ANKARA, Dec 25 (AFP) - Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Saturday that his government was doing its utmost to find a prominent Turkish businessman who is believed to have been kidnapped by unidentified militants in neighbouring Iraq.
"We have mobilized all our forces and are closely following the situation," Gul was quoted by the Anatolia news agency as saying in response to queries over the fate of shipping magnate Kahraman Sadikoglu.
"We will do whatever is necessary. We hope he is alive," Gul said, adding that the businessman had been missing for a week.
Earlier Saturday, the NTV news channel aired footage showing a man identifying himself -- both in Turkish and English -- as Sadikoglu and explaining that he had been kidnapped.
Sadikoglu, believed to be among the richest businessmen in Turkey, is the owner of an Istanbul-based shipping line who has won contracts to remove the wreckage of ships which sank in the Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war.
The black-and-white video shows a second man sitting next to Sadikoglu, whom the businessman identified only as Captain Ahmet.
NTV said the second hostage was Ahmet Yurttas, a Turkish national working as a sea captain for Sadikoglu in Iraq.
Sadikoglu is heard saying that the video was shot on December 23 and adds: "We were caught by a group (of militants) four or five days ago on the grounds that we have done some wrong business in Iraq".
The businessman added that his captors were carrying out an investigation and expressed hope that he and the other hostage would be released at the end of the probe.
"The investigation will continue for a few more days and they will determine whether we have done any wrong business or not," Sadikoglu said.
"And then hopefully they will release us," he added.
Sadikoglu denied any wrongdoing in his dealings in Iraq and said:" "We have no problems with the Iraqi government and we have never done anything wrong. We have no ill intentions towards the Iraqi people."
The businessman added that his captors were taking good care of him and his worker, calling on relatives back in Turkey not the worry.
The second hostage is shown breaking down into tears at one point as he calls on his brother not to fret over his fate.
NTV suggested that Sadikoglu's driver and a bodyguard had also been kidnapped along with the businessman, but a Turkish official said they had no information on other people going missing along with the magnate.
There was no indication either on who Sadikoglu's kidnappers were or whether they had any demands, but some media reports suggested that the militants had asked for a ransom of 25 million dollars.
In Istanbul, Sadikoglu's wife said she had hope that the businessman would return to Turkey safe and sound, underlining that her husband did not do business with US or British forces in Iraq.
"I am sure there has been a misunderstanding. After seeing the videotape, I understood that there is nothing to be afraid of," Julide sadikoglu was quoted by Anatolia as telling reporters outside the family home.
Turkish officials could not immediately confirm the abduction, but said they were investigating the whereabouts of the businessman after his wife reported earlier this week that he had gone missing.
"His wife contacted us, saying that (Sadikoglu) had been missing for the past six or seven days and that he had last been heard off near Basra" in southern Iraq, a Turkish diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
The Turkish embassy in Baghdad was asked to contact Iraqi and US officials in order to find the businessman, while Turkish missions in Jordan and Bahrain were also alerted over the incident, he said.
No trace of Sadikoglu had been found yet, the diplomat added.
Turkey says 80 of its nationals, most them truckers, have been killed in road attacks or at the hands of hostage takers in Iraq.
Several other Turks, again most of them truck drivers, have been kidnapped in the war-torn country but most have been released and returned safely to Turkey.
12/25/2004 16:39 GMT - AFP