Ancient coins from the Abbasid and Fatimid periods and a stone artifact smuggled abroad from Iraq and discovered in Türkiye were returned to Baghdad on Friday.
Gökhan Yazgı, director of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye’s Culture and Tourism Ministry, personally handed the artifacts to Khalel Ibrahim Mahmood, charge d’affaires of Iraq’s Embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara. A ceremony was held for the handover at the Museum of Archaeology in Istanbul where artifacts were shown to the press.
Mahmood said he was honored to attend the ceremony and hailed Türkiye’s efforts to return the artifacts smuggled from Iraq. “This is not the first time. Since 2008, Türkiye returned 81 artifacts seized in the country to our embassy,” he said, reminding that the last such ceremony was held in the southern province of Hatay for the return of artifacts by “our friend” Türkiye. “These artifacts are global and cultural heritage both for Iraq and Türkiye. It is our responsibility to protect them in their home. The Republic of Türkiye is successful in this task. We thank everyone involved in finding those artifacts and ensuring their return,” he said at the ceremony.
Five gold coins returned to Iraq on Friday were found in possession of two suspects in a police operation in Istanbul on a recent date, according to authorities. The stone artifact was in the possession of a collector who bought it in an auction in another country. It was part of a stone statue that originated in Iraq. Yazgı said at the ceremony it contained Sumerian inscriptions and a study by experts at the Istanbul Museum of Archaeology found it belonged to an Iraqi-origin artifact. He said the collector did not know that it was smuggled from Iraq and agreed to return the artifact once informed of its origin.
“We live in a region that hosts ancient civilizations and a wealth of diverse cultural assets. It is our task to preserve this heritage. Every artifact is part of the identity of the countries they originated from. So, Türkiye must return any artifacts illegally taken out of origin country to their country of origin. We pursue meticulous efforts to that extent,” Yazgı said, referring to international conventions in which Türkiye is a party for the return of smuggled artifacts. “We ensured the return of 9,036 artifacts originated from Türkiye since 2002 and we have the same sensitivity while returning artifacts to other countries. Apart from Iraq, we returned artifacts to countries including China, Kazakhstan and Egypt,” he said.
