Journalists stage demos for release of colleague kidnapped in Syria

At a protest in front of the Milliyet daily’s headquarters in İstanbul, photojournalists and reporters shouted slogans demanding the release of all abducted journalists worldwide.  “Bünyamin Aygün should be released,” the reporters chanted as they held up banners reading “Set the journalists free” and “We want Bünyamin Aygün back.”

Putting their cameras on the ground to protest Aygün’s abduction, the journalists called for his release. Aygün is an award-winning journalist for the Milliyet daily. He was kidnapped more than 20 days ago in Syria, where he was on assignment for Milliyet. News reports have claimed that Aygün was kidnapped by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Murad Sezer, a Reuters photojournalist based in İstanbul, read a statement on behalf of the protesters, saying that journalists in Syria are trying to bring news of the tragedy there to the public and that Aygün should be immediately released.

Another speaker at the demonstration in İstanbul, Bülent Kılıç, an Agence France Presse reporter, said that Turkish journalists hadn’t dared enter Syria since May because the war-torn country was too dangerous, but that Aygün insisted on covering one last photo story of the Syrian civil war. Kılıç said they had warned Aygün but his passion for journalism led him to go to an area where abductions are very common. Kılıç called on ISIS stop using Aygün as a bargaining chip.

Last week, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkey is closely following Aygün’s situation and exerting great efforts to secure his release.