Hijacking of a Turkish Airlines plane Tuesday afternoon added Albania in the long list of countries affected by terrorist attacks after 9/11. It turned out to spark a big political debate in Albania whether it was a terrorist attack or not, whether Albania was attacked by terrorists, or whether local authorities had acted properly in dealing with the hijacker, who had first asked asylum in the country, and later during the three long hours of panic when the plane was forced to land in Italy. It is not clear whether the hijacker’s act could be considered a terrorist one. Italian prosecutors are still considering that case.
Chronology:
16:40 – A Boeing 737-400 with 107 passengers and 6 crew members leaves Mother Teresa international airport in Albania.
17:02 – Over Greece’s airspace the pilots launch a SOS alarm and return toward Albania
17:04 – The plane crosses over Albania’s airspace again. Pilots ask authorities to put contacts and ask permission to land in Italy, probably Rome.
17:53 – The plane lands in Brindisi, Italy.
18:00 – First media report the hijackers, believed to be two Turks, ask for sending a message to Pope Benedict XVI to protest his visit to Turkey next month.
18:10 – The hijackers want to meet Italian officials and journalists. The plane stays with engines on.
18:27 – Mother Teresa international airport suspends operations. The crisis group headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Rusmajli takes the situation under control. President Alfred Moisiu meets with top lawn enforcement officials.
19:00 – Voices say that the two hijackers had said they would surrender. Opposition Socialist parliamentiarian Sadri Abazi, aboard the plane, says he had seen one hijacker with a cap, sport clothes to stay at the pilot’s cabin.
20:00 – Albanian Transport Minister Lulzim Basha said the two hijackers surrendered to Italian police and passengers would soon leave the plane. Ekinci asks pardon to passengers for the incident, speaking in Albania and in English.
20:20 – Albanian Top Channel private television station reads a letter allegedly prepared by Ekinci for the pope saying he was a Christian and could not serve at a Muslim army, that is, it was not an action to protest pope’s visit to Turkey.
20:40 – Turkish officials say there was only one hijackers, Hakan Ekinci, 28, who was afraid to return to Turkey after he had deserted the army service
20:45 – Albania’s Mother Teresa international airport reopens.
TIRANA, Oct. 3 – A Turkish man seeking political asylum hijacked a jetliner carrying 113 people on Tuesday and forced it to land in southern Italy, where he surrendered and released all the passengers unharmed. The plane had left the Albanian Mother Teresa international airport with 107 passengers and 6 crew members Tuesday afternoon. The hijacker named Hakan Ekinci, 28, sought political asylum in Italy pleading for Pope Benedict XVI’s help. His residence permit in Albania had expired and he was obliged to return to Turkey, which he did not like after he had deserted the army and would be immediately arrested in Instanbul upon landing. Besides more than three hours of panic and concern the incident was considered as a sign of Albania’s involvement in a list of countries affected by terrorist attacks after Sept. 11, 2001 attack in the United States. But was it really a terrorist incident?
That is what the Albanian Socialist-led opposition considered that and accused the rightist government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha of not behaving properly in the whole process, from the start of Ekinci’s arrival in Albania in May, his request for asylum and his turn of mind later up to the lack of presence of the Albanian diplomats in Brindisi where the plane was forced to land. Government authrotieis, on the other hand, said they had done all the required steps to cope with the problem, though hijacking had not happened in Albania. They said they were interested in the lives of the 107 passengers, most of whom were Albanians.
It would be hard to decide whether the act could be considered a terrorist one. Taking into consideration the tense situation around the workld and the prejudgement of any criminal act being considered as terrorist, the request of the hijacker only to meet the pope, ask for his help for political asylum in Italy and not threaten passengers at all may be well said to be at that level. But, on the other side, Italian prosecutors are still considering whether Ekinci should be accused of terrorism because he simply kidnappped for some hours civilians.
In such a complexity of the case it would be first good to leave judiciary give its verdict and then comment on the results.
