Turkey's Chief of Staff Özel visits new Süleyman Shah Tomb, relocated after ISIS threat
|Photo: DHA


Turkey's most senior military commander visited the temporary Tomb of Süleyman Shah and Saygı Military Outpost in the Syrian village of Ashme on Thursday. The tomb was relocated from a Turkish exclave in Syria following the threat of attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).Chief of General Staff, General Necdet Özel, was accompanied by Turkish land forces commander General Hulusi Akar and commander of the Air Force General Ali Özturk, during his visit.The visit came just over a month after hundreds of Turkish soldiers staged an unprecedented incursion inside Syrian territory to relocate the tomb.The complex, which is considered sovereign Turkish territory, had been located some 37 kilometers inside Syrian territory.But the government ordered the tomb, which has a permanent honor guard of Turkish troops, to be moved due to security fears, as it was located in territory controlled by ISIS.The army said that Özel inspected the new location of the tomb and talked to Turkish and Syrian residents in the area.Turkey has already reburied the remains of Süleyman Shah on the site and hastily constructed the new mausoleum.