Father to go after journalist son lost in Syria

ISTANBUL

Journalist Adem Özköse went missing in Syria on March 10 along with his colleague Hamit Coşkun.

The father of a Turkish journalist who has been missing in Syria for 55 days has said he will go to Syria himself to bring the two currently missing journalists back to Turkey, according to daily Yenişafak.

Turkish journalists Hamit Coşkun and Adem Özköse have not been heard from since March 10, when they were preparing to shoot a documentary in northern Syria.

Mustafa Özköse, father of Adem Özköse, said the efforts of the Turkish government and nongovernmental organizations to bring the journalists home had not yet been able to succeed, so he decided to take action independently. He said he had waited until now thinking that this was a “test” for them, but he had “lost the strength to hold on any longer,” Yenişafak reported on May 3. The father said he would personally ask the Syrian authorities to release the two journalists, and that he hoped they were fathers too and could understand his pain. “I hope they will act with parental love,” he said.