A Turkish laborer freed after a month in the hands of Iraqi insurgents said he was regularly beaten by his captors and awakened in the middle of the night and forced to pray. He believes he's still alive only because he is a Muslim.
Murat Kizil, who returned to Turkey on Saturday, sounded exhausted but happy during a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his home in the southern city of Adana. His relatives could be heard in the background, celebrating.
"Today is like a birthday to me," Kizil said. "I feel like I am in a dream."
Kizil said he and his co-worker, kidnapped together, were often blindfolded and bound. All they had to eat for a month were biscuits and leftovers, and they were regularly beaten and threatened with guns and knives, Kizil said.
"During the day, we would just pray all the time out of fear, and hoping that by praying and showing we were true Muslims we could save our lives," he said.
Kizil, 26, and Soner Sercali were freed Friday after their employer, the Turkish company Kayteks, agreed to stop supplying the U.S. military in Iraq with air conditioners, Kizil said. The company has not been reachable for comment since their release.
Kizil said insurgents stopped their car in the city of Fallujah on June 9. They were taken captive by a group calling itself the Mujahadeen Brigade.
"We never stayed at one place for more than several days," Kizil said. "They would tie us up and take us someplace else at 3, 4 in the morning."
The Iraqi insurgents would wake them up in the middle of the night and force them to say Islamic prayers, which are recited five times a day.
"It was horrifying," Kizil said. "I never thought I would be back. I was sure I would be killed."
Kizil said he believed he and his co-worker were released only because they were Muslims. He added that their captors warned them never to return to Iraq and not to tell anyone they were badly treated.
In a video aired Friday by Al-Jazeera television, the two Turkish men were shown kneeling before three masked insurgents. One of the gunmen read a statement saying the men were being released after having promised not to work with coalition forces again.
"I will not return to Iraq even if you paid me billions," said Kizil.
Their release came just days after insurgents freed three other Turkish hostages on Tuesday. Thousands of Turks remain in Iraq, working mostly as truck drivers or contractors.
Followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al- Zarqawi claimed they were behind the kidnappings of the three Turks. Zarqawi's followers also killed American Nicholas Berg last month and South Korean Kim Sun-Il.
More than 40 people from several countries have been abducted in Iraq since April, some of whom have been released or freed by coalition soldiers.
On Saturday, the first thing Kizil did as soon as he got home was take a shower.
"I have not washed for a month," said Kizil. "But believe me, that was the last thing on my mind anyway."
Kizil's mother, Veziha, was busy preparing his favorite meal, rice pilaf and beans with meat. Kizil's father, Osman, sacrificed a sheep in thanks to God.
"I suffered a lot. I cried a lot,"
Osman said. "But today I am the happiest man in the whole world."