Daughter of Civil Activist in Turkmenistan Not Allowed to Leave Country

Sadokat Nurimbetova, the daughter of prominent civil activist Hamida Babajanova, was removed from a Turkmenistan Airlines flight to Istanbul at Ashgabat International Airport, it has been reported. Nurimbetova, an ethnic Uzbek, is a second-year student at Istanbul Medical University, and accordingly she has a valid Turkish residence permit, a “kimlik.” On June 5, Nurimbetova went to her home country to apply for a new passport, which she duly received on July 10, and bought a plane ticket to Istanbul. At passport control, two immigration officials intercepted Nurimbetova and took her to a separate room. There, she was fingerprinted and interrogated, after which the Migration Service officers told the student that she was banned from leaving Turkmenistan.  “This is a directive from above," Nurimbetova was told, and was advised not to go anywhere and not to complain to anyone. It was also emphasized to her that her mother should not entertain thoughts of going anywhere. Nurimbetova is the daughter of well-known Turkmen civil activist Hamida Babajanova, who last year defended the right of her elderly mother, Yakujan, to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Recently, cases of Turkmen citizens being removed from flights abroad without explanation have become more frequent. The same thing is happening when attempting to cross the border by land.

A Eurasian Perspective on the Historic Conviction of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez

On July 16, a federal court in New York found United States Senator Robert "Bob" Menendez (D) guilty on 16 counts in a corruption trial, including charges of accepting bribes to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar, obstruction of justice and extortion. He is the first U.S. senator to be convicted as a foreign agent and the charges collectively carry a potential sentence of 222 years in prison. Bribery charges involved receiving gold bars worth over $100,000 and more than $480,000 in cash as well as a Mercedes-Benz for his wife. “This wasn't politics as usual. This was politics for profit,” summarized Damian Williams, an attorney for the Southern District of New York. According to federal prosecutors, among other things, Menendez helped secure millions of dollars of U.S. aid for Egypt and used his office to assist a multi-million-dollar deal with a Qatari fund. Egypt’s intelligence and military officials are said to have bribed him and his wife at a time when U.S. military aid to the country would have paused due to human rights concerns. Menendez also used his official position “to protect and enrich” individuals in exchange for payments, including helping a New Jersey businessman secure a halal certification monopoly with regards to U.S. meat exports to Egypt. Striking similarities to another recent “influence-for-sale” scandal For many Europeans, this U.S. case resembles the European Union’s own Qatargate scandal, which broke out in 2022 and unveiled how foreign governments (Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania) have been channeling hundreds of thousands of euros to a ring of elected European Parliament officials who, in turn, were leveraging their authority to benefit these clients. The services included “attempts to manipulate the Parliament” and “scheming to kill off six parliamentary resolutions condemning Qatar’s human rights record” as Politico reports. In his plea deal, Antonio Panzeri, the chief of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), admitted to receiving bribes as well as to leading and participating in a criminal organization. This criminal organization reportedly doled out bribes to EU officials through two NGOs named Fight Impunity and No Peace Without Justice, which were allegedly set up to launder money and help fund the scheme. In Menendez’s case, the money ran through his wife’s consultancy. Qatargate allegations extended beyond the Middle East and North Africa. For instance, Atlantico.fr reported that Panzeri and his associates may have been corrupted by at least two Kazakh criminal figures. Europeans appeared lenient on corruption as Panzeri only received a five-year prison sentence, of which four would be suspended and the one year he’d serve would be under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. Momentum behind investigations of key suspects has since waned, leading the EU Observer to call Qatargate “a missed opportunity to bring Europe to justice”. Foreign policy priorities pushed by Senator Menendez need to be re-examined When public officials are found to have used their office to promote external interests, their past policy activities should be closely examined. Bob Menendez has been a member of U.S. Congress since 1993 and chaired the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 2013 to 2015, and again from 2021 to 2023. As the chairman, he held significant influence over shaping U.S. foreign policy by overseeing legislation, treaties, and diplomatic issues. The position allowed him to set the agenda for policy discussions, influence strategies, and advocate for specific approaches to international affairs, all of which had an impact on global alliances and challenges. In Menendez’s defense, most of his calls for support and condemnation with regards to foreign governments appear to be evidence based and endorsed by other U.S. law makers. However, given recent revelations in his court case, it is fair for the public to question whether his actions were scoped, scripted, sourced, timed, or targeted in a fashion to serve a particular paying client.  Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of the American non-profit organization Democracy for the Arab World Now, believes that Senator Menendez's conviction is an “important step in accountability” but adds that the U.S. government “must do much more to investigate, root out and punish these naked acts of corruption and undue influence by Middle East dictatorships that are rotting our democratic institutions”. Menendez was indeed consistently critical of Middle Eastern regimes associated with authoritarian rule such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, he remained favorable towards Qatar, which is not surprising given that the federal charges against him included receiving bribes from Qatar and activating the office of the U.S. President to arrange a meeting with a member of Qatar’s royal family. Judicial Watch has reported that Qatargate’s “metastasizing corruption scandal” reached the U.S., involving politicians and political operatives, mentioning Menendez as being caught in the “Qatargate crosshairs”. Menendez was also an outspoken champion of Armenia and sided against its adversaries, namely Azerbaijan and Turkey. On September 21, 2023, he led bipartisan legislation banning most assistance to the government of Azerbaijan while authorizing foreign military financing for Armenia. He also led campaigns for the U.S. to recognize the WWI-era massacre of Armenians in present day Turkey as “genocide”. Addressing the Senate floor on November 13, 2023 about the humanitarian crisis in Armenia, he warned against the influence of “malign actors” of Turkey, China, Russia, and Iran. Following news of his conviction, on 18 July, Turkey’s Hurriyet news outlet trumpeted the headline “Anti-Türkiye Senator may receive life sentence: Menendez burned.” His wife since 2020, Nadine Menendez, was born in Lebanon to Armenian parents and has been an advocate for Armenia. Why the Menendez case is relevant for Central Asia Central Asian news outlets have shown limited interest in the U.S. Senator’s conviction and his activities in the region. Many of his criticisms of, and condemnations for, Central Asian states were consistent with those raised by other U.S. government offices. On the other hand, as it has become evident that Menendez commercialized his office, the details behind his political activities including his meetings and correspondence with those representing foreign interests as well as any funds received (campaign finance or other) should be under further scrutiny. We have compiled the below brief chronology of some of his key political actions impacting Central Asian states:

