ISTANBUL (Marmara)–During excavations in the Van region of historic Armenia recently–the remnants of a Urartian temple were discovered.
Turkish historian Altan Tchilingroghlu–under whose auspices the expedition took place–explained that upon the restoration of most of the temple–the last 50 years of the Urartian Kingdom can be better explored.
According to the Turkish intellectual–the resources provided for the expedition were scarce–and therefore the timeline of the discovery was expanded.
The Turkish government has for years been involved in a campaign of representing the Urartian Kingdom as part of its own history–and it has continuously attempted to undermine academically accepted facts of the Urartian Kingdom as being one of the oldest Armenian kingdoms.