Journalists Özköse and Coşkun Missing

Journalist Adem Özköse, Middle-East representative of the Gerçek Hayat ('Real Life') Magazine, and cameraman Hamit Coşkun have been missing for five days after they went to Syria in order to shoot a documentary.

Both journalists crossed the border to Syria from the Turkish city of Hatay and went to İdlib on the Syrian side one week ago. They have not been in touch with anybody for five days now. Their relatives and colleagues gathered in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara on Wednesday (14 March) in order to obtain information about their whereabouts.

"We cannot find anybody to talk to in the war zone"

According to CNN Türk, friends and colleagues of Özköse and Çoşkun later on protested the disappearance of the two journalists in front of the Syrian representative offices in Ankara and Istanbul.

About 30 people gathered in front of the Syrian Consulate in Nişantaşı/Istanbul. Abdurrahim Boynukalın announced on behalf of the group: "We have not heard anything from our friends for four days. It is a war zone and we were not able to find anybody to talk to. We want the Assad tyranny in Syria to end immediately. We will continue our actions until we will have found our friends".

Minister Davutoğlu: Taking every effort

As reported by the Hürriyet newspaper, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu declared to take any effort for the safe return of the journalists who disappeared in Syria.

He said that they were in touch with the Syrian government and related parties and that they were going to continue their efforts.

"Of course, the issue to respect in this sort of situation is the safety of journalists and press members. Members of the press who are working under extraordinary conditions might encounter certain risks. But regardless of where they are doing their job, the safety of press members has to be guaranteed", Davutoğlu emphasized.

"We recently experienced deplorable losses of international press members in Syria. This indicates the serious point the situation in Syria has reached. We will take any efforts for the safe return of our press members. We hope that they will return to our country safe and sound". (EKN/VK)