‘I will never go back to Iraq,’ freed hostage says

Sevil Erkuş - ANKARA

Forty-nine Turkish citizens, including thee consul general in Mosul and several members of the Turkish special forces, were taken hostage by ISIL and transferred to an undisclosed place on June 11

Iraq will not be on the list of destinations for one of the hostages freed from the clutches of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) following 101 days in captivity at the hands of the jihadists.
 
“I was working for the consulate for eight years. Now I am retired. I’ll never go back to Iraq,” Fatma Köksal, who had worked as a cook, told the Hürriyet Daily News.
 
The last place the hostages stayed before being freed was an evacuated house belonging to a Christian in Iraq, she said.
 
“We have changed places at least eight or nine times. We were at an emptied Christian’s house. Last night [Sept. 19] they took us to Syria,” she said.
 
“They did not treat us badly. We were never afraid. They treated us as their guests,” she said. Her happiness after 101 days of abduction could be well read in her face. 
 
Elaborating on the day they were taken hostage in Mosul Consulate, Köksal said they were not informed about anything when a group of men seized the consulate and abducted the personnel. “They said they wouldn’t hurt us,” Köksal said.

Hugging her family, Köksal was very happy of being back. “I was working for the consulate for eight years. Now I am retired. I’ll never go back to Iraq,” she said.