Three German tourists kidnapped while on a climbing expedition this month are safe and in custody of the Turkish government.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson called the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to inform him, adding that details of the operation would be announced later by the governor of Agir Province, where the mountaineers had been captured. The trio was seized by separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, on July 8 during a climbing expedition to Mount Ararat. The rebels said they would hold the hostages until Berlin ended its crackdown on PKK supporters in Germany, which is home to about 600,000 Kurds. German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a personal appeal for the release of the Germans, but rejected the demands for a change in PKK wants "peaceful climate" in exchange for hostages ...
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(Deutsche Welle)
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