ISTANBUL - One hundred and nineteen Turkish nationals, mainly women and children, were repatriated from Kyrgyzstan overnight Friday, reporting fears for their safety in the troubled Central Asian nation on their arrival at the airport, Anatolia news agency said.
The evacuees were flown to Istanbul and Ankara by the same plane that took three Turkish diplomats to Bishkek Friday to appeal for calm after Thursday's ouster of the government there.
"Yesterday (Friday), events took a sudden violent turn and the looting became more intense," said Sebnem Gunduz, an evacuee on her arrival at Istanbul.
Authorities said at least three people were reported killed and 173 others were hospitalized as looters ran wild, stealing anything they could get their hands on. Other estimates put the toll at six killed and some 400 injured over the past two days.
"There were no attacks on foreigners or Turks nor any anti-Turkish hostility," Gunduz said, adding most Turks in Bishkek had remained in the safety of their homes or at the Turkish embassy.
Turkey has political, economic and cultural links with Kyrgyzstan, which gained independence in 1991 when the Soviet Union disolved, and around 3,500 Turks live there.
The Turkish ambassador to Bishkek Serpil Akman told Anatolia 1,300 of the Turks in the capital were students, and said measures to assure their safety or their repatriation were being considered.
Akman said order was returning to the streets of Bishkek and that the main priority had been to return women, children and the sick. A second flight was to be sent to Bishkek for more Turks on Saturday morning, NTV television station said.
03/26/2005 09:54 GMT