“I’m on my way to the airport [to fly back to Beirut], interrupting my vacation for a second consecutive time, just like last year,” Inan Ozyildiz, Turkey’s ambassador to Lebanon, told Al-Monitor by telephone, as the news broke that two Turkish Airlines pilots were abducted early in the morning today, Aug. 9, a short distance from the Rafik al-Hariri Airport on their way to their hotel. “It’s an unfortunate incident. Today is the first day of the end of Ramadan for Shiites, and the second day for the Sunnis. We are working on all fronts to help bring the pilots home safe.”
Ozyildiz recalled that Aydin Tufan Tekin, a Turkish businessman, was kidnapped last year on Aug. 15, which was followed two days later by the abduction of another Turkish citizen, Abdulbasit Arslan, a truck driver. Tekin was released on Sept. 11, and Arslan followed a week after.
