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Rescued Turkish consul general describes ISIL captivity

20 September 2014 23:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Rescued Turkish Consul General of Mosul, Ozturk Yilmaz, said the hostages managed to hide a cell phone from ISIL to coordinate with Ankara since day one of their captivity, APA reports quoting Turkish media.

Speaking to a private broadcaster Saturday after the rescue of 49 hostages held by ISIL for more than three months, Yilmaz said he managed to hold "long phone conversations" with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu through that hidden cell phone.

Yilmaz said their captors made hostages watch the beheading videos of American and British citizens.

"We overcame the fear of death since day one; beheading of journalists by ISIL never scared us," said Yilmaz, denouncing the beheading of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Haines as "cruelty."

"They made us watch the beheadings. There is no reason to kill like this, not for any religion or political thought," he said.

Yilmaz said there was a scuffle in his office during the raid day, June 11, when militants seized the consulate staff.

"A friend of ours helped with his sloppy Arabic speaking and explained the situation. We did not let any kind of video recording to put our country in a hard position," he said.