ISTANBUL/BAGHDAD - Hurriyet newspaper journalists Yalcin Dogan and Ozdemir Ince, and Dogan News Agency (DHA) correspondents Faruk Balkici and Ferit Aslan were detained by American soldiers and released after two hours on Saturday.
DHA correspondent Faruk Balýkcý said that the four Turkish journalists were detained while taking the picture of a U.S. tank on Haifa Street of Baghdad at 09.00 a.m.
The journalists were released after nearly two hours upon the initiatives of the Turkish journalists.
Balikci who came to the embassy after being released said that ''I wanted to take the picture of the American soldier on an armored vehicle while driving on Haifa street. The soldier whose picture was taken directed his gun to us. We lied down in the car thinking that he would open fire. In the meanwhile two soldiers who were besides the tank directed their guns to us. We got off from the car by raising my camera. They took our identity cards and my camera and told us that we were detained. They kept us waiting under the sun in the area fenced with woven wire for two hours. They checked my digital camera and they erased all the pictures in which there were American soldiers. We called the Turkish Embassy when they permitted us to make phone call. They released us when the officials came from the embassy.''
Balikci said that they heard sounds of gun from a street while in custody and two American soldiers went to that street. Balikci added that they also witnessed that some Iraqi young persons shouted ''go home'' and they protested American soldiers when they were driving by.
(ÖÞ) 26.07.2003