Man charged with membership to ISIL in Turkey claims himself as ‘descendant of Ottomans’
A Russian citizen with Tatar roots was arrested in Turkey’s Antalya province with charges of ‘being a member of ISIL.’
In his testimony, 39 year old Airat Vakhitov denied the charges and claimed he was ‘a descendant of the Ottomans’.
As it was detected that Vakhitov, a married men with 2 children, had contacts with suspects of cases on ISIL, he was taken into custody earlier in June this year. While his house was searched and his digital equipments were seized by the police, it was also found out that he had a fake ID card, as well.
A criminal lawsuit was filed against him at Antalya’s heavy penal court on charges of ‘terrorist organization membership’ and ‘document forge’.
First hearing of the case against him was held in Antalya recently.
Denying the charges, Tatar said the following in his testimony: “I worked as an imam at a mosque in Tatarstan in years 1997 and 1998. At that time, there were clashes between the Chechens and the Russians. I had gone to Chechanistan for support. I was taken into custody by Russian intelligence service for giving support to Chechens. Then, Uzbek terrorists took me hostage; and, later, they handed me over to Taliban in Afghanistan. Thinking that I was a Russian spy, they handed me over to American soldiers. And, the American soldiers took me to the camp in Guantanamo. I was interrogated there for 2 years. When they could not find any evidence, they gave me back to Russia. And, after having been questioned for 4 months, I was released. Since I was afraid, I escaped to out of the country. After going around a few countries, I took my wife and children andn came to Turkey. Following the call of the Free Syrian Army in 2012, I went to Syria to provide humanitarian aid. And, I returned to Turkey in 2013. I came back from Syria by using the fake ID that FSA had provided me. I did this to survive! Because, I was worried that the Russian intelligence would harm me. After returning to Turkey, I settled in Döşemealtı district (of Antalya). I wrote against DAESH on internet sites... I am a Tatar-Turk. I’m a desceandant of the Ottomans. My grandfather was a buerocrat during the Ottoman times. It was somewhere equiavelent of today’s education minister.”
Vakhitov had contacts with Aleksei Alekseev, a former suspect with ties to ISIL, and Aydar Süleymanov, a suspect in the case over suicide bomb attack in İstanbul’s Sultan Ahmet. Vakhitov claimed that he had met Alekseev at a real estate agency in Antalya, while he had met Süleymanov during a prayer in a mosque.
Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/isid-uyeliginden-tutuklanan-sanik-osmanli-torunuyum-141115.html