Turkish FM: Those who kidnapped our citizens in Mosul will pay heavy price

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with the freed hostages in Ankara after their release. AA Photo

Those who kidnapped the personnel of Turkey’s Mosul Consulate will "pay for what they did," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has vowed, stressing that Turkey has the "will and the power" to stand against those who attack it.

“Those who did this to you will pay a heavy price. The Republic of Turkey has the will and power to stand against the dirty and treacherous hands that attack it,” Çavuşoğlu said in a meeting with the freed personnel of the Turkish Mosul Consulate on Oct. 2.

Turkey’s Mosul Consul General Öztürk Yılmaz and 48 staff were taken hostages by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in June and were freed after 101 days of captivity.  

Çavuşoğlu, who was in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly meetings, was absent on the day the hostages were released. “I want to welcome you home on behalf of myself, my spouse, my country and my people,” he said.

“I was appointed as the minister on your 78th day of captivity. But the real day I was given this seat by our prime minister was the day you safely returned home,” he added.