Jana News Agency The Libyan Office for documentation and manuscripts has brought home from Turkey 15,000 documents of Ottoman Empire archives spanning Libya`s occupation by Turkey when the North African territory was under Italian colonial rule.
A source from the Libyan general people`s Committee for Tourism, said the handover was in line with the implementation of decisions taken by the Libyan grassroots people`s congresses on the return of manuscripts, parchments, Libyan archaeological documents and works taken away by the Turkish occupiers.
It reveals that the recovery of these documents represents a first step for the repatriation of documents now on exhibition in Turkish museums.
The source added that the Libyan antiques department was presently demanding the retrieval of 5,000 other documents from Turkey.
Earlier on 2 December 1999, Libya had repatriated an archaeological masterpiece dating back to the second century AD that is a statuette of "Venus Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty", despoiled from Libya in 1939 by Italian occupiers.
In addition, Libya repatriated 15 boxes of archaeological works from Italy in line with the Libyan-Italian joint Declaration signed in July 1998. |