Two Turkmen activists who disappeared after being released from a Turkish deportation center under a Constitutional Court ruling suspending their removal remain missing, fueling fears they may have been unlawfully deported as authorities remain silent about their whereabouts.
The case resurfaced this week after human rights defender and Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu interviewed Sakhatov’s wife, Gullala Hasanova, on March 10 and subsequently submitted a parliamentary question to Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi, pressing authorities for answers nearly eight months after the men’s disappearance.
According to Turkish media, Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov were released after Turkey’s Constitutional Court temporarily suspended their deportation on July 14, 2025, citing a risk of “violation of the right to life and prohibition of torture.” Gergerlioğlu said both have been unreachable since July 24, 2025.
Sakhatov, 40, and Orusov, 32, were detained by migration authorities in the northern city of Sinop on April 28, 2025, and transferred to Ankara before being moved to the Edirne repatriation center. Both men are known critics of the Turkmen government and were seeking international protection in Turkey at the time of their detention.
Sakhatov and Orusov have operated independent YouTube channels, “Erkin Garaýyş” and “Abdulla,” respectively, where they criticized the Turkmen government’s refusal to renew passports through consular services abroad. Their videos also addressed restrictions on freedom of movement, lack of support for Turkmen migrants abroad, suppression of free speech and abuse claims by Turkmenistan’s Ministry for National Security and other law enforcement agencies.
In her social media interview with Gergerlioğlu, Hasanova said she last spoke with her husband by phone on the evening of July 24. Authorities later informed their lawyer that both men had been released, but Sakhatov has not returned home.
Their lawyer, Kader Sevimli, who also spoke at the March 10 interview, said his clients had been detained on the grounds of being a “threat to public order” citing their opposition activities against the Turkmen government. He added that despite the Constitutional Court’s binding ruling, the whereabouts of his clients remain unknown.
Sevimli added that although surveillance footage should have been collected as part of the investigation into their disappearance, both the Edirne and Sinop prosecutor’s offices closed the case, citing a lack of jurisdiction.
Gergerlioğlu urged the Edirne governor and chief public prosecutor to provide an explanation, warning that the case has escalated from a domestic legal matter into one with international implications.
He also submitted a parliamentary question to Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi, asking what official records exist regarding the activists’ status, whether an investigation into their whereabouts has been launched and whether authorities are examining the possibility that the men were deported in defiance of the court order.
Rights groups report that the refusal by Turkmen consulates to renew the passports of government critics leaves many stranded or undocumented.
