"Turkey's Khashoggi" being held in Turkish Embassy in Kyrgyzstan

- CLIFTON, N.J., June 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Three years after the Turkish government pledged to assist in uncovering the case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was brutally murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey has abducted an innocent man in Kyrgyzstan and holds him in its Bishkek embassy.

The Alliance for Shared Values, which represents Hizmet organizations in the United States, condemns Turkey's abduction and detention of Orhan Inandi, the former director of the prestigious Sapat schools. Mr. Inandi has been living in Kyrgyzstan since 1992 and was granted Kyrgyz citizenship in 2012. Any attempt to link him to alleged crimes in Turkey is absurd.

Mr. Inandi's car was discovered with a flat tire and doors open in the courtyard of a high-rise residential complex in the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek. Inandi's son filed a missing person report after he last heard from his father on May 31, 2021. Mr. Inandi's wife appealed to Kyrgyz authorities to help find her husband, whom she believes could be subject to torture inside the embassy to compel him to forfeit his Kyrgyz citizenship to pave the way for rendition back to Turkey, a dark analogy to Khashoggi's murder.

The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues its witch hunt against critics inside and outside Turkey in violation of international law and human rights. Turkish media, academics, minority groups, and peaceful participants of the Hizmet Movement have been targets of this persecution. On Erdogan's orders, critics are subjected to political prosecution domestically and those abroad are pursued extrajudicially and kidnapped by the Turkish National Intelligence Service.

To date, more than 100 Hizmet participants have been abducted from 20 countries and illegally transferred to Turkey. Members of the U.S. Congress, human rights organizations, the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights and U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture all have condemned these abductions. The United Nations Working Groups have issued multiple decisions against Turkey that such transfers are violations of international law.

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The Alliance for Shared Values (AFSV) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that serves as a voice for cultural organizations affiliated with Hizmet, a civil society movement inspired by prominent preacher and peace advocate Fethullah Gülen. The Alliance strives to promote peace and social harmony by helping reduce misinformation and false stereotypes about any or all ethnic, cultural and religious communities. To learn more about the Alliance, please visit www.afsv.org.