Human Rights Watch has called on Turkish authorities to immediately release Turkmen activist Umidajan Bekchanova, who is currently detained in İstanbul and faces deportation to Turkmenistan, where she risks persecution and abuse.
Bekchanova, 45, was detained by police on May 29 and initially held at the Arnavutköy deportation center before being transferred to the Çatalca facility on June 1.
“Bekchanova’s detention puts her at immediate risk of being sent back to Turkmenistan, where independent activism and dissent are severely punished,” Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said. “Türkiye should uphold its international obligations and not send Bekchanova to any country where she faces a grave risk of persecution, arbitrary detention, or worse.”
In October 2024 Turkish migration authorities canceled Bekchanova’s residence permit, which had been valid until February 2025. Bekchanova only learned of the cancellation in January.
When her lawyer inquired, officials cited her “provocative actions” and claimed the decision was made at the request of Turkmen authorities. The cancellation was never formally explained, and a lawsuit challenging the move is ongoing. Her Turkmen passport expired in April 2025, leaving her undocumented.
Turkmenistan is one of the world’s most closed and repressive states. It permits no independent media or human rights scrutiny, and critics are often disappeared, tortured or imprisoned. Rights groups report that the refusal by Turkmen consulates to renew the passports of government critics leave many stranded or undocumented.
Turkish authorities have used similar claims to justify deportation orders against other Turkmen activists.
Bekchanova, who had lived legally in Turkey since 2017, became politically active in 2020, initially under anonymity. She took part in online forums criticizing Turkmenistan’s economic crisis and political repression, joined peaceful protests, produced human rights advocacy videos and later became a visible member of the exiled Turkmen dissident group HSM, which runs a popular YouTube channel with over 25,000 subscribers. Her own YouTube channel, TAGA, focusing on women’s voices, has over 3,000 subscribers.
Since Bekchanova became vocal, Turkmen authorities have retaliated against her family. In 2020 her older son was detained in Turkmenistan for 15 days and allegedly tortured with electric shocks after he shared information with her about bread shortages in the country. In 2024 her younger son was sentenced to three years in prison on what Bekchanova says were trumped-up robbery charges.
HRW warns her public criticism of the Turkmen regime makes her a target for ill-treatment including torture if returned. They argue Turkey should allow her to seek international protection and halt her deportation, which would violate the principle of nonrefoulement under multiple international treaties, including the Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Convention Against Torture.
The case is part of a wider pattern of deportations by Turkey targeting dissidents and asylum seekers from repressive regimes. In December 2024 Turkish authorities deported approximately 300 Eritrean migrants despite warnings from UN special rapporteurs that they were at serious risk of torture and indefinite detention upon return.
