Hostage Soldiers Are Alive

Photos of 8 Turkish soldiers who have been kidnapped by the Kurdish guerrilla PKK fter the bloody attack on Sunday have been published on website of the Firat News Agency. The soldiers look healthy in the pictures. The identities of all eight soldiers are clear. Apart from two sergeants, they are all infantry privates, who have survived the PKK attack causing the death of 12 infantry soldiers and arousing country wide anger. 

The Turkish Army General Staff had announced that "contact was lost" with eight soldiers from the unit.

Families are waiting 

In a phone interview with bianet the elder brother of missing sergeant Halis Cagan from Adana yesterday, said: "There is nothing to say, we are waiting."

According to the daily Evrensel newspaper, the mother of Özhan Sabanoglu, an ethnic Arab from south city of Hatay expressed her pain in Arabic: "Let my son go, we are brothers. We are not anyone's enemies. Please spare my child, do not let mothers cry."

Her husband added that there had been two months left of Sabanoglu's military service. He said:"They told us 'your child has been taken hostage'. We were desolate. We do not have problems with Kurds, we want them to let our child go. We have never harmed the Kurdish people."

According to the daily Milliyet, the father suffered a heart attack after talking on a live broadcast on Roj TV by telephone. Roj TV is the Kurdish satellite channel broadcast from Denmark whose closure Turkey has frequently requested.

Parents went to Hakkari 

Milliyet also said that the parents of sergeant Mehmet Senkul have gone to Hakkari in the hope of finding their son.

The same news item described how the mother of private Ramazan Yüce sang Kurdish laments and said: "The only thing I want is for my son to be found. I want peace. It's enough, let the blood stop flowing."

The brother of private Fatih Atakul from Denizli has said that the family had not been told anything about his brother's situation.

The father of private Ilhami Demir from Agri said: "Those who watch Roj TV told us the news. They say he is well." (TK/AG)