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After the Governor of Van has been appointed as a trustee to the Metropolitan Municipality of Van, the municipality has cut off its logistic support for the ongoing archaeological excavation works.
Led by Assoc. Prof. Erkan Konyar, the Director of Center for History and Archaeology of Van Region at İstanbul University, the excavation works are conducted with the permission of Ministry of Culture and Tourism in a mound north of Van Castle by 50 researchers from 10 universities.
As reported by daily BirGün, as the Van Metropolitan Municipality is not providing busses for the transportation of archaeologists any longer, they now have to go to the excavation site on foot.
Removed from office by the Ministry of Interior on August 19, dismissed Metropolitan Mayor of Van Bedia Özgökçe Ertan has also denounced the decision of the trustee on her social media account:
Müzenin açıldığı gün hem de. Way be! Ayıptır yahu.
— Av.Bedia Özgökçe Ertan (@bediaozgokce) August 27, 2019
Binlerce yıllık tarihi gün yüzüne çıkarmak için nasıl büyük bir özveri var orda anlamaktan uzaklar.
Bizim ufacık desteğimizin nasıl sevinç yarattığına kendim şahit oldum.
Bu destek de biz yaptık diye suç mu sayılmış yoksa ! https://t.co/cLO5GPIcGg
"And on the day when the museum will be opened... Wow! Shame on you. They are far from understanding how much commitment has been given to unearth the thousand-year history.
"I witnessed it myself how much joy our little support brought to them. Is that support also considered a crime just because we did it!"
Konyar: We might have to close the excavation
Site Director Konyar has also stated the following about the issue:
"The excavation works have been going on for three months. Over the past month, we have drawn up a contract with officials from the Ministry of Culture and Van Metropolitan Municipality and they provided logistic support.
"But, after the trustee has been appointed, this support has been cut off without making any notifications to us. We learnt it on one morning when the vehicle did not come.
"We might have to close the excavation. We go [to the excavation site] by walking as a team. We are excavating the most important center of Urartu. The Ministry of Culture is providing a subsidy of 80 thousand lira in total. And, all these people are working here with this subsidy. For that reason, the support given to us was very important.
'A process of punishment'
"The trustee who has cut off the support of vehicles without notifying us in any way now says that we need to repeat the whole written correspondence. But, this process can take more than a month.
"Moreover, continuity is essential in these works. We will have to suspend the excavation. There is literally a process of punishment. But, what can we say? We will continue excavating by going there on foot."
Excavation works in Van
The excavation works are ongoing in a mound north of Van Castle. The works aim not only to unearth architecture of Urartu period, but also to conduct research into their history, culture and ways of living.
The excavation site in question was one of the biggest residential areas of Urartu civilization. As part of excavation works, a woman skeleton estimated to be 2 thousand 700 years old was found. The skeleton without a skull and in a hocker position (with her legs pulled towards her stomach and lying on her side) has been examined by the researchers of excavation team. (TP/SD)
