Release Of Hostages Brings Back Blame Game On Failure To Give Evacuation Order

While government officials are torn between shifting the responsibility of failure to evacuate Turkey's Mosul Consulate General on Consul General Öztürk Yılmaz or congratulating him as a hero, the opposition says the responsibility is ultimately on then-Foreign Minister and present Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan has said Turkey's Mosul Consul General Öztürk Yılmaz is responsible for not evacuating the consulate building when Mosul was seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants only one day before they seized the consulate.

Akdoğan said the decision on evacuation was left to the consul general, according to a report by Vatan daily.

“He was advised (by Ankara) to evacuate the consulate, but he is the one who knew the conditions there," said Akdoğan. He also expressed the opinion that if the consulate general had taken the initiative to evacuate the building at that time, that move may have put the personnel's lives at risk as there were ISIL militants present in the area.

Early on Saturday 46 Turkish citizens who were kidnapped by the radical group ISIL over three months ago from Turkey's Consulate General in Mosul were freed, without bloodshed or a ransom payment, according to the Turkish authorities.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu cut short his trip to Azerbaijan after the news of the hostage release broke, and met with the Turkish citizens in Şanlıurfa province. He later traveled with them to Ankara and in front of the media kissed Consul General Öztürk on his forehead and congratulated him for the successful return of the Turkish citizens.

“If we welcome our citizens in Turkey, it is because of the decision which was taken on the first day (of the hostage crisis). It's difficult to predict what would have happened to our citizens, whether good or bad, in other scenarios,” Akdoğan added.

When asked if Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT) was a very successful intelligence organization why it failed to predict and warn the Turkish authorities on the need for evacuation of the consulate building in Mosul, Akdoğan said that it would not be fair to put the blame on MİT.

“The intelligence agencies drew a picture of the current situation and warned the related ministries (of the possible dangers),” said Akdoğan, and stressed that it was up to the Mosul consul general to decide whether to evacuate or not, because he was the person who knew the conditions in the field best.

Speaking to Today's Zaman on Monday, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul deputy Umut Oran said he does not agree with Akdoğan's claim that the decision to not evacuate the consulate building was made by Consul General Yılmaz. Oran pointed out that Yılmaz himself requested an order to evacuate the consulate at least two times. According to Oran, one of the requests was made around the beginning of this year and the second about a week before the seizure of the consulate building by the ISIL militants. Oran also recalled that MİT prepared a report suggesting the evacuation of the consulate long before the hostage crisis occurred.

On Aug. 6, Oran filed a complaint against then-Prime Minister Erdoğan and then-Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on the grounds that they did not take the necessary steps to rescue the 49 people taken captive by ISIL.

CHP applies to have the gag order lifted

CHP Adana deputy Faruk Loğoğlu, a veteran Turkish diplomat, told Today's Zaman on Monday that then-Foreign Minister Davutoğlu had made a mistake leaving the final decision on whether to evacuate of the consulate building to Consul General Öztürk.

Loğoğlu said then-Foreign Minister Davutoğlu visited CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu shortly after the hostage crisis in June, and CHP deputy Osman Korutürk, Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru and Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu were present in that meeting.

According to Loğoğlu, Davutoğlu told Kılıçdaroğlu that the Foreign Ministry issued an evacuation order but left the final evacuation decision to Consul General Öztürk.

Loğoğlu said it is unacceptable to leave the decision to evacuate the Mosul Consulate to Öztürk, given the fact that a bloody conflict had been going on for some time in that part of Iraq.

“The consul general made the wrong decision. But the real responsibility belongs to Davutoğlu. And saying that Davutoğlu left this decision to the consul general does not save Davutoğlu [from responsibility],” said Loğoğlu.

In the meantime, deputy Oran's lawyer Mustafa Kemal Çiçek applied to the Ankara Public Prosecution Office on Monday to have the gag order on the reporting of the hostage crisis lifted.

In the application it was noted that after the release of the hostages on Saturday there is no need for the media ban on reporting and questioning of the incident.

On June 17 the Ankara 9th High Criminal Court imposed a reporting ban on the grounds of protecting the safety of those being held hostage, according to a copy of the ruling published by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK).

Deniz Arslan (Cihan/Today's Zaman)