Medet Unlu, Honorary Consul of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in Turkey, was killed in Ankara. Another fighter who committed himself to the independence of the Chechen people, fell victim to a treacherous murder; this is the latest crime in the ranks of those that are committed by Russia around the world against the Chechen politicians who are advocating for an independent statehood and exposing the committed and ongoing war crimes in Chechen lands.

Medet Unlu was a descendant of a Chechen muhajir family who moved to the Ottoman Empire in the 1860s, because they didn’t want to accept the occupation of their country by the colonial Russian empire. As elsewhere in the environments of the Caucasian diasporas in the Middle East, from early childhood, Medet Unlu heard family stories about the Russian-Caucasian wars and the heroic struggle of his forefathers for the freedom and honor of the Chechen people. He grew up absorbing these stories, and when he reached adolescence, he enthusiastically read books which he was able to get about the Russian-Caucasian wars, and family stories organically went to scientifically recreated historical background. In these days, information about the tragic fate of the Waynakh people in the age of Stalin’s tyranny: the mass deportation, mass killings and deaths on the road was also reaching to the Chechens in the Middle East. And, when the Chechen people elected their own leaders and declared the independence of the Chechen Republic in the early 90s, Medet Unlü, without a minute of hesitation, supported the restoration of the statehood and became a supporter of the first Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudaev. Medet Unlu was with his people at every steep fracture of its fate in the recent history.

During the first Russian-Chechen war, he did a huge propaganda work in Turkey, talked about the situation in Chechnya through the press and television, as well as the visual language of photography exhibitions. He conveyed the atrocities of Russian invaders and the heroic struggle of a small nation against a huge empire to Turkish and world public. Medet Unlu was largely credited with this during the hardest second Russian-Chechen war that he found shelter for thousands of Chechen refugees on Turkish soil, and provided financial support. First of all, this kind of support needed families of Chechen fighters, which in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union were in danger of the reprisals from the Russian secret services or the henchmen of the Kremlin in Chechnya.

When the Russian secret services managed to implement anti-Chechen project called “Caucasus Emirate”, initiators of this provocation started looking for approaches to Medet Unlu, trying to use his power and communication with the Turkish government for their anti-state purposes. At the same time the occupation regime in Chechnya and their leaders tried to win him over. However, all these attempts failed, neither the promises from the first nor the threats from the second, were able to shake Medet Unlu’s commitment to the idea of ​​an independent Chechen state. He continued his tireless multifaceted political activities and his contribution to the Chechen people have been appreciated by the Government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Medet Ünlü received the highest order, “Koman Siy” (Honor of the Nation).

Today we say good bye to Medet Unlu, a true son of the Chechen people, steadfast and courageous fighter for the freedom and independence of his historic homeland. Those who sent vile hand of murderer in the face of Medet Unlu, want to deprive the Chechen public political voice, to break its dialogue with the world, but those hopes are in vain: we will continue to fight and we do not give up from the great idea of ​​independence neither with lies, nor with bullets of killers. And on this way we will be encouraged and supported with the cherished memory of our brother and comrade Medet Unlu.

On behalf of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and myself, I wish to express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Medet Unlu.

Dala dekal voyla iz, Dala imantsa sobar loyla tsunan dozalna a, gergercharna a.

Akhmed Zakayev
Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of ChRI
24.05.2013 – London

*Text was translated by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco