As Turkmenistan prepares to mark the 30th anniversary of its policy of permanent neutrality, international human rights organizations are urging the government to commemorate the occasion by releasing civil society activists imprisoned for peacefully expressing their views.
In a joint appeal, the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights (TIHR), Turkmen.News, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) called on Turkmen authorities to use the milestone as an opportunity to take a humanitarian step by pardoning activists jailed on politically motivated charges.
The organizations emphasized that presidential pardons remain the only available legal mechanism for early release in Turkmenistan. Including these cases in the official pardon process, they argue, would demonstrate the country’s willingness to align with international human rights standards.
Among the prisoners named in the appeal is Mansur Mingelov, a human rights activist who has been incarcerated since 2012. He is serving a 22 year sentence after publicly denouncing the abuse of ethnic Baloch people. Another activist, Murat Dushemov, was sentenced to four years for publicly criticizing the government and its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was expected to be released in the summer of 2025.
The rights groups also expressed growing concern about activists and citizen journalists who were detained abroad and reportedly subjected to forced return to Turkmenistan, where they face prosecution under opaque legal processes.
Citizen journalists Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov were detained in Turkey in April 2025 on charges of “threatening public safety.” Farhat Meymankuliev was deported from Turkey in 2023 and, according to human rights monitors, subsequently imprisoned following a closed trial. In another case, Malikberdy Allamyrradov was secretly transferred from Russia to Turkmenistan in December 2023 and later charged with assaulting a cellmate. Saddam Gulamov was also forcibly returned from Russia and sentenced to a prison colony in the Lebap region.
The human rights groups argue that freeing these individuals would send a strong message of goodwill during a major national celebration and offer a concrete signal of Turkmenistan’s readiness to uphold its international obligations.
