Kurdistan calls other Countries to return the Iraq artifacts
Shafaq News/ Iraqi antiquities specialists in the city of Al-Sulaymaniyah welcomed on Friday returning 17,000 artifacts from the United States to Iraq.
In this regard, the Director of the Department of Antiquities of Al-Sulaymaniyah, Kamal Rashid, told Shafaq News Agency, that this “is a great achievement for the Iraqi Antiquities Foundation, and the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, which has always tried to return the Iraqi antiquities that were stolen and looted from Iraq during the American invasion.”
He added, "I hope that this step will be a motive for other countries, that have illegally stolen Iraqi antiquities, to return them to their original homeland."
Earlier today, Al-Kadhimi directed to reopen of the Iraqi Museum in the capital, Baghdad, to people and researchers.
Al-Kadhimi said on Twitter, "with the return of 17,000 Iraqi artifacts…., we directed the reopening of the Iraqi Museum to the public and researchers, to be a new beginning to inspire our ancient civilizational values, and our identity…educating our generations with the sciences, cultures, and achievements of this land.”
A stone inscription bearing a part of the Epic of Gilgamesh and thousands of other priceless, ancient objects were stolen following the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
On Wednesday, the US announced it was returning 17,000 archaeological artifacts to Iraq. The objects, which are around 4,000 years old and from the Sumerian period, were returned on Thursday onboard the flight of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who was in Washington DC for a meeting with US President Joe Biden.
Calling the restitution "unprecedented," Iraqi culture minister Hassan Nazim said it was "the largest return of antiquities to Iraq" and a "result of months of efforts by the Iraqi authorities in conjunction with their embassy in Washington," he said in a press statement. In 2018, the British government had returned ancient objects that were similarly looted after the US invasion and appeared in Britain.
