Iraq: 2 of 18 Kidnapped Turkish Workers Released in Basra
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iraqi militants released on Wednesday two of the 18 Turkish workers they had kidnapped in Baghdad, two weeks after the unknown group took the men hostage in an attempt to pressure Ankara into changing its regional policies.
Two Turkish nationals, Necdet Yilmaz and Ercan Ozpilavci, have been freed and officials continue efforts to secure the safe release of the remaining workers, said a spokeswoman at Nurol Holding, the workers’ employer in Iraq.
The two men were released in Basra, according to Sheik Ahmed al-Sulaiti, a provincial council member in the oil-rich province that lies 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of the Iraqi capital.
The kidnappers dropped the two men off at a hospital construction site that is being built by another Turkish company, Mr. al-Sulaiti said.
The released workers were in good health and would be sent back to Turkey via Baghdad, he added.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Local media confirmed the report, citing spokesman, Tanju Bilgic, who is accompanying Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu on a visit to Azerbaijan.
Iraqi militia raided a stadium construction site on Sept. 2, kidnapping all the Turkish nationals employed by Ankara-based conglomerate Nurol Holding.
While Turkish and Iraqi officials and security forces were investigating the incident, the militants released a video on Sept. 11 of the hostages identifying themselves and pleading for Ankara to meet the group’s conditions.
In an Arabic text aired on the video, the militants made three demands to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: stop the flow of “militants” from Turkey to Iraq; halt the passage of “stolen petroleum” from Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region through Turkey; and, direct Syrian extremists besieging four Shiite towns in Syria to lift the siege and allow in aid. The group also threatened to “crush the interests of Turkey and its agents in Iraq by the most violent means” if Ankara didn’t acquiesce.
The captors were filmed standing in front of a text backdrop that identified them as “the death squads,” a name that isn’t associated with any known group.
Iraqi and Turkish officials haven’t yet identified the kidnappers. Leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and Iraq’s powerful Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, have both called on the unknown group to release the hostages.