Turkish hostages freed, but questions linger
Dozens of Turkish hostages seized by the Islamic State in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul are back in Turkey. They included diplomats, soldiers, Turkish consulate employees and even children, released after being held for three months. (Reuters)
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish authorities say they have freed 49 hostages from one of the world’s most ruthless militant groups without firing a shot, paying a ransom or offering a quid pro quo.
But as the well-dressed men and women captured by the Islamic State group more than three months ago clasped their families Saturday on the tarmac of the Turkish capital’s airport, experts had serious doubts about the government’s story.
The official explanation “sounds a bit too good to be true,” said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who chairs the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies. “There are some very legitimate and unanswered questions about how this happened.”
The hostages — whose number included two small children — were seized from the Turkish Consulate in Mosul after the Islamic State group overran the Iraqi city on June 11. Turkish leaders gave only the broadest outlines of their rescue Saturday.
FILE - Turkey’s new Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announces his cabinet ministers in Ankara, Turkey, in this Aug. 29, 2014 file photo. Davutoglu says 49 Turkish hostages held by Islamic militants have been freed. Davutoglu said the group was released early on Saturday Sept. 20, 2014 and had arrived in Turkey. (Burhan Ozbilici, File/Associated Press)
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the release was the work of the country’s intelligence agency rather than a special forces operation.
“After intense efforts that lasted days and weeks, in the early hours our citizens were handed over to us and we brought them back,” Davutoglu said.
Davutoglu was the star of the homecoming ceremony Saturday, flying the hostages back to Ankara on his plane and delivering an impassioned address to the crowd. Families rushed the aircraft to greet their returning loved ones. The ex-hostages emerged wearing clean dresses and suits and showed little sign of having been held captive by fanatical militants for more than three months.
The hostages’ joyous reunion at the airport came as an enormous relief after the recent beheadings of other hostages — two U.S. journalists and a British aid worker — by the Islamic State group. The gruesome deaths briefly reignited a debate over whether the U.S. or British government should pay ransoms to free hostages.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported no ransom had been paid and “no conditions were accepted in return for their release,” although it didn’t cite any source for its reporting.
The agency said the hostages had been held at eight separate addresses in Mosul and their whereabouts were monitored by drones and other means.
The Iraqi government said it had no information about the rescue.
The hostages declined to answer all but the most general questions, although a couple hinted at ill treatment or death threats.
Ex-hostage Alptekin Esirgun told Anadolou that militants held a gun to Consul General Ozturk Yilmaz’s head and tried to force him to make a statement.
Another former hostage, Alparslan Yel, said the Islamic militants “treated us a little better because we are Muslims. But we weren’t that comfortable. There was a war going on.”
Yilmaz thanked Turkish officials but gave no details about the captivity or release.
“I haven’t seen my family for 102 days. All I want to do is to go home with them,” he told journalists.
How the hostages traveled from Mosul to Turkey and why the Islamic State would relinquish such a useful bargaining chip remained unclear.
“I think it’s fair to say that we haven’t been told the full story,” said Aaron Stein, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute who has studied Turkey’s security policy.
It’s also unclear whether the release will change Turkey’s policy toward the Islamic State. It had been reluctant to join a coalition to defeat the militant group, citing the safety of its 49 kidnapped citizens.
But even with the hostages’ release Stein said he doubted that Turkey would suddenly adopt a much more muscular attitude toward the militants.
“There will some changes, but not as much as people hope,” he said.
In Washington, one U.S. official said Saturday that while the Obama administration was pleased with Turkey’s contributions so far, it hoped that the change in circumstances of the hostages would allow Turkey to take on a more robust role. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about diplomatic matters.
The successful operation was likely to prove a boon to Turkey’s government. Davutoglu, flanked by Yilmaz and others, made sure to highlight Turkey’s success and blast the political opposition. He also thanked the “nameless heroes” involved in the release.
___
Satter reported from Istanbul. Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Matt Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
