A rare street demonstration was organized in front of the prestigious Oguzkent Hotel in Ashgabat on June 8, the independent Turkmen emigre website chrono-tm.org reported.
About 50 people gathered to protest the razing of residential buildings in Ashgabat, and were quickly dispersed by police.
The last time people in the capital had protested the government's destruction of homes to make way for new government palaces was back in the 1990s. In the provincial city of Dashoguz last November, merchants staged a sit-in to protest the bulldozing of the popular Bay Bazaar, where many local people made a living selling fruits and vegetables.
In February, citing a failure to gain proper permits, authorities decreed the demolition of some Soviet-era two-story apartment buildings. They were supposed to find new homes for people displaced, but some were forgotten and began appealing to the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights for help.
The protesters likely chose the five-star €270 million Oguzkent Hotel, built by the French construction firm Bouygues, because it is known to be the Ashgabat residence of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, and symbolizes the pompous building projects he has decreed since coming to power in 2007.
Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, Ambassador Richard L. Morningstar, August 2010
Russia and the United States would seem to be on a collision course of sorts over the Trans-Caspian pipeline -- but both deny it, and Turkmenistan has no comment. The Trans-Caspian is to be built under the sea from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan -- once they resolve their border differences -- and then connect to Europe. The pipeline is pivotal not only to Turkmenistan's plans to diversify energy corridors, but also those of the European Union.
The state media has the usual boilerplate about "mutually advantageous cooperation" and the US Embassy website is even more terse, but a clue to the current agenda could be seen from recent speech from Daniel D. Stein, Senior Advisor in Morningstar's office. Speaking at the Turkmen Oil and Gas Conference in the Avaza resort on May 26, Stein invoked the new discoveries in accessing shale gas, the Japanese nuclear disaster at Fukushima, and the downturn in the global economy as all factors impacting the world gas and oil markets.
While it is unlikely that Caspian gas will reach US markets directly, its development helps increase the world supply. A key element of US foreign policy is helping Europe attain energy security to keep Europe economically strong, and that means helping Turkmenistan find new routes to market for its hydrocarbons, said Stein. Thus for geopolitical reasons as much as actual energy needs, the US wants to be part of the Caspian projects:
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka greeted at the Ashgabat airport, April 27, 2011
The Turkmen Foreign Ministry is hopping mad this week at the Russian news agency Regnum for allegedly printing "lies and provocations," the semi-official news site turkmenistan.ru reports.
The ministry issued a statement following Regnum's story claiming that Turkmenistan was giving Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka a loan to cope with his spiralling economic crisis.
Regnum describes itself as a "federal non-governmental news agency" with a large network of its own correspondents. It can sometimes appear pro-government and anti-Western (i.e. a story on US Eurasian energy envoy Richard Morningstar's upbeat claim that Russian interests will not hinder US policy in the Caspian is titled "One Slap After Another") but Regnum is also occasionally rapped by the Kremlin for being too critical. It's often one of the fastest sources on what's happening in Eurasia.
Citing DW, which had referred to "a source close to the government of Turkmenistan," Regnum said the Turkmen leader was going to help bail out Lukashenka to reduce Minsk's dependency on Moscow, and had arranged to commission Belarus to build the potassium plant for $1 billion -- a deal that was also going to enrich Turkmen officials.
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović (l) and Chairperson-in-Office, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis, Vilnius, 7 June 2011
Leading media representatives and government officials from around the world are gathering in Vilnius, Lithuania today and tomorrow to discuss the safety and freedom of journalists in the region. The meeting, hosted by the Lithuanian chair-in-office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, is focusing on the “role of governments and civil society in protecting journalists” and highlighting “best practices” among OSCE participating states -- as such official conferences tend to do.
Unfortunately, in some of those states, not only do governments need to protect citizens from reporters, the journalists need protection from government officials themselves as well. Activists are hoping governments will specifically remember the plight of those who face harassment, prison, and even murder by their own governments for performing their journalistic duties.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis kicked off the conference by recalling the dozens of journalists killed or imprisoned in the OSCE countries and explained why protection of the media is so important:
When journalists can act without fear, security in their person and in their profession, they are empowered to bring vital information to the people. They become agents of democracy and freedom. They serve as a watchdog over the institutions of society. They can convey accurately and objectively the actions and attitudes of the power brokers of society. In this way, they are as vital as any other actor or institution in the democratic form of governance.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre also reported the quake, about 43 kilometers from the city of Balkanabat, with a measurement of 4.6. That would put the earthquake in the "light" category, where little damage was likely.
Turkmenistan has retained the Soviet practice of not publicizing natural or man-made disasters in the state-controlled media, although the leadership routinely sends condolences to other countries regarding their own disasters.
