(CNN) — Ruslan Tsarni angrily condemned the alleged actions of his two nephews — the two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings — and after calling the two young men “losers,” the uncle urged the surviving nephew to turn himself in immediately.
“If you’re alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness from the victims,” Tsarni said in front of reporters in a press conference outside his Montgomery County, Maryland, home.
Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, is the subject of a massive police dragnet in the Boston area. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after an overnight shootout with police.
The brothers come from an ethnic Chechen Muslim family, and Tsarni said the two nephews brought shame to his brother’s family. The nephews are sons of Tsarni’s brother, and Tsarni last saw his nephews in December 2005.
“You put a shame on our entire family — the Tsarnaev family — and you put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity,” Tsarni said.
When asked what may have provoked his nephews, the uncle stated: “Being losers, hatred to those who were able to settle themselves — these are the only reasons I can imagine.
“Anything else, anything else to do with religion, with Islam, is a fraud, is a fake,” Tsarni said.
“Somebody radicalized them, but it’s not my brother who just moved back to Russia, who spent his life bringing bread to their table, fixing cars. He didn’t have time or chance or anything, options. He’s been working,” Tsarni said.
CNN’s Jaclyn Wang contributed to this report.
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