Operation launched after ISIL broke promise: FM

NEW YORK

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu speak to reporters in New York on Sept 20. AA photo

Forty-nine Turkish captives freed from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Sept. 20 might have been released sooner, but the jihadist group failed to “keep promises,” according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

Earlier contacts with ISIL through mediators had not resulted in the freedom of the hostages as the promises given were not kept, said Çavuşoğlu, who is in New York to attend U.N. General Assembly meetings.

“The last date they gave was Sept. 20. And this promise was therefore kept,” he told reporters in New York.

“I hope we will never face such a test in the future. I think our state was very successful in passing this test,” he said.

The minister said the hostages, who were taken June 11 at the country’s Consulate General in Mosul, were freed thanks to the meticulous and patient work of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), the Chief of General Staff and the Foreign Ministry.