ANKARA
The Turkish prime minister addressed crowds of well-wishers gathering to welcome the Turkish hostages, telling them: “This is the time to celebrate. This is the time to thank Allah.”
Speaking from an open-top bus at Ankara’s Esenboga airport on Saturday, Ahmet Davutoglu told the jubilant throng that Turks had “deeply felt the pain of a separation and the fear of what will happen next.”
He added: "We have been thinking of them day and night for three months. They were in our imaginations. They never faded away from our eyes. We always thought about them. We slept and woke up with them in our imaginations.
“When we loved our children… we thought about them. When we loved our grandchildren, we thought about Deniz and Ela, the youngest children among the hostages. We prayed for them altogether.”
Addressing the international community, he highlighted Turkey’s role in taking in refugees from Syria and Iraq, regardless of religion or race.
He said: “As a powerful state we have brought our brothers here. However, the ones who cannot go back to their homeland and their homes… about one and a half million Syrian refugee brothers… the Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, Ezidis, Christians, all our friends and brothers, who will look after them? This is the time to take care of them. This is the time to look after those orphans.”
Davutoglu was speaking after he had personally greeted the 46 hostages when they arrived on Turkish soil following their rescue on Saturday.
He added: “No matter who comes to us, to the Anatolian territories for refuge, we do not ask who are you, what is your religion, what is your sect or what is your ethnic background? We say ‘Come, these Anatolian territories are a motherly lap and a motherly heart.’
“Because we come from a philosophy of ‘Let humans live so that the state lives.’”
Davutoglu called on politicians and journalists who tried to exploit the hostage situation to share in celebrating their freedom.
"I call on those provocateurs, I know people who tried to force us to make statements risking the lives of our brothers, I call on them: Come and share this joy today, give up speculations now. For once feel what this nation feels, sadden with this nation, cry with this nation, be happy with this nation.”
www.aa.com.tr/en
