Turkmen Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov reported on his participation in the meetings of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Almaty and the international conference on Afghanistan in Kabul at a cabinet meeting this week, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan reported. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov says Ashgabat stands ready to provide its good offices for an inter-Afghan peace dialogue under the aegis of the United Nations. The Turkmen leader has also highlighted the recent discussion in Kabul of the prospects for building the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-Indian (TAPI) pipeline, estimated at $8 billion. The security challenges for such a pipeline through war-torn territories are enormous, but the project has been promoted as key to the post-conflict reconstruction of Afghanistan.
Meredov was also in Teheran on July 24, welcoming improved Iranian-Turkmen cooperation, the Iranian state news reported. In Iran, too, Turkmenistan believes its approach of engagement with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other leaders could result in constructive participation of Teheran in regional stability, with projects such as the North-South railroad and increased gas purchases from Turkmenistan, enabling Iran to use and sell more of its own gas supplies.
While enjoying diplomatic successes abroad, President Berdymukhamedov continues to reshuffle his cabinet at home. On July 24, he replaced Deputy Prime Minister Bairmurad Khojamukhamov, who was in charge of Turkmenistan's fuel and energy complex, citing "health reasons," the Turkmen state television reported. In June, the Turkmen leader had reprimanded Khojamukhamedov publicly for "unsatisfactory performance of official duties," citing delays in the construction of gas and oil facilities. He did not elaborate, but the reference could be to the building of the East-West pipeline across Turkmenistan, a job for which Ashgabat originally publicized an international tender, only to withdraw it earlier this year, saying it would take on the job itself. The president has named Yagshiegeldy Kakayev, head of the state agency for hydrocarbon resources, as acting deputy prime minister.
Islamic cleric Shiri Geldimuradov has died in a prison in Turkmenistan under unexplained circumstances, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports. Geldimuradov, 73, was reportedly arrested on April 15 with three of his sons. A fourth, Abudlmejid, was allegedly arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for "misusing urban water resources." The charges stem from a deadly shoot-out in Ashgabat between members of an unidentified group, said to have made an attack on a water facility in Ashgabat, and Turkmen security forces in September 2007. At the time, Turkmen law-enforcement said the incident was related to drug-trafficking, and not Islamic extremism. On June 20, Shiri Geldimuradov's body was delivered to his family. Unconfirmed reports say he died in the Tejen prison some 200 kilometers east of the capital, Ashgabat. It is not clear when or how Shiri Geldimuradov died.
Recently, some changes to the Turkmen code of criminal procedures decreed by the president on July 1 eased somewhat the terms of confinement. Under the new redaction, persons who become severely ill in prison may be permitted release from prison if approved by a court, local officials, and a medical commission. Possibly by extension of that principle, bodies of those who die may now be released to their relatives.
President Berdymukhamedov has scolded contemporary Turkmen musicians, saying they should stop imitating popular melodies around the world, but not limit themselves to arranging Turkmen folk music. That does not give them much scope, but the head of state has urged them to actively incorporate all 72 types of Turkmen national instruments in their work. The Turkmen leader has criticized. Vice Premier Maysa Yazmukhammedova and the Ministry of Culture and Television and Radio Broadcasting which she oversees for failing to realize the potentials of national culture. Amangul Yarova, a writer for ferghana.ru, recently published a disturbing account of the deplorable state of Turkmenistan's culture, never recovered from past dictator Niyazov, and still languishing under Berdymukhamedov, who has not seen fit to remove aging state cultural czars who date from the Soviet era, or lift his own considerable controls over creative people.
The only person who seems to have an easy time of publishing his works in Turkmenistan is the president, who has printed books on topics from medicinal plants to health tips. The president has added to himself a number of honorific titles, and has now seen to it that he has been awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Economic Sciences, the semi-official news agency turkmenistan.ru reports. The Turkmen leader immediately set about rearranging the national accounting system. President Berdymukhamedov has been recently described as increasingly putting members of his own family into positions of power. Last week, he appointed his cousin, Ata Serdarov, as ambasasdor to Yerevan, regnum.ru reported. Serdarov had previously held the post of minister of health and the medical industry.
The annual day of celebration of health workers proved an opportunity for foreign medical supply companies to celebrate the opportunities for sales in a new market. Siemens, Otto Bock, Hospitalia International (Germany); Laboratoire Innotech International (France), Ajanta Pharma Ltd.(India) and other foreign medical and pharmaceutical companies were on hand to take part in a conference and expo in Ashgabat. The regional head of the World Health Organization also congratulated the president for Turkmenistan's cooperation in health programs, although the international NGO Doctors without Borders published a scathing report of the state of Turkmenistan's health industry sector this year.
Turkmenistan has stepped up security and inspections at airports, playing close attention to laptops, video cameras, mobile phones, books, and newspapers leaving the country. Authorities continue to block certain people from departure as well. On July 16, civic activist Umida Jumabaeva, who was en route to Kazakhstan, was denied exit by the Migration Service, despite having the required documents.
A curious report from Forbes, based on a recent Gallup World Poll, claims that Turkmenistan's people are in the top 20 of the happiest people in the world. The widely-publicized survey was immediately seized by the Turkmen government as a propaganda coup, and President Berdymukhamedov claimed that it was proof that Turkmenistan had a high standard of living. Yet other more in-depth long-term studies, such as those performed by the United Nations in its Human Development Index, place Turkmenistan near the bottom of the list of countries of the world due to poverty, unemployment, low income, and a low life expectancy.
Catherine A. Fitzpatrick compiles the Turkmenistan weekly roundup for EurasiaNet. She is also editor of EurasiaNet's Sifting the Karakum blog. To subscribe to the weekly email, write [email protected]
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