Turkey's President, PM differ in defining the rescue of hostages

ANKARA

President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his successor at the prime minister's seat, Ahmet Davutoğlu, come out of a mosque in Ankara after performing their Friday prayers, Aug. 22. AA Photo

Turkey’s top two leaders, the president and the prime minister, differed in describing the release process of 49 hostages with the former calling it “an operation” while the latter stressed “it was a result of contacts.” 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s written statement about the release of the hostages, points at an operation conducted by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). “Our consul in Mosul, his family and Turkish citizens at the consulate who had been abducted have been freed by a successful operation,” Erdoğan said. 

He mentioned about the operation in the statement in five different sentences, making clear that presidential explanation of the release is a pure operation conducted by the MİT. 

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, however, did not use the word operation but said the hostages could be freed as a result of contacts. But he did not detail with whom these contacts were conducted. Officials informed that these contacts were held with local authorities but did not name them.