Okaz

THERE are certain news reports that are being published by some newspapers and TV channels that we should classify as "extremely serious" if they are true as the sources claim.

According to these reports, Saudi passports are being stolen in Turkey and a number of Saudi citizens who went there for tourism with their families never came back.

If these reports are confirmed, it will be a big surprise because they did not receive the proper attention in the local media.

We have not heard from any official department or any official spokesman confirming or denying these reports, clarifying to us their backgrounds.

If we assume that these reports are true, we will be in a very precarious situation. Regarding the stolen passports, we are confronted with two possibilities. The first possibility is that they were stolen with the collusion of Turkish officials to use them later to tarnish the reputation of the Kingdom, and this is not a far cry because of the hostile attitude of the Erdogan regime toward Saudi Arabia.

This possibility cannot be dismissed if we take into consideration the continuous attempts by the Turkish regime to harm the Kingdom. Ankara leaves no stone unturned to spread false news about the Kingdom, especially when Turkey hosts a number of Saudi nationals who are members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Turkey also hosts a number of traitors who claim to be the Saudi opposition.

It is playing host to the cadres of a number of terrorist organizations with the aim of transporting them to the hot spots at the opportune moment.

Therefore these terrorists may use the stolen Saudi passports to defame the Kingdom. Erdogan's advisor and minister of interior had said recently that the Saudi tourists in Turkey were their targets.

The other possibility is not less frightening. These stolen passports might be used by gangsters, smugglers and drug traffickers for carrying out organized crime, and eventually Saudi citizens could be implicated in such crimes.

Most serious of all, how could a Saudi tourist or visitor simply vanish in Turkey without any trace? How come we only hear about this from a passing reference in one of the newspapers or on a TV channel?

Our government is deeply concerned about the safety of Saudi citizens wherever they are. If something bad befalls a Saudi citizen anywhere in the world, our government instantly steps in to ensure his or her safety and well-being.

How come no such movements are made now even though we hear about the disappearance of a number of citizens in an enemy country like Turkey?

We ask the concerned authorities to clarify these frightening reports and to tell us if they are true or false. The authorities should not leave us victims of news reports in a section of the foreign media, the authenticity of which we are not quite sure about.