The Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of Chechnya has issued a resolution condemning the appropriation of a park in Turkey named after Dzhokhar Dudayev. This was reported by the Grozny-Inform news agency.
In their statement, they called the renaming of the park an act of support for terrorism, and such a policy itself runs counter to the building of normal relations with Russia, the DUM noted.
The Spiritual Directorate recalled that Turkey gave shelter to many of Dudayev’s supporters, “who killed Muslims or were ready to commit this disgusting deed.”
The resolution notes that if Ankara maintains this line, the Chechen leadership may also reconsider its attitude towards the main political opponents of Erdogan. “For example, the well-known politician Mohammed Fethullah Gulen can be considered by us as a true patriot of the Turkish people, and Abdullah Ocalan is a prisoner of conscience,” the document says.
Earlier, the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the leadership of our country “to put it mildly, do not approve” of naming the park after Dudayev.
On Tuesday, December 21, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that actions such as renaming the park harm the development of normal relations between Turkey and Moscow.
Dudayev was elected president of Checheno-Ingushetia in 1991, after which he declared the republic’s independence. Former Soviet general Dkhokhar Dudayev, having led Chechnya in 1991, headed for secession from Russia. Under him, the republic completely got out of Moscow’s control, which led to the First Chechen War and numerous casualties. Dudayev himself was killed on April 21, 1996 as a result of a missile strike.
Kadyrov was angered by the monument to Dudaev in Turkey – what they say in the Kremlin and Ankara BBC Russian Service.
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, criticized the Turkish authorities, accusing them of covering up terrorism. The reason was the opening in the city of Korfez (90 kilometers east of Istanbul) a park named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first president of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia and banned, ceased to exist in 1999). A monument to the leader of the Chechen separatists who was killed in April 1996 was also unveiled there.
In response, Kadyrov threatened to immortalize in Grozny the name of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan. The organization is considered terrorist in Turkey and many other countries, and Ocalan himself is serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison on the island of Imrali.
How did Turkey and the Kremlin react to this scandal?
What Kadyrov said
“I openly appeal to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Make up your mind! Either you receive the status of a state that publicly supports terrorists, or you advocate transparent and honest relations with the Russian Federation, without changing your beliefs behind its back,” Kadyrov wrote in his telegram the day before. channel.
“Otherwise, while wanted bandits and thugs find refuge in Turkey, while they openly organize gatherings and events to rename parks after terrorists involved in the deaths of thousands of civilians, we reserve the right to retaliate,” he threatened.
There are regular reports from Turkey about attacks on Chechens.
In October, Turkish media reported on the arrest of a group of foreigners who were planning an attack on opposition Chechen activists living in Turkey. The Kremlin then said that it was not aware of the situation.
What the Kremlin said
On Wednesday, journalists asked Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to comment on Kadyrov’s attacks on the Turkish authorities.
“This is a very, very emotional, but understandable reaction of the head of the Russian region, which has survived several wars, several wars that were provoked, started by terrorists who tried to take control of this region of Russia,” Peskov said. In his words, “one of the terrorists who did this was at some point their leader Dudayev.”
“Recently, unfortunately, in one of the regions of Turkey, one of the parks was named after this terrorist. Of course, this is a very painful decision for all Chechens,” he added.
Peskov recalled that Moscow, through diplomatic channels, has already “conveyed” to its Turkish colleagues “that we, to put it mildly, do not approve of such names in one of the Turkish cities.” Indeed, on December 15, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “You know our principled position regarding the erection of any kind of monuments to extremists, terrorists, militants and collaborators. This position is invariable, principled and applies to any country.”
Have you noticed the news in Turkey?
Regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov threatened to erect a monument to the leader of the PKK terrorist group Abdullah Ocalan in response to the opening of a park in honor of the legendary Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev in the Turkish province of Kocaeli. This is how the pro-government Daily Sabah puts it.
Kadyrov harshly accused the country of “supporting terrorists,” the daily Yeni Safak reported on Tuesday. Other publications also drew attention to this news.
The Turkish media draw attention to the fact that the head of Chechnya announced a “direct threat” to Turkish-Russian relations and called on Ankara to be careful and Moscow to take “active diplomatic steps.”
Daily Sabah recalls that Turkey and Russia maintain close relations and cooperate on regional issues, including the Syrian crisis, the South Caucasus, as well as in the defense industry, since Ankara has purchased Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems from Moscow.
Why Ocalan
According to Kadyrov’s statement, the “logical and politically mirrored” response of Grozny could be the immortalization of the name of Abdullah Ocalan in the capital of Chechnya.
“I also appeal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation: the current actions of the Turkish authorities are a direct threat to Russian-Turkish relations, which have been developing for centuries. We should pay attention to this and take preemptive diplomatic measures against such manifestations,” the head of Chechnya said.
The Turkish authorities consider Ocalan a particularly dangerous state criminal, and the party he founded is recognized as a terrorist organization both in Turkey and the United States, and in a number of EU countries.
In Russia, the PKK is not considered a terrorist organization. Twice, in 1998 and 1999, Ocalan came to Russia, where he met with the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky and hoped to receive political asylum.
On the initiative of the Liberal Democratic Party, the State Duma even appealed to President Yeltsin with a request to grant Ocalan the status of a political refugee, but the Russian government did not want to complicate relations with Turkey and insisted on his expulsion.
Shortly thereafter, Ocalan was arrested, handed over to the Turkish authorities and sentenced to death, which he commuted to life imprisonment.
