Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced today, Sunday, that his country had organized a military operation near Aleppo in Syria in which it moved the tomb of Suleiman Shah (grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire) to Turkey temporarily, and successfully evacuated the soldiers who were guarding him.
Ihsanoglu said, at a press conference at the army headquarters, on Sunday morning, that the Mausoleum of Suleiman Shah was safely and temporarily transferred to Turkey in preparation for his return to Syria, noting that an area in the village of "Ashma" in Syria was placed under the control of the Turkish army and the flag was raised in preparation for the transfer of the remains to it Later.
He emphasized that 38 Turks who were guarding the tomb of Suleiman Shah, located in an area controlled by the Islamic State, had been evacuated in an operation in which a hundred military vehicles, including 39 tanks and 572 soldiers, participated, and took place through the Murshid Pinar border post in the southeast of the country.
He pointed out that this military operation was decided due to the deterioration of the situation around the Turkish enclave, which has an area of a few hundred square meters. He stated that Turkey had not requested permission or assistance in the mission, but had informed allies in the international coalition against ISIS after the start of the operation.
Ihsanoglu expressed his satisfaction with the "good conduct" of the military operation, which was "carrying great risks" and took place in a depth of thirty kilometers inside Syrian territory, despite the death of a soldier in the operation.
Without clashes.
The Turkish Chief of Staff had previously said that the operation did not witness any clashes, but that one of the soldiers fell as a result of an accident that occurred during the first stage of the operation.
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Istanbul, Omar Khashram, stated that the operation started late Saturday evening, to evacuate the soldiers guarding the Suleiman Shah mausoleum in the Manbij district between the provinces of Raqqa and Aleppo in Syria.
The correspondent said that the remains of Suleiman Shah and the bodies of two soldiers who were buried there and all the contents of the shrine were transferred in the process, as the shrine was completely evacuated before its destruction, and the shrine area is Turkish territory according to an international agreement signed in 1920.
The Islamic State had surrounded the shrine several times and threatened to blow it up. There were many but limited clashes with its Turkish guards, and two months ago, its guards were not changed due to the military conditions in the region.
Last year, the organization detained a convoy of Turkish forces while they were heading to the Mausoleum of Suleiman Shah to replace his guards before later being released.
For its part, Turkey threatened the organization and other factions with reprisals if they attacked Turkish soldiers guarding the symbolic and historical site or attacked the shrine.