This week, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov celebrated his 56th birthday at the Avaza resort on the Caspian Sea with a gala celebration supported by the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), a major player in Turkmenistan’s energy sector since 2002. The gala included fireworks and celebrity performers from around the world, with singer/performer and American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez as a showstopper – performing her own hit songs and serenading Berdymukhamedov with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” at the request of the CNPC. Lopez, who reportedly received $1.4 million for the performance, is the first major American star to perform in Turkmenistan, and she follows a recent trend of celebrities visiting or performing for quick cash for some of the world’s worst dictators and human rights violators. Her appearance in Turkmenistan garnered censure from human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International (which had honored her in the past), and received much negative coverage in the international press. In response, the singer’s publicist issued a statement saying: "Had there been knowledge of human rights issues any kind, Jennifer would not have attended."
That day, according to the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights (TIHR), Ashgabat residents who did not want to participate in the birthday celebrations by watching them televised on State TV, took to the streets, with motorists honking their horns and flashing their headlights in protest. The organisers, TIHR reported, were a little-known group called the Committee for the Protection of Turkmenistan’s Repressed Citizens that was established in January 2013. Turkmen security services, usually quick to suppress any form of dissent did not respond, TIHR reported.
On June 23 and 24, Russia’s Russia – 1 and Russia – 24 TV channels aired a report entitled “Syrian Jihad is Turning Opposition into Radicals,” which showed video footage of an interrogation of Ravshan Gazakov, allegedly the commander of an Al-Qaeda demolition squad who claims to be a Turkmen citizen, and was captured in Syria. During his interrogation, Gazakov claimed that he completed his primary training at an Islamic training camp near Ashgabat.
Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry responded immediately, saying that, “such reports are based on false information and do not contribute to developing Turkmen-Russian relations” and that “the report is in violation of basic norms of journalistic ethics and an attempt to mislead the public.”
While Ashgabat officially denies that Gazakov is from Turkmenistan, Russian media has reported that intelligence agencies in Turkmenistan are actively looking for anyone who could in any way be associated with Gazakov. A report from Russia’s Regnum news agency says that at the last closed meeting of the Turkmen Security Council, Berdymukhamedov instructed the Council’s head to identify and prosecute anyone associated with Gazakov.
Some observers are skeptical of the Russian media reports, but others, including the Joint Eurasian Expert Network (JEEN) and the Crisis Situation Research Center (CSRC, Malta), warn of a real threat of extreme Islamist movements in Turkmenistan. They suggest that orphanages in Turkmenistan funded by Qatari and Saudi Arabian sheikhs may be incubators of Islamic fundamentalism, and that Turkmenistan’s crowded prisons harbor Islamic groups whose leaders recruit by offering prisoners much-needed assistance. Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s Vitali Volkov writes that militants from former Soviet Central Asian republics ultimately return to their home countries, well-prepared to spread radical Islamic beliefs.
In another development this week, it seems that plans for the proposed Nabucco pipeline, which potentially could have delivered Turkmen gas to Europe, have been dashed. The gas producers consortium at Shah Deniz in Azerbaijan opted for the rival Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP, Greece-Albania-Italy, led by Norwegian Statoil), marking the collapse of negotiations that have been ongoing since 2002, and ultimately choosing a project that excludes Turkmenistan from its gas transport corridor.
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
JA
X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Обычная таблица";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
Our latest International News From Turkmenistan
Our latest Domestic News From Turkmenistan
Our latest Economic News From Turkmenistan
For breaking news see our blog Sifting the Karakum
Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.