Developments upon landing in Brindisi
Security officials in the southern Italian city of Brindisi, where the plane landed, said the unarmed hijacker was seeking to have a message delivered to the pope, but said they did not know what that message was. Turkish officials said the suspect, identified as Hakan Ekinci, 28, was an army deserter seeking political asylum. They stressed that earlier statements by some officials that he had hijacked the plane to protest Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Turkey next month were incorrect. “From the onset of the events, there was no verified information that the hijacking was related to the pope visit,” Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said. “It was a simple attempt of seeking political asylum under the influence of psychological problems.” Candan Karlitekin, chairman of Turkish Airlines’ board of directors, initially said the Boeing 737-400 had been hijacked by two Turks. But several officials later said that Ekinci acted alone. The Turkish captain of the jet issued an alert that the plane was hijacked shortly after it took off from the Albanian capital of Tirana en route to Istanbul. “The man burst into the cockpit and said ‘there’s two of us,'” leading authorities to believe the man was not acting alone, according to an Italian security official based in Brindisi. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. “There was only one hijacker. He surrendered to authorities at the airport,” the official said. Another official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said no weapons were found on Ekinci and police searching the plane also found no weapons. The passengers got off the plane about two hours after it landed in Brindisi, a town on southern Italy’s Adriatic coast, and were individually questioned by authorities. They apparently hadn’t been aware of the takeover while it was occurring. “They (the crew) told us there was a engine problem and that the Istanbul airport was closed. Then the pilot changed directions, and I saw he was going west because I could see the sun,” passenger Albert Okalari of Tirana, Albania, told reporters. He said they only became aware of the hijacking after arriving in Brindisi and passengers switched their cell phones, for the first time hearing the news reports. Giuseppe Giannuzzi, chief prosecutor in Lecce, Italy _ near to Brindisi _ told reporters that Ekinci had identified himself as a Christian, but the prosecutor said he did not have more details since the Turk had yet to be questioned.
Ekinci’s letter to the pope
Ekinci, 28, sent a letter to the pope on Aug. 30, asking for help not to return to military service in Turkey, according to the Turkey’s private Dogan news agency. “I am Hakan Ekinci, I am a Christian and I never want to serve in a Muslim army,” he was quoted as saying in a letter to the pope, according to Dogan, which said it had obtained the letter on a blog posted on the Internet. “I am begging you for help as the spiritual leader of us, Christians’ world.” “I have been a churchgoer since 1998, I found the true path in Jesus and in the Bible,” Ekinci reportedly wrote. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler confirmed that the hijacker was the same person who posted letters on the Internet.
Benedict angered the Muslim world with a speech last month in Germany when he quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor that many Islamic followers found offensive. Benedict later expressed regret, but his visit to predominantly Muslim Turkey has raised tensions. The Vatican said Tuesday that the pope’s visit was still tentatively set for Nov. 28-Dec. 1. “We’re taking all necessary security measures for the pope’s visit,” Ugur Ziyal, Turkish ambassador to Rome, was quoted as saying by the state-owned Anatolia news agency. “I don’t think there are particular risks but we all know what terrorists can do. We’ve seen that in New York, Madrid and London. “That’s why we are taking necessary measures for the safety of pope.” “But I am saying again that there are no special risks for Benedict XVI. The pope will be welcomed warmly. The pope has mentioned dialogue between religions and cultures. This is a very positive development.” Turkey’s Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim expressed heart-break at the pontiffs remarks but assured that the pope would be safe. “Unfortunately the pontiff’s remarks have saddened Muslims,” Yildirim said Tuesday after the hijack. “But we always welcome our guests and take every measure for their security.” Yildirim said Turkey was a safe country and the visits of 20 million tourists were a proof of that. “We are aware of threats stemming from global terrorism but it is not related to the papal visit,” Yildirim said.
Wednesday: No letter for the pope
Turkish officials gave assurances Wednesday that all necessary security measures would be taken during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Turkey next month, after an unarmed Turkish man hijacked a plane, saying he wanted to get a message to the pontiff. Italian Minister Giuliano Amato told lawmakers in Rome on Wednesday that the man wanted to deliver a message for Pope Benedict XVI, but was not carrying a written letter for the pontiff. “The reason he insisted on landing in Rome or in Brindisi (Italy), was to get a missive to the pope,” Amato said, adding the man claimed to fear for his safety because he converted to Christianity.
