Turkish security forces managed to free seven people late on Thursday who were being held hostage by a gunman at a factory owned by the US firm Procter & Gamble in Gebze (Kocaeli), near Istanbul, in a crisis that lasted nine long hours and came to an end when the hostage-taker took a bathroom break, a moment that Turkish special forces took advantage of to intervene.
The governor of Kocaeli province, Seddar Yavuz, told the media that the hijacker – who was captured unharmed – wanted to help the Palestinians and had made demands to “stop Israel’s massacre in Gaza and to reopen the Rafah crossing in Egypt”. “When he left to go to the toilet, our security forces carried out an operation without the hostages being injured,” the governor said.
An image of the hostage-taker posted on the Internet showed the man carrying a gun next to a wall on which he had drawn a Turkish and Palestinian flag and written in red letters “the crossing will be opened for Gaza”. According to the governor, the man had two guns and what appeared to be several explosives strapped to his chest, so Turkish police “had to consider all options” to free the hostages. After their release, relatives – who were anxiously awaiting the outcome of the kidnapping outside the cordoned-off area – erupted in applause after receiving the news that the hostages were free and safe.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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