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Returning Turks say they were not attacked in Kyrgyzstan
“The region is still in chaos. People are anxious, but Turkish nationals have had no problems there,” Murat Akıncı told the Anatolia news agency upon his arrival in İstanbul early Wednesday morning on a state-sponsored plane. One-hundred forty-nine Turkish citizens, including Sedat Tokay, who was attacked and stabbed in the street by a roving mob and declined to comment, were repatriated to Turkey. Tokay was immediately hospitalized. While most of the evacuees were either students or teachers in Kyrgyz and Turkish universities and high schools, there were also some businessmen in the group arriving from Kyrgyzstan.
The violence has prompted more than 100,000 Uzbeks and foreigners to flee for safety to neighboring Uzbekistan and to their home countries, with tens of thousands more camped on the Kyrgyz side of the border with Uzbekistan.
Most of the Turkish expatriates from Kyrgyzstan said they were very much concerned about their safety during the first days of serious clashes but said their fears did not materialize. İbrahim Kalkan, a sophomore at a Kyrgyz university, said there was no attack on Turkish nationals but sometimes, he said, when they left home to buy bread, some people stopped them and asked if they were Uzbek. “When they learn that we are Turks, they don’t touch us,” Kalkan noted.
The Kyrgyz Health Ministry said on Wednesday that the official death count has risen to 189, with 1,910 wounded, but observers believe the real toll to be much higher, as many of the victims are quickly buried by their relatives, in keeping with Muslim tradition.
Teary-eyed relatives met people arriving from Kyrgyzstan and welcomed them at the airport.
 Turkish citizens who fled the conflict in Kyrgyzstan are seen after arriving at the Sabiha Gökçen Airport. |
“Fighting started in Osh and then rapidly spread to Jalal-Abad. It is very hard to describe events there. It is impossible to relate: deaths, burning houses, the sounds of firing every day. People have encountered huge problems. It is like a war there. There are people walking around in the streets with veils on their faces. Uzbeks and Kyrgyz just kill each other, wherever they see their ‘enemies’,” Akıncı said.
Identifying himself as an instructor at a university in the ethnically divided and strife-torn country, Seyfettin Sindar said Uzbeks and Kyrgyz got along well with each other for a long time and accused criminal groups of provoking the incidents. Sindar also added that the Kyrgyz people did not treat Turks badly. “The only thing that happened was some people asked Turks for money and telephones,” he said.
Bünyamin Yıldız, who teaches at a Turkish school in Kyrgyzstan, said despite everything, he is considering returning to Kyrgyzstan again, adding that even though there are dozens of people who have died, there has been no violence against Turks there. “People who have relatives there should remain calm,” he said.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s special envoy to Kyrgyzstan, Ambassador Fatih Ceylan, met on Wednesday with Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the interim government in Kyrgyzstan. Ceylan and Otunbayeva discussed bilateral relations and ways to quell growing ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan. Ceylan was also expected to meet with Deputy Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atanbayev later on Wednesday, subsequent to his meeting with the president. Ceylan and the accompanying delegation will continue talks until Friday.
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