The Dagestan gay who fled to Turkey claims that the security forces tried to send him to Syria, blackmailing with compromise

The 26-year-old Dagestan gay-salafite, who fled to Turkey, claims that homosexuals in his homeland are forced to work for security forces, undergoing humiliating threats, violence and blackmail. He told about this on the terms of anonymity in an interview , which is published on Monday, June 5, the publication of the Caucasian Knot .

The interviewed, introduced by Ruslan, announced the blackmail, to which he was subjected to Derbent at the end of 2013 after his friend under pressure from the security forces provided them with a record from the camera. According to Ruslan, "it was a personal video."

"It was shot at home from my friend, with whom I was on this video. I did not know about the existence of this video. After they showed this video to me, they told me that in my interests to cooperate with them, if I do not want all the people whose numbers I have on the phone and all friends in VKontakte learn about who I am. They cracked my page in" VKontakte ", there were people there, in friends. With whom I talked from our region, ”said Ruslan.

He was detained by special services in civilian services and took him to the hotel, where he was interrogated, trying to find out about homosexuals among the Salafites. The security forces, whom Ruslan identified as the FSB officers presented him with compromising evidence, reproached him for practicing Islam and "" engaged like that. "

Then, in exchange for silence, they invited him to work in Syria. “During the conversation, it turned out that they wanted to send me to Syria. When I began to refuse, they said that I did not worry that they would all understand this in Turkey and then in Syria they would meet them and spend me. They did not say whether they were people from Russia or local, but they said that they would teach me everything. As I understood, I would be a link in a chain of people who would sometimes meet someone. As for the deadlines for the execution of the assignment, they said nothing.

Nothing about the work that he will have to do in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic was not informed. “I had to meet certain people. They didn’t say who exactly. And they also said that they needed people who need to be returned, and I had to help in this. It seemed to me that we were talking about people from the Caucasus who left there. They didn’t say why they were,” he added.

Ruslan claims that he asked the security forces about security guarantees. And "they said that everything was under control so that I would not worry." "They have their own people there, and this is an entire organization. Then they proposed another option that if I am so afraid, you can do it differently. I will deal with business, I will send goods from Turkey to Russia and, when they say, I will go to Syria. The opening of the business should be the legal basis for my location in Turkey."

The second version of the proposed work suggested that he would stay in Turkey for a long time in order to call and go to Syria. "They said that you can even open a company that will engage in Turkey in Turkey, and I will lead it. I realized that this is all cover, and that not everything would be the way they describe. I understood that they could say that the plans changed and send me to Syria. They needed the main thing to agree that I could agree every day."

After the conversation, he was offered water, into which some substance was mixed up, from which the Dagestan ceased to control. From the semi -conscious state, in which he fell after a glass of water, Ruslan remembered, in particular, the following: “I saw that the one who was sitting on the bed all the time silently took out the gun and puts it in my hand. I felt at that moment that he could not be picked up, but I had no strength, I seemed to be paralyzed. But it seems to me that I was able to push him away.”

After that, the security forces gave him five days to think, and during this period he decided to flee, with his brother crossed the border with Azerbaijan, arrived in Baku, and then to Turkey.

After the escape, the security forces came with his searches to his house, presenting to relatives the documents of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to combat organized crime. According to the Dagestan, even in Turkey he was not left alone. In 2016, "they themselves wrote to me in WhatsApp." “When they wrote to me, I changed my number right away, I didn’t save these messages. They wanted to meet me here, talk,” he claims.

Türkiye, according to Dagestan homosexual, has recently not an ideal country for sexual minorities. “People themselves are tolerant here,” he said, but the power is such that over time, “can begin persecution, as in Russia.”

"As for Chechnya, it seems to me that everything is possible there"

In the North Caucasus, homosexuals are persecuted not only in Chechnya, but also in Dagestan.

Ruslan spoke about another case of gay recruitment in the republic: “I had one familiar guy. He met someone on the Internet, it turned out to be the left man who invited him to his place, and there were already expected people who, as I understood, were beaten, they took away the phone. They made it clear that they knew what he was doing, they knew about his connections with other guys, and he became an activist, he became an activist, he became an activist, he became an activist, he became an activist, he became an activist. Participates in various events that the state organizes, shoots videos, went to the Mashuk camp (youth camp near Pyatigorsk. - Note Newsru.com ). "

According to him, in the North Caucasus, the topic of repression against sexual minorities has been taboo for a dozen years. According to him, the usual practice is when gays are married, fulfilling the requirements of society, but at the same time "they have guys with whom they can meet." “This is usually silent, but the family can know,” said Ruslan.

After the information on the persecution of gays in Chechnya, published by the “new newspaper”, he contacted his acquaintances in this republic, and they said that they were very scared. “In Chechnya, I have only a couple of acquaintances. After the recent events that I wrote in the Novaya Gazeta, I contacted my friend from there, and he answered me that if he says something on this topic, they would kill him. He asked him directly:“ Do you want me to be killed? They will kill me. Why are you asking about it? "

“I asked another acquaintance whether he thought to move to another region, to Moscow or somewhere else, because sooner or later they can find out and do something with him. Even someone from his own family. He replied that he did not think to move, but if they find out, it would be a shame for the family and kill him,” said Ruslan.

Referring to the words of his friend from Grozny, the Dagestan said that "in the mufti itself" homosexual relations "are very widespread."

Regarding the secret prisons for gays in the Argun and in Tsotsi-Yurt, Ruslan said: “As for Chechnya, it seems to me that everything is possible there. The same secret prisons where ordinary people were kept not because of their orientation, but simply for criticism of the authorities, everyone knows that these prisons exist. And since they are, why not they could keep gays? But these are not special prisons, but the same.”

In early April, the New Gazeta reported the murders and mass detention of homosexuals in Chechnya, and then published evidence of people who were allegedly contained in a secret prison for gays in the Chechen city of Argun.

The publication caused an international public outcry, so that it was forced to respond to the Kremlin, who first announced that "this is not the Kremlin agenda." On May 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Tatyana Moskalkova promised to connect the Prosecutor General and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to understand the violation of gay rights in the North Caucasus.

The topic of violence against gays in Chechnya was discussed in the European Parliament. On April 19, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a series of caricatures called "Hunt for Gays in Chechnya", on one of which the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov is depicted for group oral sex, with a penis in his mouth and with the signature: "Only Kadyrov is allowed to use lipstick."

Three French LGBT-organizing Stop Homophobie, Mousse and Comité Idaho France filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, whom they initiate reprisals, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain Teresa May promised to “look for opportunities” to support the rights of gays in Chechnya.