Rescued Turkish hostages arrive in Ankara

Click here to see the arrival of rescued hostages

ANKARA

The rescued Turkish hostages have arrived in Turkey’s capital in Ankara, accompanied by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

The hostages, who were held captive by ISIL for more than three months, were greeted by their families and well-wishers who had been waiting at Esenboga Airport since early Saturday morning.

Davutoglu's official plane landed at around 11.30 Turkish time (09.30 GMT).

The prime minister had earlier met the 49 former captives at the Sanliurfa GAP airport in south-eastern Turkey following their arrival from Mosul.

Click here to see photos from the arrival of hostages

Deptuy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and Justice and Development Party Vice-Chairman Yasin Aktay were also present at Esenboga.

Amid heavy security due to the large crowds, the hostages’ families were expecting to meet their loved ones in the airport’s VIP section.

Click here to see the meeting of rescued hostages with their families

Turkish president to meet rescued hostages Sunday

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet the 46 rescued Turkish hostages on Sunday at Cankaya Palace, according to a presidential office source.

The 11.30 local time (09.30 GMT) meeting in Ankara comes after the consulate staff and their families were safely rescued and returned to Turkey early on Saturday.

The source said Erdogan had followed the negotiations to free the captives in detail and had spoken to Consul General Ozturk Yilmaz and his wife Ozay by telephone following their arrival in Turkey.

PM Davutoglu meets rescued Turkish hostages

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday met with 49 Turkish consulate hostages who were rescued early Saturday after being seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in June. 

The meeting was held at GAP Airport in Turkey’s southeastern province of Sanliurfa.

Davutoglu and the rescued hostages have boarded a flight to the capital, Ankara, where he is expected to hold a press conference.

Sanliurfa Governor Izzettin Kucuk visited the Turkish hostages, who were in a public building in Sanlıurfa, and told press that they were in good health. “When our prime minister come to the airport, you will see all of them there,” Kucuk added. 

Turkish PM Davutoglu cut short his Azerbaijan visit to meet the hostages in Sanliurfa. 

49 hostages - diplomats, consular officials and their families - were kidnapped from the Mosul consulate on June 11, a day after ISIL took control of Iraq's second-largest city.
 

Turkey’s PM calls for celebration of hostage rescue

The Turkish prime minister addressed crowds of well-wishers gathering to welcome the Turkish hostages, telling them: “This is the time to celebrate. This is the time to thank Allah.”

Speaking from an open-top bus at Ankara’s Esenboga airport on Saturday, Ahmet Davutoglu told the jubilant throng that Turks had “deeply felt the pain of a separation and the fear of what will happen next.”

He added: "We have been thinking of them day and night for three months. They were in our imaginations. They never faded away from our eyes. We always thought about them. We slept and woke up with them in our imaginations.

“When we loved our children… we thought about them. When we loved our grandchildren, we thought about Deniz and Ela, the youngest children among the hostages. We prayed for them altogether.”

Addressing the international community, he highlighted Turkey’s role in taking in refugees from Syria and Iraq, regardless of religion or race.

He said: “As a powerful state we have brought our brothers here. However, the ones who cannot go back to their homeland and their homes… about one and a half million Syrian refugee brothers… the Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, Ezidis, Christians, all our friends and brothers, who will look after them? This is the time to take care of them. This is the time to look after those orphans.”

Davutoglu was speaking after he had personally greeted the 46 hostages when they arrived on Turkish soil following their rescue on Saturday.

He added: “No matter who comes to us, to the Anatolian territories for refuge, we do not ask who are you, what is your religion, what is your sect or what is your ethnic background? We say ‘Come, these Anatolian territories are a motherly lap and a motherly heart.’

“Because we come from a philosophy of ‘Let humans live so that the state lives.’”

Davutoglu called on politicians and journalists who tried to exploit the hostage situation to share in celebrating their freedom.

"I call on those provocateurs, I know people who tried to force us to make statements risking the lives of our brothers, I call on them: Come and share this joy today, give up speculations now. For once feel what this nation feels, sadden with this nation, cry with this nation, be happy with this nation.”
 

Turkish Deputy PM welcomes release of Iraq hostages

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc has welcomed the rescue of 49 Turkish hostages held by ISIL for more than three months in north of Iraq.

He cancelled his routine program to return to Ankara immediately.

Arinc said: “We have been following the latest developments moment to moment. Fortunately, the Turkish National Intelligence Service brought the Turkish hostages to the country in a successful operation. I'm sure that 76 million Turkish people are feeling happy.”

He added that government officials had been in contact with the hostages’ relatives throughout the process.

The hostages, including consular officials and their families, were kidnapped from the Mosul Consulate on June 11, a day after ISIL took control of Iraq's second-largest city.

Turkish foreign minister hails hostage release

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu interrupted his visit to the United Nations in New York to welcome the news of the Turkish hostages’ rescue.

Praising the "meticulously and patiently" conducted negotiations to free the 49 consular staff and their families from ISIL captivity, Cavusoglu added: "Our state was very successful throughout the process, as it was a very sensitive issue."

Cavusoglu said the hostages' families had been kept informed during every step of the talks to rescue the hostages following their capture by militants in Mosul on June 11.
 

Turkey's opposition leader praises freeing of hostages

The leader of Turkey's main opposition party has welcomed the repatriation of 46 Turkish nationals held captive by ISIL for more than three months.

In a statement on Saturday, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads the Republican People's Party, said he was “very pleased” the hostages had been safely freed.

He added: "I say to my brothers 'Welcome to freedom and your homeland'."

Kilicdaroglu telephoned Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to congratulate all those involved in the operation to secure the hostages’ freedom.

The hostages were rescued on Saturday following 101 days in ISIL captivity in north of Iraq.

Turkey's nationalist party welcomes rescue of hostages

Turkey's opposition Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahceli has welcomed the rescue of 49 consulate staff who had been held for more than three months in northern Iraq by the militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Bahceli said the Turkish nationals were unjustly, immorally and illegitimately held captive by militants.

The terrorist group, known by the initials ISIL, seized 49 consulate staff, including the consul-general and family members, in the Iraqi city of Mosul in June. The hostages were rescued by Turkish intelligence agents on early Saturday.

German FM and media respond to Turkish hostage rescue

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has welcomed the rescue of the Turkish hostages in Mosul.

Speaking on Saturday, he said: "For three long months they were held by terrorists and were permanently afraid for their lives."

Around Europe, the media reacted to the rescue of the 46 hostages from the hands of ISIL.

In the U.K. the BBC commented on the "huge relief" felt in Turkey at the return of the captives.

Sky News TV said they were released in a "secretly conducted operation throughout the night." The story was also covered by national dailies the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror.

In Germany, Bild noted that the hostage situation had prevented Turkey from joining an international coalition against ISIL.

Spiegel Online quoted Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying the hostages were rescued following months of hard work while Die Welt also carried an article.

The Austrian Press Agency carried the headline 'Turkish hostages have been freed' while the Kurier, Der Standard and Die Presse newspapers focussed on the Turkish intelligence service's rescue operation.

In Switzerland, news agency SDA reported on the rescue while the Italian media also carried numerous articles. News wire service ANSA detailed how the hostages "including diplomats, soldiers and babies" were saved by intelligence officers.

AGI, another major news agency quoted Davutoglu and Adnkronos news agency also reported the story. RaiNews24 TV station broadcast the rescue early in the morning as breaking news and the Vatican Radio welcomed the rescue as a positive development.

The consular officials and their families were kidnapped by militants on June 11, a day after taking control of Mosul.

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