When authorities in Kyrgyzstan announce that a terrorism suspect has been detained, the public is rarely given a name or convincing background story. So it came as a surprise that the National Security Committee identified a Turkish citizen detained on suspicion of membership in a terrorist organization bent on overthrowing the Turkish Republic. The case --complicated by the suspect’s request, a year ago, for asylum in Kyrgyzstan -- gives Bishkek a chance to look tough on terror.
Security forces arrested Ali Osman Zor at the request of the Turkish Embassy on May 2, local media reported on May 11. Since April 2010, he had reportedly been working in Kyrgyzstan for the Istanbul-based Baran Magazine, a publication critical of the Turkish government. Kyrgyz officials allege Zor has ties to al-Qaeda. Ankara accuses him of being a member of the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front (İslami Büyük Doğu Akıncılar Cephesi, or, IBDA-C), which it classifies as a terrorist organization. IBDA-C is suspected of a number of terrorist attacks in Turkey over the past 20 years.
Zor, 46, now faces extradition to Turkey. But according to Bishkek-based human rights activists, including the representatives of the Adilet Human Rights Center, which is providing Zor with legal assistance, a suspect cannot be extradited unless his application for asylum is first rejected.
Zor might find some compassion among activists in Kyrgyzstan, but observers at home are less sympathetic. “Ali Osman Zor is an interesting figure,” said Emrullah Uslu, a terrorism expert at Istanbul’s Yeditepe University. “He spent some time in Turkish prisons because of his involvement in the IBDA-C organization. He mostly published in IBDA-C-affiliated magazines. That is why he considers himself a journalist.”
According to Uslu, Zor was also involved with the Turkish magazine Kaide, the Turkish name for al-Qaeda. “In that magazine Zor published articles declaring [Osama] bin Laden and [Abu Musab al-] Zarqawi as heroes,” says Uslu, naming the recently killed al-Qaeda leader and the Jordanian-born former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Uslu paraphrased passages from Zor’s articles: The 2005 “bombings in London were a good job because after the bombings, the West is looking for an answer for the question of where did they make a mistake?” and “if the [Turkish] government builds alliances with tyrants who victimize Muslims, you too will pay the price.”
The articles might paint a fairly detailed picture of Zor’s political beliefs, but IBDA-C, the terrorist organization he is allegedly part of, is more obscure. IBDA-C is reportedly inspired by the “Greater East” ideology of Necip Fazil, a 20th century Turkish poet and thinker. Fazil, who believed Turkey’s secular identity made it a slave of Western imperialism, urged Muslims to join together to create an Islamic society.
IBDA-C gained some renown for attacks in the 1990s, but largely ceased activities after its leader, Salih Mirzabeyoglu, was arrested in 1998. In 2003, however, the organization claimed responsibility for the bombings of two synagogues in Istanbul that left 27 people dead.
Turkish authorities dismissed the claims of IBDA-C responsibility, saying that the organization was not capable of carrying out such an attack. Instead authorities blamed the bombings, as well as an attack on the British Consulate in Istanbul five days later, on al-Qaeda. “In order to show both its sympathizers and the public that the organization is still alive and kicking it claims the work of other terror organizations,” explained Uslu. “The 2003 bombing could be a work of former IBDA-C members who joined al-Qaeda and became al-Qaeda operatives. [However] I do not think that there is a contract between al-Qaeda and IBDA-C.”
Analysts in Bishkek see political expediency in the decision to arrest Zor. Kyrgyzstan and Turkey have very warm relations, Rouslan Jalil, who teaches comparative politics at the American University in Central Asia, pointed out. “I think Kyrgyzstan will not want to worsen relations with Turkey and will probably extradite Zor,” he told EurasiaNet.org. “The Turkish government has been providing financial, humanitarian and logistic assistance to Kyrgyzstan since 1991. Thousands of Kyrgyz students study at Turkish universities and there are numerous Turkish educational institutions in Kyrgyzstan.”
After a massacre in 2005, when Uzbekistan opened fire on demonstrators in the Ferghana Valley city of Andijan, killing hundreds, Kyrgyzstan extradited Uzbek refugees who had fled across the border and had sought asylum, despite international concerns they would be detained and arrested upon their return home. Human rights lawyer Dmitry Kabak of Bishkek’s Open Viewpoint Foundation believes Zor’s case will show that human rights in Kyrgyzstan come second to good relations with more powerful countries. While Kyrgyzstan does sometimes grant political asylum, certain groups, such as Chechens and Uighurs, are unwelcome in Kyrgyzstan because they are generally seen as fleeing Russia and China, Bishkek’s two biggest patrons, he says.
“It is similar with the Uzbek refugees,” Kabak told EurasiaNet.org. “Uzbekistan provides gas. Economic factors play a role.” Now, the situation is the same with Turkey, a country that frequently imprisons journalists, yet has growing ties to Kyrgyzstan.
Jalil agrees that Bishkek is unlikely to choose this moment to burnish its human rights credentials, despite concerns Zor may not receive a fair trial at home. The Kyrgyz government will probably reject his asylum application first, however, he predicted. Moreover, deporting Zor gives Bishkek a chance to appear tough on terror.
“The extradition of [Zor] may improve the country’s image in the West,” says Jalil.
Justin Vela is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.
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