Turkish MPs to go abroad to probe smuggled artefacts

The parliamentary investigative committee on Turkey's cultural artefacts smuggled out of the country will visit countries holding such items, according to the body's head on Monday.

Speaking with Anadolu Agency, Mustafa İsen said the committee would make an inventory of all smuggled items during the visit.

"We plan to carry out an inventory of the smuggled items during our visit to the countries," İsen, who is also a lawmaker of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party from northwestern Sakarya province, said.

He said Turkish parliamentarians were seriously pursuing the matter.

"We aim to show to the world how seriously Turkey takes this issue…

"We are working to protect our cultural properties and to prevent our artworks from being plundered.

"We aim to show to the public how valuable the items being smuggled out of the country are for us."

The committee will probe items smuggled out of the country over the last 130 years.

There are several objects that were stolen from Turkey and some were now even being exhibited at European museums.

For example, the ancient Altar of Zeus and Pergamon city found near the western province of Izmir is now in Germany, exhibited at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

A Roman marble plate, which depicts 12 labors of Hercules, was confiscated at the Geneva port by Swiss authorities in 2010. It was illegally excavated in the 1960s from the southern Turkish city of Antalya.