Turkmenistan Life & Culture - The Times Of Central Asia

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Healthcare

Turkmenistan Works With WHO on Healthcare Upgrades

Turkmenistan and the World Health Organization went through a delicate period during the pandemic, when the Turkmen government said there had been no COVID-19 cases in the country. The global health agency didn’t publicly challenge the claim, which was met with widespread international skepticism. While Turkmenistan retains many of the tight controls on information that were in place at the height of the pandemic, its relationship with the World Health Organization, or WHO, has evolved into one of closer cooperation aimed at bringing parts of the country´s health system into line with international practices. In the latest initiative, WHO experts and laboratory specialists in Turkmenistan held an emergency planning workshop in Ashgabat this month, according to the health agency. The May 19-23 event focused on topics including emergency planning and the safe transport of infectious substances. “By investing in expertise and preparedness, Turkmenistan continues to strengthen its preparedness for public health emergencies,” the World Health Organization said on Instagram. Since the COVID-19 crisis, WHO specialists have also visited Turkmenistan to help with its pandemic planning and preparedness, in just one element of a broader plan to modernize the health system of one of the most closed countries in the world. Even today, the impact of the pandemic in Turkmenistan is not fully known because of limited public information. At the time, authorities implemented measures such as obligatory masking, restrictions on travel, and the closure of borders. There were, however, reports of people in Turkmenistan suffering symptoms similar to those seen during the spread of COVID-19 elsewhere. Other countries in Central Asia, meanwhile, confirmed that they had outbreaks. Some analysts speculated that a delegation that visited Turkmenistan during the pandemic didn’t directly address the government’s zero-case claim because it wanted to avoid any public fallout and was focused on maintaining access to the country and its health officials. Dr. Karen Nahapetyan, laboratory specialist at the WHO regional office for Europe, guided the Ashgabat workshop this month, according to the turkmenportal.com website. Nahapetyan recently worked on the international response to the Andes hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius that killed three people. While technical coordination between WHO and Turkmenistan is advancing, some foreign advisories warn of the limits of the country’s healthcare system. The British Foreign Office advises travelers that it’s usually best to avoid anything other than basic or emergency care in Turkmenistan, especially outside Ashgabat.

Art and Culture

Central Asia Steps Out of the Post-Soviet Shadow

Central Asia is rarely presented on its own terms. It is more often viewed through exterior lenses like Russian imperial memory, Chinese reach, Silk Road romance, or great-power rivalry. The result is a region made to look secondary to the forces around it, even as its five countries carry deep histories, distinct languages, and identities that cannot be reduced to a backdrop. That old frame is starting to crack. Central Asia is finding new ways to tell its own story. The shift goes beyond tourism or national branding. It is about who gets to define the region, which is still too often seen through the things done to it or extracted from it. Culture depicts the other side of that narrative, a place that has shaped history, not merely endured it, with traditions and ideas that have long carried influence far beyond its borders. [caption id="attachment_49147" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] Sky above Almaty: Qandy Qantar; image courtesy of Saule Suleimenova[/caption] Kazakhstan offers one visible example. The Almaty Museum of Arts opened on September 12, 2025, adding a major institution for modern and contemporary art. Its arrival builds on a broader shift in which private galleries, international platforms, and artists such as Aigerim Karibayeva and Saule Suleimenova are moving Kazakh art beyond folkloric shorthand toward identity, postcolonial memory, and urban life. The reopening of the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, in a former Soviet-era cinema, adds a sharper symbolic layer. A building once tied to Soviet public culture has become a platform for modern Central Asian voices, reflecting a scene increasingly rethinking nomadism rather than simply reproducing it. [caption id="attachment_49148" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Image: The Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture[/caption] Uzbekistan has made culture central to its international reemergence. The inaugural Bukhara Biennial brought contemporary art into a city more often seen through its monuments, turning madrasas and caravanserais into exhibition spaces for Uzbek and world artists. The same push is visible in the Tashkent Centre for Contemporary Art, Uzbekistan’s presence at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and design projects such as When Apricots Blossom, which link heritage, craft, and the environmental disaster of the Aral Sea. Artists such as Oyjon Khayrullaeva show a younger generation reworking Islamic ornament, textiles, and public space into new visual languages. At the same time, the State Museum of Karakalpakstan in Nukus, with its Soviet-era censored works, gives the country’s art history deeper heft. In Tashkent, the Islamic Civilization Center is working on a different scale. Recognized by Guinness World Records in 2026 as the largest museum of Islamic civilization, it gives Uzbekistan a stronger role in shaping how that legacy is understood today. [caption id="attachment_49146" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] Image courtesy of Oyjon Khayrullaeva[/caption] Kyrgyzstan’s confidence rests on different ground. The sixth World Nomad Games are scheduled for August 31 to September 6, 2026, with events in Bishkek and around Issyk-Kul. That gives Kyrgyzstan a stage for living nomadic traditions, not a static museum display of them. Its contemporary art scene adds a more intimate layer, with artists such as...

