Two Turkmen activists who attempted to gain entry to a human rights meeting in Warsaw convened by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) this week were blocked when Turkmenistan protested their participation, EurasiaNet reported. The OSCE Review Conference, the first part of a three-part series of conferences analyzing states’ compliance with obligations under various OSCE human rights agreements, opened September 30. One Turkmen activist, Annadurdy Hajiev, co-founder of the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, who had pre-registered, and another activist, Nurmuhammet Hanamov, founder of the Republican Party of Turkmenistan who attempted to register on site, were denied entry.
Western diplomats objected to the move by the OSCE secretariat as a point of order, citing a 1992 agreement that states could only deny the participation of non-government organization members if they had used or advocated violence or terrorism. Turkmenistan made the claim that the exiles had engaged in criminal acts, but they were unable to make the accusations stick, as Bulgaria, an EU member where Hajiev has obtained refugee status, has twice rejected efforts by Turkmenistan to extradite the activist by misusing Interpol notifications. Furthermore other EU members had denied the Turkmen claims -- Austria had granted political asylum to Hanamov, and Poland had permitted the Turkmen activists to enter the country to attend the OSCE meeting in Warsaw. Kazakhstan, the chair-in-office of OSCE, which could have ruled to admit the two activists, bucked the decision to the OSCE Secretary General, citing a July 2010 decision at the OSCE Permanent Council that provided for the Secretary General to consult with interested state parties over disputes on NGO registration.
After protests from the U.S., the EU, Canada, Norway, and Switzerland, OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, after consultations with Turkmenistan, finally decided to permit admission for Hajiev after two and a half days. But Hanamov, who lives in exile in Vienna, was not cleared. Both activists resolved to apply for the next stage of the OSCE Review Conference in Vienna Unofficially, the Kazakh delegation let the two Turkmen exiles know that if they attempted to come to the summit in Astana in late November, they could face difficulties. Informally, they were sent contradictory messages by Kazakh diplomats, who first told the activists that they could not ensure their security, then said they’d have to assign a security detail to them in Kazakhstan to avoid incident.
Kazakhstan has let it be known that Turkmenistan has threatened not to come to the Astana summit or sign any concluding documents if the Turkmen activists are admitted to the meeting. By grand-standing over the OSCE summit, Turkmenistan has ensured that its critics abroad have received even more publicity. For its part, Kazakhstan, by refusing to make a routine decision in conformity with years of past OSCE practice regarding NGO groups, has also ensured that Western delegations became only more determined to support NGOs whose criticism is not welcome by their homeland.
Turkmenistan has boycotted the OSCE human rights meetings since 2005 and has ceased to send an ambassador to sit in the chair behind Turkmenistan’s nameplate, While earlier in the administration of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov there were expectations that various reforms might lead to more tolerance of such independent civic groups at home and abroad, regrettably, the Turkmen government continues to refuse to validate any civic activity not controlled by the state.
In fact, increasingly, as the incident in Warsaw reveals, the Turkmen government is keen to suppress any expression of dissent at home or abroad from its citizens or exiles. In a government meeting to mark the 19th anniversary of the Ministry of National Security, President Berdymukhamedov called on security agents to combat not only terrorism and narcotics smuggling, but any form of dissent from anyone who would “defame our democratic law-based secular state and try to destroy the unity and solidarity of our society,” the official Turkmen government website reported him as saying.
The history of the Ministry of National Security over the past two decades in fact reveals the profound insecurity of the Turkmen leadership and the unstable setting for anyone willing to take the job of security chief, the exile news site gundogar.org reports. Many of those who held the post under past dictator Saparmurat Niyazov found themselves arrested on charges of treason or corruption, or forced to resign on health grounds, or demoted to lesser posts. A minister charged with investigating the malfeasance of his predecessor found himself the target of the next round of repression. The extraordinary instability of this agency in the closed, secretive “neutral” state of Turkmenistan does not bode well for the prospects of Turkmenistan to take its place in regional and international security efforts. Charymurad Amanov has held the post of security chief since 2007, when President Berdymukhamedov came to power, but as the Turkmen leader constantly shuffles his ministers in an effort to maintain his own power, his job tenure is not certain.
Turkmenistan continues to try to keep all its existing and potential energy customers reassured by invoking both the purported riches of Turkmenistan gas fields as well as grand plans to develop the oil and gas sector. This week the Turkmen president said $9.7 billion was being spent, including on contracts with U.S. and European companies, to develop the South Yolotan gas fields. Turkmenistan also is increasing its production of liquefied gas.
At a press conference on September 30 in Ashgabat, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan (TDH) portrayed President Berdymukhamedov as accentuating the importance of a continued strategic partnership with Russia and the possibility of resuming long-stalled projects like the Trans-Caspian Pipeline, which he said was delayed due to the global recession. Yet Bloomberg News Service described the same press conference as an indication that Turkmenistan means to reduce its reliance on Russia. Although deliveries to Russia have resumed, the amount has dropped from 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year to 30 bcm. Turkmenistan now delivers 6 bcm of gas to China but plans to increase to 50 bcm by 2015. The Turkmen leader also announced that the Bagtyyarlyk gas compressor station put into operation will help boost this volume .Iran has also ordered more gas deliveries, and will reach 14 bcm a year.
Although Turkmenistan constantly reiterates its status as a “neutral” country that does not join regional security bodies or theoretically, support any one of its difficult neighbors’ at times belligerent foreign policies, even so, Ashgabat has felt the need to modernize and increase its armed forces and military technical capacity. Turkmenistan has already ordered six Smerch jet fighters from Russia, and is now reportedly ordering drones from France.
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]
Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.