Kidnapped Turkish journalist freed in Syria
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E-mail CNTV, January 8, 2014
An award-winning Turkish photo journalist, kidnapped 40 days ago while covering the civil war in neighboring Syria, has been released.
Bunyamin Aygun was kidnapped after he went to Syria for what colleagues say was "one last story". A growing number of journalists have gone missing in Syria.
Bunyamin Aygun walked into the arms of loving friends and family late Sunday night.
"All they told me was that they did not support Assad. At the end there was a firefight. Then someone came up to me said, ’we are from the Free Syrian Army’ you are free to go," he said.
A close friend and colleague of Bünyamin’s sat down with CCTV just two days before his release.
"We communicated with aid organizations, the government and intelligence who are mediating with the group that captured him," said Yurttas Tumer, photo journalist.
The vast majority of the kidnappings -- over the past six months -- have occurred in opposition-held parts of northern and eastern Syria, where al-Qaeda-linked rebel groups are particularly strong.
Bünyamin’s release came on the heels of a mass demonstration in Istanbul calling for the release of all journalists missing and presumed kidnapped in Syria. One of those missing is, Bashar Fahmi, a Jordanian journalist working for U-S-government funded Arabic language channel al Hurra T-V.
It’s been over 500 days since his wife, Arzu Kadumi, spoke to her husband.
"We learnt from the news there were very serious clashes in Aleppo when he was there. And unfortunately during one of those clashes, my husband was injured and his cameraman was captured," she said.
Turkish cameraman Cuneyt Unal was later released, but sadly, Japanese reporter Mika Yamamoto, who was travelling with them, was killed in the firefight that broke out. All attempts to find any information about Bashar, since that day, have failed.
"The Syrian government said they’ve checked every hospital, every prison, but couldn’t find any records of Bashar. They say he’s not here in Syria. We still try to find him, but there is no news," she said.
The two-and-a-half-year civil war has taken over 130-thousand lives. Some reports say at least 52 have been journalists, making it the most dangerous place in the world to report from.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists there are currently 30 journalists missing in neighboring Syria, but hope does remain a further 24 have been kidnapped and are now free.
Bunyamin Aygun makes the 25th. Yet despite the very real risks, journalists continue to go.
"Of course it is a very dangerous area, but someone has to go to those dangerous areas to tell their stories. This is the difficult side of the job," said Yurttas Tumer.
While much of the world is far removed from the reports, the images, the sounds from the war in Syria, those reporting on it are not.
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