The hijacker slipped into the cockpit when flight attendants opened the cockpit door, said Amato, whose ministry is responsible for state police and civilian intelligence services. The man handed the pilot a note, claiming that he had a message for the pope and that other hijackers aboard another, unspecified plane “would blow that plane up if the missive didn’t get to the pope,” Amato said. Amato said the incident showed “the fragility” of the Turkish airline security. “We all have in mind the pope’s visit to Turkey in the coming weeks,” Amato said, a pilgrimage which will “present delicate security problems.” But the minister said that he didn’t think the hijacking in itself had increased the security threat level during the pope’s planned visit in late November. “We’re taking all necessary security measures for the pope’s visit,” Turkey’s ambassador to Italy, Ugur Ziyal, told Turkey’s state-owned news agency Anatolia. “I don’t think there are particular risks but we all know what terrorist can do,” the ambassador said. “That’s why we are taking necessary measures for the safety of the pope,” Ziyal said without elaborating. However, “there are no special risks for Benedict XVI. The pope will be welcomed warmly.” Although the hijacker was found to have acted alone, police interviewed passengers for hours and combed the aircraft and baggage for any weapons to make sure the hijacker had no accomplice. Around dawn on Wednesday, the passengers were flown to Turkey.
Turkish officials identified the hijackers as Hakan Ekinci, 28. Turkish officials said Ekinci was an army deserter seeking political asylum, and added that earlier statements by some officials that he had hijacked the plane to protest the pope’s upcoming visit to Turkey were incorrect. Istanbul’s governor, Muammer Guler, said Ekinci was an army deserter who had fled to Albania and was seeking political asylum. He said the Turkish Consulate in the Albanian capital had alerted Turkish authorities earlier on Tuesday that Ekinci had been denied political asylum there and was on the flight back to Turkey. Had Ekinci arrived in Istanbul as scheduled he would have been detained for being a deserter, Guler said.
Who is Hakan Ekinci?
Ekinci was born on June 29, 1978 in the Aegean port city of Izmir. Ekinci was an army deserter and served a brief time in prison in 2003 for swindling and attempting to leave the country with someone else’s passport, Turkish police said. Ekinci deserted his military barracks and fled to Albania on May 6, 2006, police said. He was staying at a UNHCR refugee camp in Albania until his asylum request was denied and extradited to Turkey on Tuesday. Turkish authorities said they were planning to arrest him had the plane landed in Istanbul. On the internet, Ekinci claimed that he had sent a letter to Benedict on Aug. 30, asking for help not to return to military service in Turkey, the state-owned Anatolia news agency and private Dogan news agency reported. “I am Hakan Ekinci, I am a Christian and I never want to serve in a Muslim army,” he was quoted as saying in a letter to Benedict by the Dogan news agency which said it had obtained the letter on a blog posted on the Internet. “I am begging you for help as the spiritual leader of us, Christians’ world.” “I have been a Church-goer since 1998, I found the true path in Jesus and in the Bible,” Ekinci reportedly wrote. Ekinci claimed that he was baptized at a church in Turkey in 1999. Turkish authorities confirmed that the hijacker had claimed that he had converted to Christianity in 1998 and that he was an anti-militarist in letters he had posted on the internet. However, Turkey’s Anti-War Group announced on Wednesday that the hijacker had no relations with them, denying Ekinci’s claims to be a pacifist.
The hijacker’s grandmother said she was totally surprised and said she has not seen the hijacker for six or seven years. “Hakan was a very quite child, he was not someone to commandeer a plane,” the state-owned Anatolia news agency quoted Zarife Yilmaz, the hijacker’s grandmother, as saying on Wednesday. “I don’t know how he has done that.” She said Hakan from the Aegean port city of Izmir deserted high-school and did not go to school. His parents had divorced.
Italy will prosecute hijacker despite asylum request
Italian officials said they would prosecute Ekinci for hijacking the plane despite his appeal for political asylum fearing persecution as a Christian in Muslim Turkey. “Even a bicycle thief can ask for political asylum. But at this moment this doesn’t mean anything,” Brindisi prosecutor Giuseppe Giannuzzi said Wednesday. Prosecutor said his office was also looking into whether Ekinci could be charged with terrorism.
Italian officials said Ekinci, who was unarmed, slipped into the cockpit and handed the pilot a note, claiming that he had a message for Pope Benedict XVI and that other hijackers aboard another, unspecified plane would blow it up unless his message was delivered. “He immediately said he had a message to deliver to the pope and that he was willing to cooperate,” said Brindisi Prefect Mario Tafaro.
