Mairbek Vatchagaev, President of the Paris based Caucasian Studies Association (Association d’études Caucasiennes) has appealed in the name of his organization to Turkish authorities about the assassinations of Chechens in Turkey and asks for an effective investigation to identify the murderers.

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To:

Mr. Abdullah Gul, President of Republic of Turkey
Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Republic of Turkey
Mr. Muammer Guler, Minister of Interior Affairs of Republic of Turkey
Mr. Sadullah Ergin, Minister of Justice of Republic of Turkey

24.05.2013
Paris

Subject: Medet Onlu and assassinations of Chechens in Turkey

Dear Mr. President,

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

Dear Mr. Ministers,

We have received very sad news from Turkey that on May 22, 2013, our fellow countryman, Medet Onlu was assassinated in the capital city of Ankara, in the Republic of Turkey.

Medet Onlu was a citizen of Turkey. He was born in Turkey to a Chechen family which had emigrated to the Ottoman Empire due to the Russian-Caucasian war at the end of the 19th century. He was known as an honest and law-abiding businessman, as well as someone who helped our countrymen who had been forced to leave our motherland and searched for asylum in your country, as a result of the Russian-Chechen wars. Unfortunately, he has become the latest victim of targeted Chechens in Turkey.

We are worried about these assassinations of our fellow countrymen. So that, since 2008, in your country, 6 Chechen asylum seekers have been murdered, recently one other managed to survive a deadly attack, and finally a Chechen who is your citizen, Medet Onlu was assassinated in his office by unknown assassins. However, so far, all these incidents remain unsolved.

We, non-partisan Chechens who reside in Europe, ask you to establish a special commission to investigate these incidents and share the results with the public; as well as identifying the murderers and perpetrators of all of these attacks, particularly the assassination of Medet Unlu, and bring them to justice.

Sincerely yours,

Mairbek Vatchagaev, President of the Caucasian Studies Association

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