UPDATE 1330 GMT: The Syrian Foreign Ministry has denounced the Turkish military intervention to evacuate its soldiers from the Suleyman Shah tomb in Aleppo Province: “Turkey went far beyond providing all forms of support to its tools of the gangs of ISIS [Islamic State], Jabhat al-Nusra, and other al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organizations to carry out a blatant aggression on the Syrian territory.”
The statement said Turkish-Islamic State cooperation was provided by the sparing of the tomb from jihadist attacks, despite the Islamic State’s desecration of other mosques, churches, and tombs.
Turkey has evacuated military personnel protecting the historic Tomb of Süleyman Şhah — regarded as Turkish by international agreements — in Aleppo Province in northwest Syria.
The tomb in Aleppo Province, about 37 km (23 miles) from the Turkish border, has been surrounded for almost a year by the Islamic State.
A Turkish force of almost 40 tanks and 57 armored vehicles has relocated Suleyman Shah’s body at another area just inside Syria.
About 40 soldiers protected the tomb of Suleyman Shah, a 12th century military leader and grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. The artifacts in the mausoleum were also moved, and the symbolic building on the site — — was blown up.
One soldier was killed, reportedly by an accident, during the evacuation.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and military commanders planned the operation on Friday, and it was approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Airborne early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft, military helicopters, drones flew over the incursion by the armored vehicles.
Davutoğlu announced in tweets on Sunday that artifacts were “temporarily” brought to Turkey. He said that the remains of Suleyman Shah were being transferred to another area just inside Syria, and said the operation was “extremely successful.”
The Prime Minister confirmed the soldier’s death during a press conference.
A senior official in the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG, Polat Can, claimed on Friday that Turkish officials were the seeking the YPG’s assistance to rescue the troops guarding the tomb.
Can said that ISIL had been providing water and food to the soldiers, as supplies from Turkey were not delivered since last March.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala had denied the claims of the cut-off, first raised by a journalist, on Thursday.
After the initial move by the Islamic State in the area last March, Davutoğlu and military and intelligence commanders discussed an operation to send in forces to bolster the presence at the tomb, and considered whether this could be a basis for wider Turkish intervention in the four-year Syrian conflict. The conversation was leaked, and the operation was never pursued.
