At 4 a.m. on October 17, several dozen Turkmen migrants were deported from Istanbul to Turkmenistan, «Chronicles of Turkmenistan» reported. - Among those deported is Serdar Durdylyev, who was detained in Istanbul on September 6 for violating the visa regime.

About a hundred Turkmen citizens, held in the Tuzla deportation center, were brought by bus to the Consulate of Turkmenistan in Istanbul the day before. After taking fingerprints and taking signatures for the issuance of temporary passports for return to Turkmenistan, they were returned back to the deportation center.

Durdylyev had a valid residence permit at the time of his arrest. However, the police informed him that it had been cancelled. According to lawyers, in this case the person should have been warned, which was not done. According to sources of «Chronicles of Turkmenistan» in Istanbul, on October 16, a lawyer tried to get to Serdar, but he was told that «the case is not ready yet, perhaps tomorrow or the day after tomorrow he will be able to see his client».

If we recall the incident with the deportation of another Turkmen, Maksat Baymuradov, detained on August 31, then lawyers for a long time could not get a truthful answer from the employees of this deportation center. On September 8, they visited him and completed all the documents to appeal the illegal cancellation of his visa and to suspend the deportation. And on September 19, the lawyers were informed that Baymuradov had been deported to his homeland on September 11 by a decision of the administrative court. Lawyers especially note that all this time they could not receive answers to their repeated official requests.

On September 21, Baymuradov’s lawyers appealed to the Constitutional Court with a complaint about illegal deportation. They also filed a complaint with the relevant authorities about the illegal actions of the Turkish authorities.

Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights