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Russia tries to get consular access to compatriots detained in Turkey — Lavrov

Routes of those who have gone to war and then try to get back home are crucially important to be traced, the Russian foreign minister said
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Sergey Fadeichev/TASS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
© Sergey Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. Russia’s Foreign Ministry is trying to get consular access to the Russian nationals detained in Turkey on allegations that they participated in combat activities, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

"We have managed to solve only one problem - that is Varvara Karaulova. She must have arrived in Russia today," Lavrov said. "[Karaulova’s] father helped us and made a trip to Turkey. We assisted him in his meetings and in settling all the organisational issues. Certainly, we are concerned and everybody should get concerned as Europeans alongside local citizens fight on the side of terrorist and extremist organisations in the Middle East and in North Africa."

Lavrov recalled that in 2014 the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on ‘foreign terrorists-militants,’ as some of them fight as recruiters or are recruited and doped by extremism ideas in military detachments."

"Routes of those who have gone to war and then try to get back home are crucially important to be traced," he said. "However, it cannot be done on the spot. There must be a compulsory strategy and a clear-cut pattern of routine - not always publicly declared - interaction of those who are competent in counteracting these sorts of things, there should be a really international system."

On May 27, the 19-year-old Moscow student left home pretending she was heading for the university, but never came back. Later on, she was traced to have secretly taken a flight to Istanbul. On June 2 the Interpol launched searches and two days later, on June 4, its Turkish staff detained Karaulova and another twelve Russians who were trying to cross the border into Syria. They are believed to arrive in Turkey with the aim to reach Syria via the Turkish southern border and to join militants. All the Russian nationals are temporarily staying at a regional department for refugees in the Batman Province.