- Title: TURKEY/SYRIA: Captured Turkish journalist appears on Syrian TV
- Date: 27th August 2012
- Summary: CUNEYT AND NURAN UNAL'S WEDDING PHOTO
- Embargoed: 11th September 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Turkey, Syrian Arab Republic
- City:
- Country: Turkey Syrian Arab Republic
- Topics: Conflict
- Reuters ID: LVA5GM4T147QG3GO7DF8UQDSJ79G
- Story Text: The wife of a Turkish cameraman who went missing while reporting from Syria said on Monday (August 27) that she was reassured by an interview aired by a pro-government Syrian television channel.
Cuneyt Unal appeared on al-Ikhbariya and said he had been seized by Syrian soldiers in the northern city of Aleppo.
"The name of the group that I was with in Aleppo is Tawhid Liva. All the people with me had weapons in their hands. In the armed group there are Chechen, Libyan, Qatari and Saudi armed groups. Later, together with them, they had a gunfight on Maidan street with Syrian soldiers and gendarmes (paramilitary forces) and they seized me and brought me here away from this armed group," Unal said in the video, which was broadcast by Turkish media on Monday.
Unal's wife Nuran said the interview came as a huge relief.
"Now I know that he is alive. After watching the footage aired last night, I saw him with my own eyes and heard his voice now I know that he is alive," Nuran Unal told Reuters in the couple's Istanbul flat.
Unal, a journalist of 17 years who currently works for the U.S.-funded al-Hurra television channel, seemed to be in good health but appeared exhausted and nervous, with dark marks under both eyes which looked like bruising.
"In the video footage he was not as heavily beaten as I was expected but he is psychologically down. He was in a bad situation actually," Nuran Unal added.
Unal's capture and the killings of at least 17 journalists in Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011 underscores the hostile environment in which reporters operate to cover the Syrian conflict.
"Journalists only have a camera and a microphone. They are defenceless. My husband is defenceless there. He just went to do his job and earn some money," said Nuran Unal.
Unal's wife said she expected him to return home safely but feared his release would take some time. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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