ANKARA, Turkey — A prominent figure in the Chechen diaspora in Turkey was shot at his Ankara office in an attack that supporters blamed on Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Kadyrov's spokesman Alvi Karimov said that the Chechen leadership had never before heard of the slain man, Medet Onlu, a Turkish citizen of Chechen origin.
He said any attempt to link his killing with Chechnya was "absolutely illogical" because Onlu was a Turkish citizen.
Omer Bezirgan, vice president of Imkander, an Istanbul-based organization that assists refugees from the North Caucasus, said gunmen shot Onlu on Wednesday evening.
In a statement on its website, Imkander described Onlu as the "indomitable defender of independent Chechnya," a reference to the region's short period of de facto independence from Russia in the 1990s. Imkander blamed Russia, Kadyrov and "collaborating governments" for the killing.
State news agency Anatolian said that video footage outside Onlu's workplace showed the person who committed the murder was a native of Chechnya, but did not give details. It said two men had driven up to the building but only one man had entered.
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