Russian Student Explains Leaving Baby in Antalya Airport
The student says she simply did not understand what was happening to her.
A Russian woman who left a baby in a restroom at Antalya airport said she did not know she was giving birth and did not understand what was happening to her. Yekaterina Burnashkina shared her story in an interview with journalist Ksenia Sobchak.
The young woman told Ksenia she vaguely remembers what was happening. According to Burnashkina, there was no one in the restroom at the moment of labor, and she did not feel any pain. She did not scream, and the entire process was silent.
«I don’t remember. Vaguely. I felt unwell; it was as if I needed to have a bowel movement, so to speak. A state of shock. A feeling of not understanding what had happened at all. A haze,» the young woman said.
Burnashkina maintains that she simply did not understand what had happened and that she simply did not notice the newborn in the toilet bowl. Afterward, she went to change clothes and prepare for the flight, allegedly in another restroom.
She realized what had happened only at the hospital, after doctors put her on an IV.
«I understood what had happened. I roughly guessed what had happened,» Burnashkina noted.
She also cannot say exactly when her water broke. According to her, it may have happened when she had earlier gone to see a doctor.
During the interview she said that for all nine months she did not even suspect she was pregnant. Doctors examined her, she said, but allegedly noticed nothing either.
A segment from Burnashkina’s interview with journalist Ksenia Sobchak discussing the Antalya incident.
The 19-year-old student attributed her irregular cycle and the prolonged absence of periods to stress.
The baby was born in 2024, in a shocking case. Turkish media reported that the mother gave birth to the infant in a restroom and left the child there. She then went to check in for her flight. Fortunately, a cleaner noticed the baby and handed the child over to medics.
The story sparked public outcry in Turkish society. The child’s mother was sent to a penal colony for 15 years, but an appellate court later released her. Since then, the woman has been trying to regain custody of the infant, and on 23 September the Pavlovo-Posadsky gorodskoy sud Moskovskoy oblasti (Pavlovo-Posadsky City Court of Moscow Oblast) stripped her of parental rights.