UFO Files

Pentagon UFO Files Include 1994 Tajik Air Report Over Kazakhstan

On May 8, the Pentagon released the first batch of U.S. Department of War files on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), including a State Department cable describing a 1994 sighting by Tajik Air pilots over Kazakhstan. The new archive, called the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, was created in response to a directive from U.S. president Donald Trump. It covers unresolved cases where the government cannot make a definitive determination from available data, with further releases expected “every few weeks.” The department uses the current term UAP as well as the older term unidentified flying object (UFO). The release includes a three-page unclassified State Department cable from the U.S. embassy in Dushanbe. Dated January 31, 1994, it is titled “Tajik Air Pilots Report Unidentified Flying Object” and carries a State Department “Released in Full” stamp dated February 25, 2026. The same cable had previously appeared in CUFON’s archive of State Department UFO records, released in 2000 in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. According to the cable, Tajik Air chief pilot Ed Rhodes, identified as a United States citizen, and two American pilot colleagues reported that they had encountered a UFO on January 27, 1994, while flying at 41,000 feet in a Boeing 747SP. The location was given as latitude 45 north and longitude 55 east, over Kazakhstan. The pilots described the object as an intensely bright light approaching from the east at high speed and at an altitude far above their aircraft. They said they watched it for about 40 minutes as it moved in circles, corkscrews, and 90-degree turns. Rhodes reportedly took several photographs with a pocket Olympus camera and said copies would be sent to the embassy and to the Tajikistan desk at the State Department if they came out. No such photographs appear in the released cable. The crew could not identify the object’s shape because it was dark. They described its light as resembling a “bow wave,” and later said the aircraft flew beneath contrails left by the object after sunrise. Rhodes estimated those contrails to be at about 100,000 feet. The embassy suggested that the object might have been a meteor entering and skipping off the Earth’s atmosphere. Rhodes and the other pilots rejected that explanation, saying their years flying passenger aircraft for Pan Am had given them extensive experience with meteors and space junk. Based on the object’s reported speed and maneuverability, Rhodes expressed the view, which the cable says his crew seemed to support, that it was “extraterrestrial and under intelligent control.” The U.S. government recorded what the pilots said, but the cable does not confirm what they saw, as demonstrated in the file’s cautionary note: “We have no opinion and report the above for what it may be worth.” The release adds an official U.S. record to a regional history in which unexplained aerial reports have surfaced in Soviet research programs and, more recently, in media and online claims. During the Soviet period, reports of anomalous...

Victory Day

Victory, Memory, and Moscow: Central Asia’s Changing May Calendar

May is when Central Asia’s past crowds into the public square. Workers, soldiers, veterans, constitutions, unity campaigns, and the legacy of World War II all compete for space on the calendar. The dates are familiar across the region, but their meanings are no longer the same. Kazakhstan marks People’s Unity Day on May 1, Defenders’ Day on May 7, and Victory Day on May 9. Kyrgyzstan has a May calendar built around Labor Day, Constitution Day, and Victory Day. Uzbekistan has recast May 9 as the Day of Remembrance and Honor. Turkmenistan lists May 9 as Victory Day of the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, but it no longer carries the same public weight as the country’s main state holidays. Those choices show how each state is handling its Soviet past. May 1 can mean labor, unity, or almost nothing. May 9 can mean victory, mourning, family memory, or careful diplomacy. In Central Asia, the politics of memory rarely move through open rejection. It works through renaming, recalibrating, and changing the optics. Russia still treats May 9 as a central ritual of state power. Victory Day marks the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War. Under Vladimir Putin, it has become a display of military strength, national sacrifice, and confrontation with the West. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, that message has become more direct. This year, the image projected from Moscow will be weaker. Russia is preparing to hold its May 9 parade on Red Square without the usual display of military hardware. Tanks and missile systems, long central to the spectacle, are being kept away. Russia’s Defense Ministry cited the “current operational situation,” while the Kremlin linked the change to Ukrainian attacks. For Central Asian governments, that image will be hard to separate from their own handling of Victory Day. Moscow has long used May 9 to gather friendly leaders and place the post-Soviet region inside a shared wartime story. Attendance in Moscow has become a diplomatic signal. Absence has become one too. In recent years, Victory Day diplomacy has shown how Central Asian governments try to respect wartime memory while avoiding full alignment with Russia’s narrative. This year, at least some Central Asian leaders are again expected in Moscow. Kazakhstan’s Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov have been reported among those planning to attend, though the Kremlin has not yet published a full list of foreign guests. Central Asian states cannot simply discard May 9. Millions of people from the region served in the Red Army or worked behind the front during World War II; from Kazakhstan alone, around one million people contributed to the war effort, with nearly 271,000 soldiers still listed as missing. Families still carry those memories. Monuments, veterans’ payments, school events, and wreath-laying ceremonies remain important. For many people, Victory Day is personal before it is geopolitical. Yet governments have changed the tone. Kazakhstan still marks Victory Day as a public holiday, but large military parades...

