TURKEY: Three German tourists kidnapped over a week ago in Turkey are released and "doing well"

Record ID: 518860

  • Title: TURKEY: Three German tourists kidnapped over a week ago in Turkey are released and "doing well"
  • Date: 20th July 2008
  • Summary: (W3)DOGUBEYAZIT, TURKEY (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AGRI MOUNTAIN SOLDIERS PATROLLING AT CHECKPOINTS
  • Embargoed: 4th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA14B2PSREUVW1LUYI591MQQ41C
  • Story Text: Turkish authorities say kidnapped German tourists have been released by PKK separatist militants and are now in the custody of Turkish government prior to being handed over to German police. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says the released hostages are doing well considering they have been in captivity for 12 days.
    Three German tourists kidnapped by Kurdish separatist guerrillas on a climbing expedition in eastern Turkey this month are safe with the Turkish government, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Sunday (July 20).
    Mehmet Cetin, the governor of Agri, where the moutaineers were kidnapped, said their captors had released them after "figuring out that the circle was closing and that they could not reach their goals."
    The mountaineers, who are undergoing health checks, will be handed over to German police after questioning by Turkish military officials, said the governor of Agri Province, near the border with Iran, where the moutaineers had been kidnapped.
    Police forces had taken the mountaineers from a hilltop where they had been left by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
    A senior military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the mountaineers were being held in a military base in Agri and were in good condition.
    The three mountaineers had established a camp on Mount Ararat in Agri province as part of a 13-member climbing team earlier this month when they were seized by PKK rebels.
    The PKK said they took the Germans hostage as a move against what they called the Berlin's recent hostile actions against the Kurdish separatists.
    Last month Germany banned Kurdish television station Roj TV, which Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble described as being a mouthpiece for the PKK, and Berlin extradited two PKK militants to Turkey last year.
    Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin on Sunday (July 20) that three German citizens who were kidnapped in the east of Turkey over a week ago had been freed and were doing well.

    "With great relief I can now tell you that the three German citizens who were kidnapped in Eastern Turkey 12 days ago are now free. They are now in the care of the of the Turkish and German authorities. They are doing well considering the circumstances and are being looked after intensively by the employees of our embassy in Ankara. We are of course extremely happy along with freed and their relatives," the foreign minister said in front of the German Foreign Ministry building in Berlin.
    Steinmeier emphasized that along with the success of this operation, he was dedicated to seeing all other hostages freed around the world.

    "We are celebrating at this time along with the three German citizens who are now free. However, we will continue intensively in our efforts regarding other kidnappings which have not yet been solved, so that they can also come home freely and unscathed to their families."
    Kidnapping tourists is a rare tactic for the outlawed separatist PKK whose activities are mainly focused on attacking military targets in southeast Turkey with the aim of carving out an ethnic homeland in the mostly Kurdish region.
    Ankara considers the PKK a terrorist organisation, as does the European Union and the United States.
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