Presidential spokesman passes over a question about the soldiers allegedly burnt by ISIL (27.12.2016)

Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın held today’s daily press meeting. Kalın was asked the question: ‘Will you be undertaking fresh initiatives in search of coalition forces’ support especially from the air in connection with the Euphrates Shield operation being conducted at Al-Bab? Also, has there been a fresh development concerning the soldiers held by DAESH? Can we get the latest situation?’ Kalın did not speak about the soldiers. He only addressed the issue of air support:

 ‘A 1,900 square kilometre area has been purged of DAESH. Our fight against this barbaric terrorist organisation continues with decisiveness. We wish once more to state that the international coalition must do what is called of it in terms of air support.  The final stage of the Euphrates Shield Operation that we are waging in the vicinity of Al-Bab is a fight under the umbrella of the fight against DAESH. It is unacceptable for parties that constantly raise certain criticisms about Turkey when it comes to the fight against DAESH not to provide the necessary support on the Azaz-Jarabulus corridor or at the Dabiq and Al-Bab positions.’

What happened?

The claim that ISIL had burnt the Turkish soldiers Sefter Taş and Fethi Şahin caused an outrage on social media on the evening of Thursday 22 December. The government made absolutely no comment on the matter and slowed down the internet. It was known that Sefter Taş had been held hostage for fifteen months and Fethi Şahin for four months by the ISIL brutes.

The key points from Kalın's comments:

The fight being waged against terrorist organisations is not at all a fight targeting our Kurdish citizens. Those of our citizens who have suffered the worst atrocities from terrorism have been our Kurdish citizens. It is of great importance for all of us to be on our guard against attempts to create false impressions.

In 2016, our president had a very intense programme. His excellency our president made 22 foreign visits to 20 countries, conducted 31 visits to 23 provinces and received 52 heads of state and government in 2016. In April, we held the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit. The UN World Humanitarian Summit convened for the first time in Istanbul. The World Energy Congress was the third large congress.

As a result of the intense diplomacy waged by our relevant authorities to secure the evacuation of civilians from eastern Aleppo, 44,000 people have been evacuated and brought to Idlib.  Efforts are underway to meet these people’s basic needs. We do not consider this to be enough and our negotiations are continuing to enable the ceasefire brokered in Aleppo to be extended throughout Syria. An Astana process has been mooted as proposed by Russia and preliminary work is continuing. Our aim is to broker a ceasefire for the whole of Syria and for it to be implemented in a systematic way. Our final goal here is for the political transitional process to be completed. We have no time to lose here.

The Mosul operation continues. The operation seems to have slowed down a little due to DAESH being well armed and having laid mines. We indicated that we support this operation to Iraqi officials at the meeting we held. It is important that the principle we have put in place regarding Tal Afar continues. We support Nechervan Barzani’s comments. We will not permit the PKK to install itself in Sinjar.

If we are conducting a fight against a terrorist organisation like DAESH, in common with the PKK, our fight against the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation (FETÖ) also continues in a decisive manner. Our efforts continue in an intense manner. We state that Western countries should be on their guard against FETÖ's propaganda.