Source:  www.assistnews.net

Date:  2007-11-30

Friday, November 30, 2007

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

ANKARA, TURKEY (ANS) -- An Assyrian Christian priest kidnapped in south-eastern Turkey on Wednesday was released unharmed on Friday, the Anadolu news agency reported.

According to AINA (Assyrian International News Agency -- www.aina.org) Father Daniel Savci, 55, was taken hostage Wednesday afternoon by unidentified people who stopped his car as he was travelling to the Mor Yakup Monastery in a village near the town of Midyat in south- eastern Turkey's Mardin province.

AINA says a representative from the Mardin Governor's Office said the priest had made his way to a workplace in the town of Batman from where he had telephoned his friends.

Gendarmes, military police responsible for security in rural areas, picked up the priest and, after taking statements, returned him to the town of Mardin.

The kidnappers had at first demanded a ransom of 300,000 for the return of the priest saying that he would be murdered if the ransom was not paid.

After years of emigration, especially in recent years due to being caught in the middle of fighting between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels, there are estimated to only be a few thousand Assyrian Christians still living in eastern Turkey.