Turkish businesses are blamed for providing financial support to banned religious movements
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| Turkuaz supermarket |
Almost 50 Turkish-owned businesses were closed in Uzbekistan to date. They are blamed for allegedly providing support to “Nur” movement, which the Uzbek government labels as a group that undermines constitutional order.
The latest incident happened on Wednesday, March 2, when a large number of law enforcement officers were brought to the “Turkuaz” supermarket in buses and the building was surrounded. After police forced the four-story supermarket to shut its doors, they rounded up all workers.
According to the source close to the Turkish embassy, the Uzbek law enforcement’s raid was described as a “terror”, in which all employees were ordered to lay down on the floor and the director of the store Vohid Gunesh was beaten in his office. Afterwards, Mr. Gunesh was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Turkish embassy employees were not allowed to visit Mr. Gunesh the same day. Most of the goods from the store were loaded into trucks and taken away.
The closings follow a similar shutdown by law enforcement authorities of a popular Turkish-owned supermarket “Mir” in Tashkent in January. Both supermarkets are owned by the same holding company Sharq-MIR.
According to the BBC’s Uzbek service, on Thursday, March 3, the state television of Uzbekistan in a special program blamed that Turkish businesses took advantage of friendly relations between two countries and of a good investment environment in the country and have hidden taxes from authorities.
According to the Uzbek state television, Turkish-owned businesses such as “Turkuaz”, “Gunesh” and “Kaynak” have disseminated literature related to the banned “Nur” movement and are behind establishing underground religious groups.
The Nurchilar, or Nurcular, Islamic movement is banned in Uzbekistan. It was founded in 1945 by a Turkish religious scholar Said Nursi, the movement encourages the combination of educational pursuits and religious devotion.
In a TV program it was said that more than 50 Turkish-run businesses were closed down and their assets of about 400 million Uzbek soums (about $300,000) have been confiscated and business leaders were called for a criminal investigation.
The Turkish embassy in Tashkent is not commenting regarding the incidents, but the source at the embassy said that Turkish diplomats are outraged. There were some raids before, but never been conducted in such a terrible manner.
