On 12 August, news agency “Radio Liberty” reported about the mass arrests of the refugee-immigrants from Central Asia in Istanbul, Turkey: “There were arrested about 140 people from Central Asia over the past few days in Istanbul. According to Radio Liberty, most of the detainees are citizens of Uzbekistan, hundreds of them are currently threatened with deportation from Turkey”.

Comment:

The arrests of the immigrants from Central Asia began after a failed “coup attempt” on 15th of July. At first, there were few arrests of Muslims of Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, who are going to be deported to their homelands. Later, in early August, there began mass arrests of the Uzbek diaspora in the town Kayashakhir, Istanbul. There were arrested about 60 families.

At this time, they are in a prison-camp in Kumkap, Istanbul. Officially Turkey has not filed the reasons and grounds for the searches and arrests. It’s really hard to contact the arrested because the access to them is limited. It became known that they were not beaten, tortured, no interrogation and investigation was conducted. They simply hold them until imposing a certain sentence. The remaining refugees are in fear because of the uncertainty. They think if the arrests don’t stop there or go to other cities, then the refugees will have to find another country for a quiet and peaceful living.

The arrests took place in the homes of their living. This suggests that the Turkish secret services had the accurate information of whom and where to arrest. The fact is that at the beginning of the summer, the local authorities of Kayashakhir offered this diaspora some financial assistance, and asked from them the list of persons to calculate financial assistance. Thus, the authorities received from the refugees themselves the full information for further decision of their fate.

The arrested Muslims are God-fearing refugees, forced to leave their homes because of the persecution of the tyrant Karimov’s criminal regime. When the oppression of the regime intensified, someone moved to Russia, someone to the West, someone to Egypt. But the Putin’s regime in league with the Karimov regime has not given them the opportunity to live in peace in Russia and began to pursue them, to arrest and deport them to Uzbekistan. Those refugees who lived in the West also felt the pressure of the ideological attack by the power of the disbelievers. Fearing for their and their children’s future who are under the threat of the ideological poisoning with the secular ideas, decided to move to Turkey. Those who lived in Egypt were arrested and deported after the outbreak of the revolution in Egypt. They also moved to Turkey in the hope of a quiet and modest life.

Thus, the Muslim refugees from Uzbekistan were in Turkey, in the hope that the Erdogan’s regime is the last refuge and salvation for Muslims. During the “coup attempt” they took to the streets against the “conspirators” in support of the Erdogan government. But despite the fact that they are Muslims, refugees and Erdogan’s regime supporters, they are still arrested, and their future is under the threat of deportation to Uzbekistan, to executioner Islam Karimov’s hands.

Yes, Turkey is a land of the Muslims. For the hundreds of years this country represented Islam in the world and has been a world leader. The noble Khalifah, the Muslim Ottoman rulers held in trembling awe the whole of Europe. Even in dreams, the colonialists of Europe have constantly had nightmares that the Ottoman Caliphate is about to conquer their lands. Yes, it was before!

Today, more than 90 years have passed, Turkey is a secular state that separates Islam from life, and the power rule the people not by what Allah has revealed. President Erdogan entering the post vowed to “defend the honor and integrity of the Turkish nation, to preserve the existence and independence of the State; to respect the constitution, the rule of law and democracy, the principles and reforms of Atatürk, and the principles of the secular republic”.  It is on the one hand. On the other hand, Erdogan visited the mausoleum of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal. Erdogan laid a wreath at the grave of Mustafa Kemal and left the message in the special book Anytkabir. “Beloved Ataturk! I take the authority of the 12th president of the republic and the first president elected by the people. After your death, the connection between the president and the people has been weakened. I think that the powers that I take today, are the means by which people accept their president, and the government perceives its people”.  Thereby reaffirming his commitment to secularism than Allah, Islam and Muslims.

We see that this commitment to the disbeliever-colonialists appears explicitly in Erdogan’s politics both inside Turkey and beyond. In the country itself, there are mass arrests of Muslim refugees from Central Asia. Moreover, Erdogan allows killers to murder refugee Muslims with impunity. He provides the disbeliever-colonialists with the land for building military bases from which planes will fly and bomb Muslims in neighboring countries. Erdogan’s policy is very clear in relation to the Muslims of Syria, where for more than 6 years there is a war between the forces of Kufr and Islam, Muslims.

Muslims! Our wanderings from one country to another in hope of a peaceful and quiet life will never succeed. We are Muslims, but today the world is ruled by evil and violence, and no country in the world is governed by Sharia. Allah سبحانه وتعالى says in His Noble Book:

وَلَن تَرْضَى عَنكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلاَ النَّصَارَى حَتَّى تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ

“Never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you till you follow their religion.”

(Al-Baqara, 2:120)

Muslims! Our salvation is in Islam! Islam is represented in the righteous Khilafah state, headed by the ruler of the righteous imam who will be chosen by the people and will give the oath that he will rule on the Sharia based on the Qur’an and Sunnah! To achieve this, we need to work relentlessly on the revival of the Islamic way of life upon the method of the Prophethood. And this is the only way of salvation left to us by our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

 

Eldar Khamzin

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir