02.02.2020

Akhal-Teke

Is it incompetence, old-fashioned embezzlement and corruption, or a lack of loyalty that worries the president? This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

One of Turkmenistan’s most enduring mysteries is just how many people actually live in the country.

The last time the government conducted a national census was in 2012, but the results were never published. RFE/RL reporting last year suggested this might have been because of the awkward fact that, as some anonymous sources in the Turkmen government have claimed, the findings showed almost 2 million people had left the country in a 10-year period.

As it is, the population could be anywhere between 4.4 million – the latest available official figure, from the mid-1990s – and 5.4… >> подробнее

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