Abdulvakhid Edelgireyev survived for years hiding in the Chechen mountains, launching attacks on Russian security forces and evading capture. He survived the battlefields of Syria, and those of east Ukraine. But in November his life came to an abrupt end in a flurry of bullets: he was shot dead in broad daylight in Istanbul as he embarked on a shopping trip with his three-year-old niece.
Edelgireyev and his niece walked out of their apartment block in Kayasehir, a far-flung suburb of nondescript new towers, shortly before 2pm on 1 November. The 32-year-old Chechen sat the girl in the passenger seat of his car, and was about to start the engine when a white car rammed into them from behind, closing him in. Pushing his niece on to the floor under the seat, Edelgireyev scrambled out and started running. One of the assassins gave chase, firing at him, and he crumpled to the ground. When paramedics arrived a few minutes later he was already dead, in a pool of blood. He had been shot five times.
The dead man’s biography, as set out by family and associates, paints a picture of a key figure in the Caucasus Emirate, the umbrella group of Chechen and other fighters in Russia’s North Caucasus that has resorted to terrorist methods, including suicide attacks on Moscow’s metro and Domodedovo airport. Edelgireyev’s experiences during his year in Syria also revealed how the Chechen resistance fight has slowly grown links to Islamic State , and the infighting and turmoil among the foreign fighters in Syria.
The murder is the latest in a pattern of audacious hits on key Chechen figures in the Turkish city over recent years. Personal enemies of Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, have been killed in Moscow, Vienna and Dubai; there are suspicions members of Kadyrov’s militias may have been involved. But Turkish prosecutors suspect the Istanbul murders may have the hallmarks of more centralised Russian hits.There has been no official comment on the murders. However, in 2003 Vladimir Putin passed a law allowing the FSB, Russia’s security service, to conduct operations abroad, and now Russia and Turkey have fallen out dramatically over the downing of an Su-24 warplane by the Turkish air force in November, there are fears among potential targets in Turkey that the campaign could be stepped up.
In one 2009 murder, the weapon used was the Groza, a pistol developed for Russia’s special forces for use in assassinations – and rarely found on the open market. In themurders of three Chechens outside an Istanbul teahouse in 2011, Turkish authorities believed nine people were involved, including two alleged Russian agents who fled, leaving fake passports behind.
The only man to be arrested for any of the killings is a shadowy figure who goes by the nickname “the Zone”. Believed to be Chechen, the Zone was apprehended trying to enter Istanbul on a fake Georgian passport in the name of Temur Makhauri in 2012. He is currently on trial in Istanbul for his alleged role in a number of the previous murders; the key evidence is secretly taped video of the Zone meeting with a man claimed to be an FSB agent and discussing the murders of Chechens. The prosecution is calling for a life sentence.
Several thousand Chechens live in Istanbul, where there were once three refugee camps for Chechens. But as well as civilians, the Turkish city has become something of a base for Chechen fighters and their families. For years, the children and wives of insurgents lived in the city, and injured fighters would travel there for treatment.
All Istanbul’s Chechens involved in the Caucasus Emirate now live in fear of attack. One who recently left Istanbul for Ukraine said he frequently changed his sim cards and always carried a pistol when in Turkey: he might not be able to escape death but perhaps he would at least get a shot off at his attackers. The Guardian also tracked down several Chechens making very cautious movements near a petrol station in a distant suburb of Istanbul, where the men took turns to act as lookouts. “We are required to take many precautions, unfortunately,” said one of the men, who wished to remain anonymous.In the days before he was killed, Edelgireyev had not noticed anyone following him, and was not taking any serious precautions, according to his family. But the well-built Chechen, with short hair and a wispy ginger beard, was a key figure in the Chechen insurgency’s diaspora, associates said.
‘To start with, Abdulvakhid was not a fighter’
Edelgireyev was born in 1983 to Chechen parents in Russia’s Volgograd region. He finished school and planned to study law at university, but when Vladimir Putin launched the second Chechen war in 2000, the family moved back toChechnya. Three of his brothers joined the insurgency, carrying out attacks on Russian forces.
“To start with, Abdulvakhid was not a fighter, but he was abducted so many times by the security forces who wanted information on his brothers, that he eventually decided he would be better off going to the forest himself,” said his father, 71-year-old Alu Edelgireyev, over tea at his Istanbul home, just two blocks from where his son was murdered.
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