Pilot Mursel Gokalp said in Istanbul that “he convinced me that he had three accomplices on the plane with plastic explosives strapped to their body by frequently opening the cockpit door and pretending as if he was coordinating with his friends.” His top wish was to get his message to the pontiff. “He was obsessed with speaking to the pope, to say that he wanted to be protected, that he had embraced this (Christian) religion,” Giannuzzi said. The case was marked by confusion from the start. Officials in Turkey initially said the plane had been hijacked by a group protesting the pope’s upcoming visit to Turkey, but later retracted that version when it became clear that Ekinci had acted alone.
On Wednesday, Turkey’s justice minister claimed that Hakan Ekinci was not the sole hijacker but had an accomplice. However, officials in Italy denied this and Turkey later retracted the claim of a second hijacker. “It looks like it was an operation which he had planned for some time, the reasons are of religious nature,” said Giannuzzi.
Turkish police identified Ekinci as a 28-year-old army deserter who fled to Albania in May and had asked for political asylum there. He was going back to Turkey on Tuesday, where Turkish authorities said police planned to arrest him. Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said Turkey would seek Ekinci’s extradition. Turkey’s Ambassador to Italy Ugur Ziyal dismissed claims that Ekinci was afraid of being persecuted. “This issue is a comedy of misrepresentation,” Ziyal said. “Whatever (Ekinci) is saying has nothing to do with reality.” Ziyal said Ekinci flew to Albania on a Turkish passport, then about three days ago went to the Turkish Embassy in Tirana and said the hotel where he had been staying, had confiscated his passport because he had not paid his bill, and asked embassy officials for papers so he could travel back to Turkey. The U.N. High Commission for Refugees then bought his ticket to Turkey, Ziyal said. “I don’t think they would have done that if they thought he was being persecuted” in Turkey,” the ambassador said. Ekinci had briefly served time in prison in 2003 for swindling and attempting to leave the country with another person’s passport, the Turkish police said.
In Rome, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato briefed parliament hours after the hijacking. “We all have in mind the pope’s visit to Turkey in the coming weeks,” Amato said. He added the pilgrimage would present “delicate security problems” but said he didn’t think the hijacking would make them worse. Benedict’s visit to Turkey in late November is his first as pontiff to a predominantly Muslim country. The already sensitive visit became even more delicate after remarks by Benedict about Islam and violence angered the Muslim world. Benedict expressed regret that his Sept. 12 speech in Germany had sparked protests, said he did not intend to endorse a negative view of Islam and called for dialogue among religions.
Where stands Albania in all that?
Albanian authorities should be said that they responded well to an alleged terrorist threat to the country. President convenes top law enforcement officials, while a crisis group headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Rusmajli takes the situation under control at Mother Teresa-Rinasi international airport, which suspended flights and other opeartions for some hours. Prime Minister Sali Berisha was on a trip to Strasbourg. Prosecutors started to investigate and identify the hijacker, who came out to be a Turk whose residence permit had expired in Albania. Transport Minister Lulzim Basha said there was no mistake in security steps at the airport. Coordination with Italian, Turkish and other coutnerparts helped solve the situation and identify the hijacker. They held an online dialogue and communication with the public through medi outlets from the airport. Parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli and Socialist Party leader Edi Rama were in contact with Sadri Abazi, a Socialist MP, who was aboard the plane. A journalist Ermir Hoxha of Shqip newspaper was also in continuous contact with media in Albania.
In general it could be considered a good reaction to such an incident. It may not be the fault of Albanian security authorities if the pilot of the plane left his cabin door open to the hijacker, though there has long been a decision against that. But it would also not be abnoirmal if the incident would spark a political debate in Albania. It is very much expected that the opposition Socialsits will start to attack the Dmeocratic Party-led government on security steps that they should have had.
The good thing in all this is the fact there was no one injured.
Premier hails management of hijack crisis
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who was on a trip to Strasbourg during the hijacking period Tuesday, hailed at a government meeting Wednesday the emergency group headed by his deputy for “treating with responsibiility yesterday’s problem.” Berisha said that the interior minister would present to the public all the reuiqred documentation to prove that Albanian authrotieis had not broken any rules or law in treating with the hijacker. Ekinci had asked for asylum in Albania after leaving Turkey earlier this year and was expcecting the answer.
