Erdogan Boz asks rights defenders to help to restore his right to visit Russia

Erdogan Boz, a Turkish citizen of Circassian origin, has asked the Human Rights Centre (HRC) of Kabardino-Balkaria to help him to restore his right to visit his historic homeland.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 25, 2014, Erdogan Boz, who was on his way to a folklore conference in Cherkessk, was detained at the airport of the city of Mineralnye Vody. According to a source from the organizing committee of the conference, Erdogan Boz, a well-known scholar and public figure in Turkey and among the Circassian community, was announced a ban to enter Russia until August 2015.

At night on November 27, 2014, Boz, according to his story, was sent back to Istanbul. At the airport, he could not find out the reason for his ban to visit Russia, says his letter posted on the website of the above HRC.

Upon his return to Turkey, Boz addressed to the Russian Embassy in Ankara for explanations, but the embassy staff was unable to name the reason for the ban on entering Russia and refused to give a written reply, said Boz.

Earlier, Mr Boz attended a conference in Cherkessk in November 2014 and presented his report entitled "False (folk) etymologies and mythologizing the language in literature and oral discourse of Circassians in Turkey", the RIA "Karachay-Cherkessia" reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.