Vladimir Putin sends greetings to Russian concert held in the ruins of Palmyra

Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered an address broadcast from Russia at the start of the Russian concert held amidst the ruins of Palmyra that has been liberated from the ISIS militants. It was a Russian classical music concert and the venue was the ruins of Palmyra which was the scene of mass executions staged by Islamic State militants less than a year ago.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 5 May 2016.

The concert was conducted by Valery Gergiev led Saint Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in the performance of pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev and Rodion Shchedrin. In the audience were Russian soldiers, government ministers and foreign journalists brought in by the Kremlin. In his address, Russian President Vladimir Putin said - 'Thank you for today's amazing humanitarian act - the concert in a Palmyra liberated from terrorists'.
In the course of the concert, the cellist Sergei Roldugin played a solo against the backdrop of Palmyra's Roman amphitheatre. Sergei Roldugin is a friend of the Russian President and was recently linked in the scandal over the leaked Panama Papers. He is the head of an offshore empire that controls some $2bn and has been fiercely defended by Mr Putin.
Incidentally, the Palmyra concert was not the first one conducted by Mr Gergiev - he has conducted similar programs in the areas where the Russian military has carried out military operations. For example - in 2008, he conducted a concert in Tskhinvali, the main city in the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia that was heavily damaged in the Russian-Georgian war that year.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Another ancient Syrian monument bites the dust – ISIS destroys Temple of Bel in Palmyra

#ISIS #Palmyra #Syria #templeofbel ISIS continues in its rampage and has now severely damaged yet another ancient monument namely the Temple of Bel in the Syrian city of Palmyra. This monument is believed to be nearly 2,000-years old. This has been revealed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that monitors the conflict, citing contacts on the ground.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dared 31 August 2015.

ISIS had dynamited the temple of Baal Shamin last week and there were apprehensions that the Temple of Bel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, would be their next target.
Baal Shamin was dedicated to the Phoenician god of storms and fertilizing rains and the UN has labelled its destruction as a war crime. The ISIS have also destroyed the treasured Lion of al-Lat – the 15-tonne, 3.5m-high piece made out of limestone early in the 1st Century AD.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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ISIS on a destruction spree of ancient monuments, shoots children dead near Palmyra

#ISIS #Palmyra #Syria #UNESCO #WorldHeritage The ISIS is determined to destroy all ancient monuments in Iraq, Syria and other locations, monuments that had been standing there for centuries as symbols of a glorious past and not content with killing ordinary citizens, the militant outfit is filming videos of what they are destroying and how. They have already been filmed destroying artefacts in the Iraqi cities of Nimrud and Hatra.
In the latest spate of violence, Islamic State fighters have shot dead 23 civilians near the city of Palmyra – nine of them were children. This has been reported by Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The dead were family members of government employees.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 15 May 2015.

The jihadi fighters have their eyes focused on Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site. The city, nicknamed "the pearl of the desert", is home to millennia-old tombs, colonnades and Roman temples. In the opinion of Irina Bokova, the head of UNESCO, it would be a shame to destroy these treasures. She has called on Syrian troops and extremists to spare Palmyra because it "represents an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people, and the world".
In the latest offensive, more than 138 combatants - 73 soldiers and 65 jihadists - have been killed. Before that, there were reports of at least 26 civilians being killed by IS. Ten of them were beheaded for collaborating with the Syrian regime.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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