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A former Belarusian diplomat, who served in the government of President Alexander Lukashenko before joining the opposition, has vanished in Türkiye, prompting concerns that Minsk orchestrated his disappearance.
Anatol Kotau, 44, went missing on Aug. 21 shortly after arriving in Istanbul from his exile home in Warsaw, according to the Turkish news agency IHA.
The agency reported he landed at 1:49 p.m., then took a domestic flight to the Black Sea port city of Trabzon before departing Turkish waters by vessel at 6:35 p.m. Contact with Kotau ceased hours later.
His family filed a missing person report with Turkish police after Kotau failed to return to Warsaw as scheduled on Aug. 24.
Alyaksandr Apeykin, executive director of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, where Kotau worked, said Turkish authorities likely did not officially deport the missing diplomat.
"Such a process requires lawyers, paperwork, and public oversight, which could have stopped it. What seems more plausible is informal extradition; he may have been detained and forcibly removed," Apeykin said.
"If this were voluntary, there would be no reason to go via Trabzon and leave by sea. There are direct flights to Minsk and Moscow. Nothing in his behavior suggested instability or a plan to vanish," Apeykin added.
The Belarusian Embassy in Istanbul declined to comment on Kotau's whereabouts when contacted. The Polish Consulate in Türkiye redirected questions to Poland's Foreign Ministry, which did not immediately respond, RFE/RL reported .
Born in Minsk in 1980, Kotau built his career within Belarus's establishment before becoming a prominent opposition figure.
He worked for nearly a decade at Belarus's embassy in Poland, later ascending to secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee and heading the organizing committee for the 2019 European Games in Minsk.
By 2020, Kotau held a senior position in Lukashenko's presidential administration. But he resigned in August that year amid massive protests following Lukashenko's disputed re-election victory, which Belarusians, Western governments, and international human rights organizations widely viewed as fraudulent.
After signing a public letter by Belarusian athletes condemning police violence against protesters, Kotau fled to Poland.
At the time of his disappearance, he was working for the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, which supports activists and dissidents abroad, while contributing commentary to independent Belarusian media.
Kotau's case follows other recent disappearances of Belarusian opposition figures outside their homeland.
In March, Anzhalika Melnikava, spokeswoman of the opposition Coordination Council, vanished after leaving Poland to travel outside the EU with her daughters.
According to opposition leader Paval Latushka, her phone has been active on Belarusian territory since March 19.
The disappearances echo earlier cases from the 1990s during Lukashenko's early rule, though those occurred within Belarus.
Former interior minister Yury Zakharanka was last seen being forced into a dark car near his Minsk home in May 1999, while Viktar Hanchar disappeared after leaving a bathhouse in the Belarusian capital in September 1999. Neither has been seen since.
Human rights groups and Western governments accused senior Belarusian officials of organizing these abductions.
The European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on former Prosecutor General Viktar Sheyman, ex-Interior Minister Yury Sivakou, and Interior Ministry Special Rapid Reaction Force commander Dzmitry Paulichenka.
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