22.01.2020

An Appeal by the Prove They Are Alive! Campaign to the President of Turkmenistan

The Disappeared in Turkmenistan’s Prisons Whose Terms Have Expired Must Be Immediately Released!

For over seventeen years, Turkmenistan has continued the practice of enforced disappearances in its prison system. Hundreds of people have become victims of enforced disappearance. Being held in complete isolation from the outside world is a gross violation of Turkmenistan’s national legislation and of its international obligations, and is a human rights crime.

The international campaign, Prove They Are Alive!, has documented over 120 cases of disappearance in Turkmenistan’s prisons. Inhuman conditions in the prisons where the disappeared are held correspond to torture. At least 27… >> подробнее

16.01.2020

Akhal-Teke

Saudis step up, awkward timing with Iran, and you won’t want to fly Turkmenistan Airlines after reading this.

Turkmenistan may have found a benefactor willing to serve as Pequod in the quest for President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s white whale: the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India, or TAPI, pipeline. Berdymukhamedov has spent years promoting the project, to no avail, while misleadingly claiming progress on the pace of construction.

On January 9, state media reported that the president had signed a decree authorizing the State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs to conclude a loan with the Saudi Development Fund for TAPI funding.

The size of the loan is not stated. This… >> подробнее

07.01.2020

Akhal-Teke

A holiday switcheroo exemplifies neatly how Turkmenistan trades in appearance over substance. This and more in our weekly briefing.

Turkmenistan takes New Year’s celebrations seriously.

Even the day before the calendars were flipped to January 1 was decreed a holiday. Then again, people were required to work on December 29, a Sunday, to make up for lost productivity.

Last year was branded with the slogan “Turkmenistan: Motherland of Prosperity.” But this holiday switcheroo exemplifies neatly the ways in which President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s regime trades in appearance over substance.

The scrapping of free handouts of water, gas and salt in January was sold to the population as a momentous… >> подробнее