That doesn't President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov from bragging that his "era of new revival" has brought scientific progress, advances in education, and new technologies to Turkmenistan -- with its own peculiar brand, of course:
"Turkmenistan has chosen an original, national way of scientific planning and management of the national economy, introduction of innovations in all areas to keep pace with the rapidly changing and developing world today,” he recently boasted at an international science conference in Ashgabat -- and not surprisingly, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan tells us, "The forum participants welcomed these words with a storm of applause."
Ashgabat has been offering for years to convene and host peace talks of all the warring parties in Afghanistan, with UN assistance. Turkmen diplomats have made this proposal at the UN General Assembly; they mention it in regional and international meetings -- and mainly they get ignored. Even so, the Afghan leadership makes perfunctory acknowledgements whenever they send delegations to Ashgabat, and even Chancellor Angela Merkel once acknowledged the idea when meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as part of Germany's overall realpolitik strategy with Central Asia.
But most of the time, while praising Ashgabat's generosity in supplying humanitarian aid and subsidized electricity, as Ambassador Robert E. Patterson, Jr. did in his nomination hearing, the US ignores the actual peace talks proposal as do other powers -- Tashkent's also-ignored "6 + 2" or "6 + 3" proposal doesn't feature peace talks in Ashgabat, for example.
Whenever I've asked experts deeply engaged in Afghanistan, both from the government and private sector, how they view the Turkmen angle to peace in Afghanistan, they stare blankly -- they haven't heard of it.
The Turkmen regime never forgives and never forgets.
Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev, a former political prisoner, jailed for his broadcasts on Radio Azatlyk, the Turkmen Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was released in 2006, but has continued to suffer difficulties.
This week unknown vandals came and scrawled crude obscenities and drawings on the wall of his home, calling him a "traitor" and his wife a "prostitute," the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights reported.
Durdykuliev's arrest in 2004 came after he asked to hold a peaceful demonstration to express disatisfaction with past dictator Saparmurat Niyazov. He was then thrown in a psychiatric hospital. Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of conscience and the US Congress appealed on his behalf. He was finally released in 2006.
Swedish authorities have denied repeated appeals for asylum from a Turkmen national and deported him back to Turkmenistan, says Human Rights Watch.
A story indicating fears that Keymir Berdiev could be deported was reported by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) earlier today. Berdiev, 32, lived illegally in Russia for a decade before making his way to Sweden. Because his father and brothers are involved in the opposition movement and have worked for RFE/RL, he feared certain arrest if he went back to his homeland.
Yet Swedish authorities told Berdiev that because Turkmenistan has a new president and Berdiev had not been active in political dissent since 2002, that he could safely return.
"It's absolutely appalling that he has been returned to Turkmenistan," Rachel Denber, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division, told EurasiaNet. "Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive countries of the world," she added.
"The government of Sweden had all of the necessary information at its disposal to grant him asylum and it failed to do so," said Denber.
Berdiev's first appeal to a Swedish immigration court was turned down, and he went into hiding. He was later detained by the police, homeless, in a park, and wound up in psychiatric hospital after making an attempt to commit suicide.
Other emigres who have returned to Turkmenistan have been prosecuted. Gulgeldy Annaniyazov, who had obtained refugee status in Norway, returned to Ashgabat in 2008, was arrested, and sentenced on charges of unlawful border crossing to 11 years of prison.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan and President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, October 2010
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has made Newsweek's Despot Index of the top 10 dictators of the world.
With his trademark "Peter Gallagher eyebrows" and "legit pal" Prince Andrew, as well as his "intellectual pursuit" as a trained dentist, the Turkmen leader's "future prospects" are considered "very good," says Newsweek.
Although his rule is as ruthless and total as that of President Islam Karimov in neighboring Uzbekistan, who also made the list, Berdymukhamedov is often left off such dictator lists because of a widespread willingness to give him credit for making reform efforts after the death of his predecessor, dictator Saparmurat Niyazov.
Newsweek claims Berdymukhamedov's nickname is "Turkmenbashi" (which means "head of all Turkmens") but in fact that was the name given to Niyazov, and it hasn't been used in the same way with Berdymukhamedov, although he has exhibited signs of the same kind of cult of personality as his predecessor.
The Karakum, or "black sand" desert covers 70 percent of the Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan. Population is sparse there, with only one person per 2.5 miles, and rain might come once in a decade. Underneath this austere territory lies the ancient city of Merv, near today's Mary, whose ruins are still studied by scholars around the world, as well as a great deal of oil and gas, making Turkmenistan's reserves the fifth largest in the world. Also under the shifting sands are the springs of water that feed oases where the Turkmen people have made their villages and struggled against the elements for centuries. The Karakum Canal, the largest irrigation system in the world, crosses the region, and the desert is also the site of an over-ambitious and controversial state project to create an artificial lake. Read more...
About The Author
Catherine A. Fitzpatrick, a freelance writer and Russian translator, is
editor of the weekly Turkmenistan News Brief and is based in New York.
