Turkmenistan Limits Flight of Faithful to Mecca

Arpingstone

Turkmenistan Airlines Boeing 757-200

As in past years, the Turkmen government has limited the number of Muslims who have been allowed to fly to Saudi Arabia to participate in the haj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the semi-official news service turkmenistan.ru reports.

As the airplane only has 188 seats, the number of those who are allowed to make the haj has been restricted to that number. The flight has been chartered at government expense.

Last year, citing concerns about the H1N1 virus, the government did not charter even one flight, and instructed religious believers to travel around various sacred sites within Turkmenistan.

The Turkmen government has kept state-approved religious activity under tight control, and heavily punishes any believers who attempt to operate outside state-sanctioned bodies.

Despite the restrictions on flights, some unknown number of Turkmen citizens are said to manage to make their way to Saudi Arabia quietly on their own. Given the intensive oversight of all persons entering and exiting from Turkmenistan, there are likely few that risk the journey.

In an essay on the web site of the religious news service Forum 18, Felix Corley asks why all Muslims in Turkmenistan who wish to are not allowed to make the haj. He says that in the past, the number of 188 people has included members of the Ministry of State Security, or secret police, who monitor the activities of the faithful. Forums 18 has learned that at least one person who had applied for a Saudi Arabian haj visa from Turkmenistan this year was denied because he wasn't on the government list.

Saudi Arabia is said to set a quota of about 5,000 believers for Turkmenistan, says Corley, but Saudi authorities have not confirmed this. The Saudi consulate in Ashgabat issues visas only to those approved by the Turkmen government, says Forum 18.

Christians have also faced persecution in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan has two new cases of prisoners of conscience, according to Forum 18. Protestant Pastor Ilmurad Nurliev was sentenced to four years of imprisonment on charges of embezzlement, a claim his family and fellow church-members strongly deny. He is likely to be sent to the Seydi labor camp where there have been complaints of the use of psychotropic drugs against prisoners. Family members are seriously concerned about his health as the court ordered forced treatment for alleged drug addiction. A diabetic, they told Forum 18 he looked "very, very pale and thin" at the trial. Among "witnesses" produced by the authorities was a woman who was in jail on criminal charges when the authorities claimed she gave Pastor Nurliev money. Friends of Nurliev present at the trial told Forum 18 that "it was clear the whole thing was set up"

In September a Jehovah's Witness, Ahmet Hudaybergenov, who declared conscientious objection to the draft was sentenced to one and a half years.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government advisory body, has urged the State Department to include Turkmenistan on the list of "Countries of Particular Concern," but as in past years, the designation was not made by the State Department this year.