Berisha also hailed Tirana Airport Partners consolrtium, that have taken by concession the Mother Teresa international airport, for following the security procedures during the incident. He said that the company had a tape of all the process of seciruty steps taken at the airprot which would prove that. “That is the way for all those who patologtically and joyfully would want to find terrorists when there are nowehere, to declare Albania as it is not. It’s a pity when there are voices from politicians of the opposition but it seems tha the price of alternatives pushes them to any absurdity,” said Berisha.
“It resulted an individual act. No security standard was violated at the (Mother Teresa) international airport. Security forces had applied all the required procedures of verifying the luggage and passengers. It is confirmed that Hakan Ekinci had no weapon or any other object that could be used to threaten,” the minister told reporters. The minister said that Ekinci had come to Albania May 6 and asked for political asylum saying he was a Protestant Christian who refused to follow the military service. The process was still continuing in cooperation with the UNHCR office in Tirana until the beginning of August when Ekinci had required to return to Turkey and follow the military service. The Turkish embassy was required to issue a document as he had no passport, said the minister. His passport was found at a hotel which he had not paid for the accommodation. “According to the information from the Turkish secret police Hakan Ekinci results not to belong to any terrorist group of criminal organization and he had left the country purely to avoid the military service. We have very likely to do with a mentally derailed person,” said Olldashi. The minister also showed a filmed tape when Ekinci was checked at the airport.
Nevertheless the opposition asked for a special session asking for explanation from the prime minister on the incident.
“Procodures of security funcitoned 100 percent,” said Transport Minister Lulzim Basha as well. “Tirana airprot remains a high security one.”
Tirana Airport Partners manages the airport
Mother Teresa international airport is managed by the German-led Airport Partners Consortium, that has started its renovation. The consortium has started building new passenger and cargo terminals, a new bridge in the existing road and a new access road with a 83 million euro investment over three years in exchange for the rights to manage it for 20 years. It will also bring security at the airport up to international standards. The aim of the three-year renovation is to triple the number of travelers passing through the airport each year to 1.5 million by the end of 2006 and up to 3 million by 2010. The renovated airport will employ a staff of about 2,000 people. A few hundred workers are to be laid off after the work.
Albania is expected to profit about 600 million euro over 20 years. Made up of an Albanian-American firm and two German companies, Airport Partners Consortium is a shareholder in airports in Athens, Greece; Dusseldorf and Hamburg, Germany, and Sydney, Australia.
The U.S. aerospace firm Lockheed Martin has already installed a new air traffic control system at the airport. German-led Airport Partners Consortium has started renovating Tirana’s Mother Teresa International Airport to bring security up to international standards.
The company is tailored suit for small airport with room for growth. After the privatization contract for the Albanian capital’s airport, Tirana International Airport, had been signed in November 2004, the Tirana Airport Partners Consortium, led by HOCHTIEF AirPort, took over the complete operation of the airport on April 23, 2005. Within the framework of a concession, Tirana Airport Partners is now responsible for all aspects of operation and management for the next 20 years. The private operators pay an annual concession fee to the Albanian State and in return the consortium receives all income from the airport’s business. The consortium has committed itself to extending and modernizing the airport. Tirana Airport Partners aims at making the airport in Albania developed to become one of the most modern infrastructure facilities in the country. The air traffic has been on the increase since the nineties. In 2004 alone, the airport dealt with 650,000 passengers, 15.7 percent more than the year before Therefore, not only security and service standards will be drastically improved. One million air passengers will be able to take off and land there. Furthermore, a new access road to the capital is planned, as well as sufficient parking areas and additional cargo facilities.
With Tirana, the fifth airport in HOCHTIEF AirPort’s portfolio, the HOCHTIEF subsidiary now manages a smaller airport for the first time. It does, however, have enormous growth potential. The concept followed by HOCHTIEF AirPort and its partners is based on a building block system. The airport can grow in time; financial investments will be made within a comprehensible framework. Thus, Nene Tereza, named after Mother Teresa who came from Albania, can face the challenges of the future step by step.
