Gul: Turkish Engineer Onal Who Was Kidnapped In Afghanistan

ANKARA - Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul received on Monday Turkish engineer Hasan Onal, who was kidnapped in Afghanistan.
Gul said that Turkey attached utmost importance to abduction of Onal and launched all necessary initiatives.
Onal was released in the end of all efforts, Gul noted.
Gul stressed importance of security of all Turkish citizens in the region and said that it was sad that such an incident happened to a person serving Afghanistan's development.
Afghan officials should be careful to prevent recurrence of similar incidents, Gul noted.
Gul stated that Turkey attached great importance to Afghanistan and recalled that 95 percent of tenders in that country were won by Turkish companies.
U.S. embassy building was built by a Turkish construction company, Gul said.
Gul noted that Turkish companies would undertake bigger projects in Afghanistan in coming days and Turkey would have significant contribution to Afghanistan's reconstruction.
Not only state but also private sector's assistance to Afghanistan would continued, Gul added.
Onal said that Afghans saw Turkey as the sister country of Afghanistan and added that he did not think such an incident would happen again.
Engineer Hasan Onal, who was one of personnel of Gulsan-Cukurova company, was kidnapped by Taliban at the end of October. Onal was released on November 29 and returned to Turkey two days later.
(BRC-AÖ) 08.12.2003