Treasure hunter asks for the help of Armenian journalist in exchange for some of the loot

Armenian journalist Aris Nalci said on Twitter that he has been contacted by a treasure hunter who asked for his help in an illegal expedition to search for buried treasures around the Monastery of Saint Jacob.

Tagging the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism in his tweet to inform them of the situation, Nalci posted an image of the Whatsapp conversation he had with the treasure hunter, a user named "Ugur."

Ugur told Nalci that they saw a tunnel 300 m ahead of the church. He said:

"The tunnels are headed both towards the church and towards another direction, but the ends are blocked. Can you help?"

When Nalci asked which church the man was talking about, he said, "St Jacob's that is us used both as a church and a monastery."

Asked about the city, Ugur said it was located in Siirt, and added:

"If you have any information about it or if you have access to the required machinery, you can join. You have more right to it than we do anyway, so we can split. If we stumble upon anything, I mean."

A local news site in Siirt, +Siirt, said on Saturday that Turkish authorities arrived at the site to investigate after Nalci's tweet.

It said:

"Upon allegations on the social media that treasure hunters are carrying out unlicensed excavations in Siirt, the officials of Siirt Gendarmerie Command, the Culture and Tourism Directorate and Batman Museum conducted investigations around the Monastery of Saint Jacob. The officials did not come across anything in their investigations."