Turkish military sabotages historic church in Syria’s Afrin: reportSeptember 10, 2019 - 11:44 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Turkish military and its proxies currently controlling the northern Syrian city of Afrin continue to inflict huge damage upon historic and archeological sites in the city, Al-Masdar News reports. Recently, a group of Turkish soldiers along with its backed Syrian militants have destroyed Saint Maron church located in Brad village of the Shirawa district. According to local source, the vandals stole several artifacts which belong to the church. Afrin, a city in northern Aleppo, was seized by the Turkish Army and other rebel groups in March 2018. By then, it was under the control of People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). A Kurdish-language media outlet quoted local sources in Afrin as saying that the Turkish Army has turned the historical site in Jandariseh into a military base for its soldiers. According to the sources, the Turkish military was seen building three-meter-high walls near the base. The move comes after the Turkish Army troops were accused of destroying artifacts in the Afrin region of Aleppo to build a base. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |