Chechen honorary consul assassinated in Ankara

Medet Ünlü, Chechnya's honorary consul in Turkey, was shot dead on Thursday in the Turkish capital of Ankara. (Photo: Cihan, İlkay Göçmen)

The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria's honorary consul in Turkey, Medet Ünlü, was shot dead on Wednesday evening in Ankara.

Ünlü was shot multiple times at the consulate office in Ankara's Balgat neighborhood and died at the scene. According to media reports, the consul was using the office both as a consulate building and personal bureau for his business. The assailants arrived at the building with a vehicle whose plate number the police is endeavoring to find out. Ünlü was alone at the office at the time. The assailants knocked on the door, and Ünlü opened it. The assailants shot at the consul for several times and then fled the scene.

In the evening hours, his family members tried reaching Ünlü on his mobile phone, but he did not answer. Suspicions raised, Ünlü's wife and children called the police. The police found Ünlü's dead body at his office. The consul's family members went in shock after seeing the body and had to be hospitalized. Ünlü's remains were taken to the Forensic Medicine Council (ATK) for an autopsy and police conducted an inspection at the scene of the incident.

The police are examining footage from MOBESE cameras in the vicinity of Ünlü's consulate office to identify the assailants.

Ünlü's family claims that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of former Chechen President Ahmed Kadyrov, is behind the murder.

According to the Ünlü family, the consul drew a strong reaction in the aftermath of his press statement that two bomb attacks during the Boston Marathon on April 15 have nothing to do with Chechnya. He said the attack was “planned to associate the Chechnya people with terrorism.” Two Chechen brothers, who are prime suspects in the bombings, were elected as “victims,” according to Ünlü.

A detailed investigation is ongoing to capture the assailants.
With Ünlü's death, the number of Chechens assassinated in Turkey since 2008 has risen to seven. Six other Chechens were previously killed in İstanbul. The common point of all victims is that they participated in the Chechen-Russian war.

Three former Chechen fighters were killed in İstanbul's Zeytinburnu district on Sept. 16 of 2011. Berg Khazh Musavei, Rustam Altemirol and Zarvbek Amriev were killed in front of their homes in İstanbul's Zeytinburnu district when 11 bullets were fired from a pistol fitted with a silencer. A police investigation suggested that a Russian suspect was behind the murders, but the suspect has not been captured yet.

In the aftermath of the triple assassinations, families of the victims claimed that Kadyrov had an assassination list in which 500 Chechens who fought against Russia in the second Chechen War, which started in 1999, are named and are being persecuted on the orders of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The victims of 2011 murders, according to the families, were among the ones on the list.

In 2009 three former Chechen commanders were also killed in İstanbul.  
Many Chechen families have found refuge in Turkey thanks to special permission granted by the Interior Ministry in the aftermath of two wars that Russian federal forces waged against separatists since 1994.

Those wars have fed an Islamist uprising that Moscow is currently grappling with in its North Caucasus region. There is severe criticism from Chechens of the Turkish state for its inability to protect the Chechen community.

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-316268-chechen-honorary-consul-assassinated-in-ankara.html