Damascus-SANA
The Israeli aggression against the city of Damascus and its surroundings affected its ancient castle at dawn today, causing the injury of one of the guards on duty, in addition to severe material damage to the buildings and administrative offices in the castle, and great destruction in the Technical Institute for Applied Arts and the Technical Institute for Archeology, and another targeting resulted in damage to the cultural center Arab in Kafarsouseh.
The Minister of Culture, Dr. Lubana Mashouh, confirmed to SANA reporter that the targeted places are educational and cultural institutions, and said: “The aggression is unquestionable evidence of the criminality of this racist entity that targets people in their thoughts, values, civilization, and identity.”
The Minister of Culture referred to the great symbolism that the Citadel of Damascus holds for the Syrians, their national history, and the lovers of Syria in the world.
She addressed UNESCO and international organizations concerned with cultural and heritage affairs and the human conscience to warn of these crimes against people in Syria, calling for mobilizing global and Western public opinion and drawing attention to this crime against human cultural property through these international organizations to change their positions.
For his part, Director General of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums, Nazir Awad, explained that the damage affected the administrative offices of the Damascus Citadel and led to great destruction in the Institute of Applied Arts and the Intermediate Institute of Archeology, saying: “All of them are institutions and educational buildings in the Damascus Citadel, which is an archaeological site with distinction and a cultural, developmental and social space that has no Any military character at all,” indicating that the directorate’s technical teams are now conducting a preliminary survey to assess the damage.
Awad indicated that the destruction affected historical buildings, including the Intermediate Institute of Applied Arts, which is an institute that qualifies and teaches male and female students and supports them with various specializations that are supervised by the Ministry of Culture. The explosion caused damage to a number of computers and modern imaging and training equipment.
Awad said: “What we see in the rubble are administrative offices for a pioneering national project in the Citadel of Damascus, on which the government spends hundreds of billions. Its aim is to maintain the castle, restore it and turn it into a place for visits, and the aggression that targeted it is the destruction of these offices and the digital and paper archive of this project, which also contains dozens of mechanical and mechanical studies Restoration of this archaeological site and other devices were preserved.
For her part, the director of the Arab Cultural Center in Kafr Soussa, Eliza Kassa, indicated that the damage to the center was limited to material and stressed that targeting cultural and archaeological sites has an impact on the entire country's civilization.
Amani Farooj
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