ANKARA - Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) representative in Ankara Safeen Dizayee expressed on Wednesday regret about attack on Anadolu Agency (A.A) correspondents in Iraq.
Dizayee spoke to A.A Executive Board President and General Director Hilmi Bengi by phone and said that he was not in Ankara on the day of the attack and the following days.
He would convey the letter sent by A.A to KDP representation in which A.A expressed its wish not to experience such incidents again and to ensure security of journalists in the region to the local security officials in the north of Iraq asking them ''to fulfil requirements of the request,'' Dizayee added.
A.A correspondents Tolga Adanali and Kenan Gurbuz were attacked by six armed people who were speaking Kurdish and whose faces were covered on their way from Baghdad to Kirkuk together with their driver and guide on July 6, 2003.
Fire was opened on vehicle carrying A.A correspondents and their equipment, passports and money were seized by gun force.
Bengi then sent letters to the Foreign Ministry, U.S. Embassy in Ankara, and representations of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and KDP in Ankara.
The letter that was sent to Foreign Ministry thanked to Turkish officials in the region for their close interest to A.A correspondents working there while the U.S. Embassy was asked to take necessary measures to prevent recurrence of similar incidents.
The letters that were sent to representations of PUK and KDP, briefly mentioned the attack against A.A correspondents, and their equipment that were seized by gun force were listed. The letter said, ''we demand necessary procedures to be carried out to capture and punish those who were responsible for the attack, and to return the equipment that had been seized by gun force.''
(BRC-AÖ) 16.07.2003