TURKEY: Two Turkish journalists flown to Istanbul two months after they went missing in Syria

Record ID: 860188

  • Title: TURKEY: Two Turkish journalists flown to Istanbul two months after they went missing in Syria
  • Date: 14th May 2012
  • Summary: JOURNALIST OZKOSE KISSING A CHILD JOURNALISTS LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 29th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3JXI9VZ93ROXQGW06GJ7DJXQ8
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  • Story Text: Two Turkish journalists who went missing while reporting on the uprising in Syria two months ago arrived in Istanbul early on Sunday (May 13) after being released with Iran's help.
    Two journalists Hamit Coskun and Adem Ozkose were greeted by their families and supporters upon their arrival to Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.
    "We have witnessed surprising incidents. We were held in separate cells for 53 days. Hamit was in a cell, I was in another cell. We have experienced various surprising incidents. Hopefully, people who are suffering in Syria will be free one day," Ozkose told reporters.
    Ozkose, 34, a reporter with Milat, a small Islamic-leaning startup newspaper, and freelance cameraman Coskun, 21, went missing in early March after sneaking across the border into Idlib, a northwestern province that has been the focus of an offensive by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
    It was not immediately clear who had been holding them, but Syria had expelled foreign journalists in the early days of the uprising, and those who entered later to report the conflict had either crossed borders illegally, while the few that were allowed in by the Syrian authorities were kept under a close watch.
    Turkey has closed its embassy in Damascus and halted flights to and from Syria.
    Assad belongs to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Iran is mostly Shi'ite, while most Turks and Syrians are Sunni Muslims.
    Some 23,000 registered Syrian refugees live in camps in Turkey along its border with Syria, and an estimated 2,000 more are staying with Turkish relatives.
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