Turkmenistan Weekly News Analysis

For two successive weeks Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry has criticized Russian media, in particular the Regnum information agency. Last week the Ministry expressed indignation with Regnum’s exaggerated statements about the possibility of crisis in the Caspian Sea and the negative portrayal of Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan relations. This week the Foreign Ministry said that Regnum, in referring to surveys on various issues in CIS countries, made an “unacceptable claim” that the lack of data from Turkmenistan is the result of a "low level of media freedom" in the country. Turkmenistan is notorious for its curbs on media freedom, ranking at 177 out of 179 countries on lists such as Reporter Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index for 2011 – 2012, (only to be followed by North Korea and Eritrea ranking at 178 and 179 respectively). Reporters without Borders named Turkmenistan among 12 “Enemies of the Internet” and put the Turkmen President on the 2012 list of Predators of Press Freedom, saying that “Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov's talk of reform since he came to power in 2006 only serves to make the gap between words and reality even wider in one of the world's most absolute and brutal dictatorships.” And, according to recent United Nations research on Internet usage in the world, only 5% of Turkmenistan’s population has internet access.

The Foreign Ministry’s statements about the Caspian conflict are equally disingenuous, as the dispute between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan over ownership of rich gas fields in the Caspian, is a long standing one, with tensions increasing just recently over Azerbaijan’s sending its border patrol boat to stop a Turkmen vessel allegedly pursuing “scientific” work in the Caspian.

Turkmenistan received a number of foreign dignitaries this week, including Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee, who arrived in Ashgabat as the head of a high-level delegation. He met with President Berdymukhamedov to discuss cooperation in energy, construction, and finance. Berdymukhamedov also met with Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov to discuss trade and economic cooperation. Berdymukhamedov received Roger Haynes, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Omani-Canadian company Buried Hill Energy, and the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Peter Kallosa, who brought him a package of proposals to develop oil fields in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea and to train oil industry personnel in Turkmenistan.

A Russian Foreign Ministry delegation headed by the Director of the Consular Department, Andrey Karlov, held talks at Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan though no conclusions were reached over the status of individuals holding dual Russian-Turkmen citizenship, which has been a long-standing issue. Turkmenistan unilaterally pulled out of the 1993 dual citizenship agreement with Russia in 2007, and subsequently started to force dual passport holders to give up their Russian citizenship. Recently a member of the Protestant church, a Russian and Turkmen citizen, Oleg Piiashev, who was visiting from Russia, was barred from leaving Turkmenistan at the Ashgabat airport, Forum 18 News Service reported. According to Forum 18, police and other unidentified officials raided the home of a Baptist family in the northern city of Dashoguz, dragged the father of the family, 77-year-old Begjan Shirmedov, from the house by his collar and beat the hands of his 68-year-old wife until they bled. About 15 church members were brought in for interrogation and had their religious literature seized. The raid came two weeks after a raid on another Protestant meeting in the city, which concluded with three participants being served with fines.

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