Turkmen Report: October 7, 2003

6 October 2003

Doctors have said that Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has a high temperature and an accumulation of salt on his heel, Turkmen TV, turkmenistan.ru, and RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported on 6 October. After medical examination, doctors said that Niyazov had caught a cold and advised him to take medication. Niyazov did not participate in official duties, including a remembrance service for those who perished during a 1948 earthquake in Ashgabat. During a 22 September cabinet meeting Niyazov said, "I have an accumulation on my heel, that's why I received four days of mud cure at a health resort in Molla-Kara." This treatment coincided with the Yalta summit of CIS leaders, in which Niyazov did not participate. (RFE/RL, Turkmenistan.ru, Turkmen TV)

1 October 2003

Turkmenistan withdrew without explanation from the list of speakers at this year's UN General Assembly debate, RFE/RL reported on 1 October. A spokeswoman for the General Assembly, Michelle Montas, told RFE/RL that Turkmenistan joins Libya and Djibouti as the only countries among the UN's 191 members which didn't address the high-level session, which ends on 2 October. Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov was scheduled to address the assembly on 26 September. (RFE/RL)

1 October 2003

President Niyazov has told the national security services to eradicate terrorism in Turkmenistan, Interfax reported on 1 October. "The national security services must wage an irreconcilable struggle against manifestations of terrorism aimed against Turkmenistan's state system, and eliminate its hotbeds wherever they appear," Niyazov said in a message to the National Security Ministry on the occasion of its 12th anniversary. He described the struggle against terrorism as one of the main tasks to be accomplished by the national security services. "You must rule out the slightest possibility of a terrorist act or encroachment on citizens' peace," he said. "Our secular, law-based state must have no place for crime, violence, lies, and other violations of the law. You must not put up with the fact that individual law-enforcement workers connive with criminals and disregard their official duties. Such workers must be responsible for their crimes and for violating the oaths they took. We shall continue to pursue this policy," the Turkmen president said. (Interfax)

1 October 2003

Turkmen oppositionist Khudaiberdy Orazov, a former head of Turkmenistan's National Bank, was refused entry by Czech authorities when he tried to attend a meeting of the Turkmen opposition in exile that was held in Prague on 27-28 September, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 1 October. Orazov was sent to Germany, the report added. Orazov, who Turkmen authorities allege was involved in the 25 November 2002 attempt to assassinate Niyazov, heads the Turkmen opposition movement in exile, Watan. Czech authorities reportedly said Orazov did not have the required visa. (Nezavisimaya gazeta)

29 September 2003

Major General Agageldy Mamedgeldiev, previously head of the State Border Service, was on 29 September appointed defense minister, ITAR-TASS and AP reported the same day. President Niyazov signed a decree on his appointment at a meeting with heads of military departments earlier on 29 September. Former Defense Minister Redzhepbai Arazov was appointed head of the National Center of Turkmen Trade Unions. (ITAR-TASS, AP)

1 October 2003

By Charles Carlson and Bruce Pannier

The Turkmen government long ago crushed opposition movements and parties in the country, leaving the ruling Democratic Party of Turkmenistan -- once called the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Turkmenistan -- as the only legally registered party in the country.

Several disillusioned government officials fled Turkmenistan and set up opposition groups in exile that have mainly operated out of Moscow. Many of these officials met in the Czech capital, Prague, on 27-29 September and announced plans to join forces to become the Union of Democratic Forces of Turkmenistan.

Erika Dailey is the director of the Open Society Institute's Turkmenistan Project, based in Budapest, Hungary. Dailey attended the Prague conference and spoke to RFE/RL afterward. She said the opposition's previous efforts to influence politics in Turkmenistan proved unsuccessful.

"The [Turkmen] political opposition has been under tremendous pressure. It is tiny. It's very fractured. And it's largely impoverished. It's had a very spotty history up until this week's conference," Dailey said.

Among those participating in the Prague conference were Avdy Kuliev, former foreign minister of Turkmenistan and founder and current leader of Turkmenistan's United Democratic Opposition; Nurmukhammed Hanamov, former Turkmen ambassador to Turkey and co-founder of the People's Democratic Movement of Turkmenistan; and Aleksandr Dodonov, former deputy prime minister of Turkmenistan and current deputy chairman of the Watan opposition movement. Turkmenistan's Renaissance movement is also participating in the opposition grouping.

Kuliev said it was not difficult to agree on the formation of the new opposition union. "Over the course of two days of work, we agreed with one another on the creation of the Union of Democratic Forces [of Turkmenistan]. We were able to come to this agreement rather easily because we know one another, and we are acquainted with each other's [political] programs, and our unification is founded on basic principles," he said.

Kuliev listed these principles as the need for democratic reforms in Turkmenistan: respect for human rights and freedom of speech, including a free media.

Dailey said the decision to unite represents a significant change in the policies of the Turkmen opposition. "What was significant about this particular meeting was that finally the various factions of the political opposition came together and issued a united statement creating what they are calling the Union of Democratic Forces of Turkmenistan," she said. "It's a breakthrough in that it has never been reached before. In fact, there were some comments made sardonically at the conference that it was at this point difficult to understand why consensus had not been possible to reach before, when in principle there's a lot to rally around. There's an awful lot that unites them and that is, in point of fact, common to their philosophical and political approaches."

Dailey said there are still some important unanswered questions about the new union, however. "It is much too early, obviously, to draw any conclusions about how long this united front will last. It was very hard won. It's taken years to reach this consensus, and it's still in its infancy. Some very basic administrative and organizational issues have yet to be resolved, including who is going to lead this union, how are those decisions going to be made, in what way will it function, and what will its relationship be to the ruling regime, until such time as President [Saparmurat] Niyazov is no longer president, she said."

Dailey said the formation of this new union of opposition forces was likely driven in part by the increased international attention on Turkmenistan's plight from groups such as Amnesty International, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and even the Russian State Duma. Simply put, the opposition felt its hand had been strengthened by a renewed focus on Turkmenistan's poor human rights record.

Dailey said the confluence of international criticism and the Turkmen opposition's unity may be the "missing link" needed to prod reform, or even real change, in the Turkmen government. "There's always been a missing link, and that is the connection between the international outcry and the outcry from within the country itself," she said. "Now, the existence -- at least for the moment -- of a united opposition front completes that picture. And I think it at least stands a good chance of maintaining that momentum for the foreseeable future."

Watan leader Aleksandr Dodonov's 29 September prediction in Prague that the Turkmen opposition will no longer be in opposition but will be heading a democratic process in Turkmenistan next year at this time may prove premature. But by uniting their efforts, the members of the Turkmen opposition have already given themselves an opportunity to effect change that did not exist prior to the Prague conference.