WITH Saturday’s deadline for the payment of a ransom for the release of a Cypriot held in Iraq looming, the man’s aunt is anxiously waiting for developments.
Rita Medzadourian yesterday told the Cyprus Mail: “I’m hopeful that with expert negotiations, there will be a happy ending. There is no news at the moment, but fingers crossed, there will be soon. The government knows what it’s doing.”
Forty-year-old businessman Garabet Jean Jikerjian was kidnapped from his home in Baghdad on August 21.
A video was released of Jikerjian, who also holds Lebanese nationality, with a hooded gunman pointing an automatic weapon at him. Jikerjian, was seen pleading for his life, calling for Jetco Trading, the company he worked for, to pull out of Iraq.
The company duly pulled out, but the gunmen then demanded $20,000 for his release. The sum was paid, but still the gunmen refused to release him, raising their demand to $2 million.
The kidnappers have referred to themselves as ‘The Group for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’ and accused Jikerjian of working with an alcohol distribution firm that “deals with the occupiers”.
The group initially announced that they had “captured an importer of food and liquor in Baghdad who works for a company that deals directly with the crusader occupiers of Iraq”. They demanded the company’s “withdrawal from Iraq as soon as possible in order to free the Lebanese hostage – otherwise woe on him and you”.
Medzadourian added that, “the kidnappers have now reduced their demands from $2 million to $500,000. I am calling on the governments involved in this crisis to put pressure on the owner of the company my nephew is working for.”
Sources close to the family told the Cyprus Mail that Jikerjian started his Iraqi posting in August 2003. Before his posting, Jikerjian was working in Nicosia.
The Foreign Ministry in Nicosia issued a statement saying: “Upon being informed of the kidnapping of Garabet Jikerjian, who has both Cypriot and Lebanese nationality, the Foreign Ministry has been in contact with his family that is based in Lebanon as well as with the Lebanese government that is currently handling the matter via their Embassy in Baghdad.
“The Cyprus government is also in contact with the authorities of Greece as well as with the Presidency of the European Union. The aim of the Cyprus government is to avoid any complications that would endanger the life of the hostage. The Cyprus government also respects the position of the hostage’s family at this difficult time and will do everything possible for Jikerjian’s release.”
Medzadourian made a tearful plea on Armenian television yesterday. “Garabet has done no harm to anybody in his life,” she said. “He has been to Iraq many times and this was to be the last trip. We are a poor family, working hard for a living. We don’t have the kind of money those people are asking. I beg with all my heart for the governments of Cyprus and Lebanon to do everything they can, exert all the pressure in their power to help my Garo come out alive.
“Garebet’s boss promised my sister on her deathbed that he would always look after her children and now he has to live up to that promise. My sister used to be his secretary and the backbone of his company and now he needs to put his hand on his heart and repay his promise to her son, the son that he sent to Iraq. If anything happens to my nephew, he will have his blood on his hands.”
