Parliamentary report recommends drones to protect Turkish antiquities

ANKARA

Turkey could make use of drones and archaeologists at border gates to protect its antiquities, according to proposals in a draft report prepared by a special parliamentary committee. 

The report also suggests banning the use of detectors that can be used in illegal archaeological digs, 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 the Turkish authorities to hold international symposiums on antiquities smuggling from Turkey’s Antalya and Gaziantep provinces with partner countries such as China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Greece, Italy, Afghanistan and Peru. 

For the report, the committee investigated antiquities that have been smuggled out of Turkey over the past 130 years. 

A number of valuable antiquities stolen from Turkey are still being exhibited at top European museums. For example, the ancient Altar of Zeus and relics from the city of Pergamon found in the Aegean province of İzmir are currently on show in Berlin. 

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