Not all tourist trips to Turkey are safe for Russians. Such a conclusion can be drawn from the situation in which seven of our compatriots found themselves. A trip to the Turkish coast can turn into several years of imprisonment.
“The fire was not our fault, we only tried to eliminate”
The Consulate General of Russia in Antalya has confirmed the detention of seven Russians on suspicion of unintentional arson of the forest, RIA Novosti reports.
On October 23, the Russians were hiking along the Lycian Trail route and were detained by the police in the Chaglardzha district.
“In accordance with local legislation, law enforcement agencies, with the involvement of a sworn interpreter, a protocol was drawn up for the testimony of suspects and witnesses in the case,” RIA Novosti quotes the words of a Russian diplomat.
The Russian representative met with the detainees in the&the same day, explaining to them the essence of the Turkish claims.On October 24, a court session was held, within the framework of which a preventive measure in the form of detention was chosen against the Russians.
Previously Dmitry Korshunov, one of the detainees posted a video message on Instagram: “Friends, they didn’t want to share until the end, until now they have passed sentence. They are closing the prison for the reason that there was a fire on the Lycian trail. They are now spending several years in prison, trying to send seven people from Russia to Ankara. The consulate does not support in any way, does not help. The fire was not our fault, we only tried to eliminate it, we called 911.
“A lawyer who didn’t speak either English or Russian”
Ironically, the previous photo of Korshunov, posted on the social network, was signed as follows: “The hardest thing in life is to remember which bridge to cross, and which one to burn.”
The Lycian Trail is a route with a total length of 540 km, passing along part of the Mediterranean coast of ancient Lycia. The trail is extremely popular with both ordinary tourists and extreme athletes who hold competitions on the most difficult sections to pass.
RT reports the names of tourists caught behind bars. This is Anatoly and Nikita Yaroshenko, Dmitry Korshunov, Alexander Antoshkin, Konstantin Chebuchakov, Ivan Ukhov and Polina Yaskova.
“A judge on duty and a lawyer who spoke neither English nor Russian arrived at the department. There was a preliminary hearing of the case in the department, and despite the fact that the verdict was not pronounced, they were not released either on subscription or on bail. And there is one girl among them. She is now alone in some kind of women’s prison, she has a tantrum, — quotes RT words Irina Vdovina, mother of one of the arrested.
The Russians state the following version of events: during a walk along the Lycian trail, they discovered a source of fire, which they began to extinguish, while notifying the Turkish emergency services. However, the police officers who arrived told the Russians that they were in a restricted area, which wasestablished in connection with the strongest fires that raged in Turkey last summer. Our compatriots say that they have not seen any signs indicating the forbidden zone. But these explanations were not taken into account, and now they risk spending the coming years in a Turkish prison.
Element or evil will: Who is behind the Turkish fires
Wildfires in Turkey began at the end of July 2021 in a sparsely populated area several tens of kilometers from Antalya. Three days later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the regions of the country affected by the fires a disaster zone.
The head of Turkey announced that large-scale fires, in the liquidation of which hundreds of pieces of equipment and several thousand firefighters were involved, were the result of arson. Erdogan accused the Kurdistan Workers’ Party of arson, whose representatives did not refute this statement, but, on the contrary, stated that the Turkish regime does not understand another language.
However, the question of whether the forest fires were really the result of someone’s ill will or whether we are talking about a combination of circumstances remains open. Many experts believe that Erdogan simply decided to take advantage of the situation to shift the blame for the miscalculations of the authorities in fire safety issues to his political opponents. There has been no mass detection of arsonists in Turkey for these months, although the measures of responsibility for arson have indeed been tightened.
And now, suddenly, Russians who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and in the wrong place can suffer because of Turkish fires.
«Spies» and «arsonists»: mere coincidence or Ankara’s political games?
Just five days ago, the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper reported on the detention in the country of a group of six people who are accused of military and political espionage, and also of preparing armed attacks. Four of the detainees, according to the publication, are Russian citizens.
Hurriyet reports the names of the detained Russians: Abdullah Abdullayev, Ravshan Akhmedov, Beslan Rasayev and Aslanbek Abdulmuslimov. They were detained on October 8 in the course of an operation that took place as part of an investigation conducted by the Istanbul Prosecutor General’s Office.
Those arrested face punishment in the form of imprisonment for a period of 15 to 20 years.
Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov He stated that he had no information about what had happened. “If these are really Russian citizens, we probably either have already received on the diplomatic channels, or we will receive some information. But we don’t know anything about this account», —he said.
Two stories with the detention of Russians in Turkey, which became public within a few days, may not be related to each other in any way. However, it may also be a political game of the Turkish authorities trying to create a more comfortable position for themselves in negotiations with Russia on issues of interest. First of all, this concerns Syria, where is it nowThe situation around Idlib is escalating, as well as the territories controlled by the Kurds. Erdogan has repeatedly stated his intention to “clean up” the north of Syria from the Kurdish formations, which he considers terrorist. In turn, Damascus, supported by Moscow, is interested in eliminating the terrorists of Idlib province, where there are many formations oriented towards Ankara.
In this situation, the topic of “Russian villains” may be a game of raising the stakes, in which the Turkish side is trying to put the Russian authorities in the position of justifying themselves.
What is actually being discussed will become clear depending on how quickly and how the story with the Russians detained on the Lycian Trail will be resolved.