Internet

Turkmenistan Begins Seizing and Dismantling Starlink Equipment

Amid ongoing connectivity issues, Turkmenistan’s authorities have intensified efforts to control alternative internet access. Since mid-April, the country has begun widespread identification and seizure of equipment used for the Starlink service. Raids are being conducted by law enforcement agencies and other relevant state bodies. According to sources, inspections are taking place in residential buildings as well as office and commercial properties, with particular attention paid to rooftops, where satellite equipment is typically installed. Although the service is not officially authorized in Turkmenistan, it has become widely used. The reason is straightforward: users are seeking more stable internet access amid low speeds and restrictions imposed by local providers. According to local residents, the shift toward satellite internet accelerated following a deterioration in network quality in February. At that time, authorities introduced what users describe as a deliberate “degradation” of connectivity, increasing demand for alternative solutions. The cost of connecting to Starlink remains high. Purchasing and installing the equipment typically requires between $1,000 and $1,500. However, users begin to see savings after several months compared to domestic tariffs. Subscribers pay around $100 per month and receive speeds exceeding 200 Mbps, while the state provider Turkmen Telecom offers the general population a maximum of 6 Mbps. Even at a monthly cost of about $112, users can expect only around 8 Mbps. Higher-speed packages are largely unavailable to ordinary users. Speeds of up to 100 Mbps are offered only to legal entities and cost approximately $6,280 per month. For foreign companies, the price can reach as much as $35,702 per month. However, the key issue extends beyond pricing. According to users, connection quality remains unstable. Frequent disruptions and blocking are reported, and in some cases even basic online activities take a considerable amount of time.

Transport

Crackdown on Private Taxis Complicates Life for Residents of Ashgabat’s Outskirts

In Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, traffic police have intensified inspections of private taxi drivers in outlying districts such as Choganly, Garadamak, and Shor. While the measures are formally aimed at curbing informal transport services, they have had significant consequences for local residents. Public transport technically operates in these areas, but routes largely run along main roads. Those living farther away often have to walk several kilometers to reach their homes. According to residents, private drivers previously helped bridge this gap by offering rides from bus stops. That option has now largely disappeared. Drivers are being stopped, fined, or, according to eyewitness accounts, asked to pay bribes. As a result, not only the drivers, many of whom rely on informal taxi services as one of the few sources of income amid unemployment, are affected, but also passengers. People with children or heavy bags are increasingly forced to walk. The situation is further aggravated by earlier restrictions. Around two years ago, at the request of city authorities, small shops were closed across the capital, including in these districts. As a result, residents must now travel to supermarkets or markets to buy groceries. This has led many to purchase goods in bulk, making the journey home even more difficult. Conditions are particularly challenging on more remote streets. For example, Ashgabat Street deep within Choganly is poorly developed, lacking sidewalks and turning into muddy streams during rainy weather. Residents say that walking in such conditions is difficult and nearly impossible with strollers or heavy bags. The street branches into smaller roads, many of which are unpaved. As a result, even routine trips outside the home can become a serious challenge. More broadly, residents note that restrictions are being introduced faster than basic infrastructure problems are being addressed. In such conditions, any tightening of regulations has an immediate and tangible impact on daily life.