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Erdogan: No ransom for release of hostages
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PRESIDENT Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday no ransom had been paid for the release of Turkish hostages held by Islamic State but he declined to be drawn on whether their release freed Turkey’s hand to take a more active stance against the insurgents.
Turkish intelligence agents brought 46 hostages seized by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq back to Turkey on Saturday after more than three months in captivity, in what Erdogan described as a covert rescue operation.
“A material negotiation is totally out of the question ... This is a diplomatic success,” Erdogan said before leaving for the UN General Assembly.
Security sources said the hostages had been released in the town of Tel Abyad on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey after being transferred from the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa, Islamic State’s stronghold. Officials declined to give details of the rescue operation.
The hostages, including Turkey’s consul-general, envoys’ children and special forces soldiers, were seized from the Turkish consulate in Mosul on June 11.
Their capture had left Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance and a key US ally in the Middle East, hamstrung in its response to the Sunni insurgents, who have carved out a self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of eastern Syria and western Iraq, just over the Turkish border.
Addressing the rescued hostages and their families, Erdogan said Turkey’s main hesitation about fully committing to a US-led coalition to tackle Islamic State had been concern about their safety.
“Our main duty was to think about the security of your lives. At the same time it is also our duty to think about Turkey's reputation,” Erdogan said.
“For some coalition demands we could say yes immediately. But we could not say yes (to others) because we had 49 lives and we said that we can't take a step without resolving this.”
Three of the 49 hostages were local people, not Turks.
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