Report suggests drones to protect Turkish antiquities

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey could make use of drones and archaeologists at border gates to protect its antiquities, under the proposals in a draft report by a special parliamentary committee.

The report also suggests banning the use of detectors that encourage illegal archaeological digs.

Other proposals include fencing in areas with immovable cultural artefacts, using drones and high-tech video surveillance, staffing border gates with archeologists and art historians to prevent smuggling, and tighter coast guard security in Turkey's territorial waters.

The report also calls on Turkish authorities to hold international symposiums on antiquities smuggling from Turkey's Antalya and Gaziantep provinces with countries such as China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Greece, Italy, Afghanistan, and Peru.

The committee investigated antiquities smuggled out of the country over the last 130 years.

A number of valuable antiquities that were stolen from Turkey are even now being exhibited at European museums.

For example, the ancient Altar of Zeus and relics from the city of Pergamon found in the Aegean province of Izmir are now on exhibit in Berlin, Germany.

A Roman marble plate showing the 12 labors of Hercules was confiscated by Swiss authorities in 2010. It was illegally excavated in the 1960s from the Mediterranean city of Antalya.