Turkey avoids claims of 'hostage' crisis in Iraq
The Turkish government is trying to downplay the ISIS detention of diplomats in Mosul.
Forty-nine Turkish consulate workers in Mosul have been held hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) since it took over the consulate on June 11. Of the hostages, 15 are diplomats, including the Consul General Ozturk Yilmaz, and the remainder are the administrative personnel and members of the special Turkish police security team. The youngest is an 8-month-old baby. Including the 31 truck drivers taken hostage by ISIS on June 13, 80 Turkish citizens are now being held hostage. Some statements by government officials, however, suggest that there may be more hostages.
Despite this anxious situation, Turkish officials have been persistently avoiding to use the words “hostage” and “hostage taking.” Naci Koru, the deputy foreign minister, in a statement to reporters explained why Turkey does not consider the incident as hostage taking: “We don’t think that these 49 people are taken hostage. Nobody told us that they are hostages. If they were hostages, we could sit down and bargain. There is nobody demanding anything in return [for their release].”
Actually, an ISIS statement also gave the impression that Turkish diplomats were being detained temporarily. Journalist Asli Aydintasbas sent a query to the ISIS Twitter account and asked: "When do you plan to release our diplomats?” She quickly received a tweet reply that read: “I think they will be in Istanbul today.” But since that response on June 12, there has been no sign of the hostages being released.
When one looks at the way the consulate was surrounded by ISIS elements and the hostage taking of the Turkish personnel, one cannot but notice the gross contradiction between the reality and the reassuring Twitter reply and the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s reluctance to use the word "hostage."
