers using 39 tanks, 57 armoured vehicles and 100 other military vehicles took part in the operation.

Davutoglu said that the remains of Suleyman Shah, who is said to have died in 1236, would be reburied in Turkey at a religious ceremony in the next hours.

However he added that within days Turkey planned to bury the remains once again inside Syria in Eshme district.

“The remains of (Suleyman Shah) have been temporarily repatriated and will be reburied inside Syria at a later date,” he added.

There was no indication of the size of the new pocket of territory under the Turks’ control.

The tomb of Suleyman Shah is considered Turkish territory under the 1921 Treaty of Ankara between the Turkish authorities and France, which then controlled French-mandated Syria.

The figure of Suleyman Shah helps Turks link the Ottoman dynasty, which according to tradition was founded by Osman in 1299, with the early Turkic tribes who swept through Anatolia from Asia.

Davutoglu and Erdogan said the transfer of the tomb to a new location inside Syria was fully within international law as it did not violate the 1921 treaty.

This is not the first time the tomb has been relocated — it was moved in the 1970s when its then location — also on the Euphrates — was flooded by the Syrian authorities to construct the Tabqa Dam that forms Lake Assad.

The tomb had for years been guarded largely by conscripts but in March 2014 Turkey reportedly sent several dozen special forces to guard it.

Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used to be close allies but fell out when Damascus began suppressing an uprising in 2011. Ankara now believes ousting the Syrian president is a key condition for ending Syria’s civil war.

The operation to relieve the soldiers guarding the tomb took place as Turkey comes under pressure from its Western allies to play a greater role in the fight against IS jihadists.

The United States and Turkey on Thursday signed a deal to train and equip thousands of moderate Syrian rebel forces opposing Assad after several weeks of talks.