• On July 29, 2019, Menendez co-led a letter to the President of Kazakhstan asking for the release of a prisoner accused of being involved in a multi-billion-dollar bank fraud, which was orchestrated by a notorious fraudster and opposition figure named Mukhtar Ablyazov. Ablyazov faces three concurrent 22-month sentences in the U.K. (2018) and has other judgements against him in the U.K. and U.S. exceeding $5 billion overall (2015, 2022, 2023 and 2024). The senators’ letter also gave credence to claims put forth by a murky Europe-based NGO that has lobbied for at least one other money launderer in addition to Ablyazov, and has links to Russia’s defense industry through the family of its founder and president.
• On May 7, 2020 and June 29, 2020, the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan each received a letter from Menendez and other U.S. senators asking for the “release” of “detainees imprisoned for peaceful activism who are also at high risk of contracting COVID-19”. Each letter named one to three detainees and expressed reasons why they should be released.
• On December 6, 2021, Menendez and five other senators urged the U.S. Secretary of State to “ensure human rights are at the center of the United States’ developing partnership with Uzbekistan during the upcoming Strategic Partnership Dialogue”. The senators wrote that despite much-lauded reforms, Uzbekistan remained among the world’s most repressive countries and was at risk of reversing recent gains.
• On October 7, 2022, Menendez and three other senators pressed U.S. Secretary of State to establish an international investigation mechanism, under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) or the OSCE, to probe Kazakhstani security forces’ actions during the January 2022 violent protests which left over 200 people dead. Two weeks later, on October 25, 2022, UNHRC issued an opinion based on a single source, focusing on the detention of Karim Massimov, the former head of Kazakhstani intelligence, who was arrested for his alleged role in plotting the violent unrest that transformed into a coup attempt. UNHRC asked to “take urgent action to ensure the immediate unconditional release of Mr. Massimov”. In 2023, Massimov was sentenced to 18 years in Kazakhstan for high treason, attempting a coup and misuse of power. There are reports on his alleged links to grand scale bribery and embezzlement. In the letter, Menendez and other senators also asked for a review of U.S. security assistance to Kazakhstan.
• On November 22, 2022, Menendez and another senator sent a letter to the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, expressing “concerns over an escalation of violent harassment of journalists and the government’s failure to protect freedoms of speech and press” and mentioning appreciation for the accreditation for Radio Ozodi journalists, an affiliate of Radio Liberty.
• On August 8, 2023, Menendez sent a letter to Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov asking him to investigate allegations of assisting Russia or its proxies in evading international sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine. He criticized the country for “democratic backsliding and widespread human rights violations” and urged the president to “lift all restrictions on independent media and journalists, release imprisoned human rights defenders, and repeal measures restricting fundamental freedoms such as the freedom of association.” Japarov denied the accusations.

Intrigue Shadows a Rugged Motor Race with Central Asian Roots

Several vehicle crews from Turkmenistan are competing in the Silk Way Rally, a 5,243-kilometer race that started in Russia’s Siberian city of Tomsk on July 5 and will finish in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on July 15 after passing through mountain and desert terrain. The Russia-backed event has attracted scrutiny not just for the off-road adventure – its organizers face U.S. sanctions for allegedly helping Russian military intelligence. The annual Silk Way Rally, which comes at a time of high tensions between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine, has a history of Central Asian involvement since it was first held in 2009. The initial route started in Kazan, Russia, went through Kazakhstan and finished in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. After a few more route variations, the 2016 edition began in Red Square in Moscow and passed through Kazakhstan on the way to the finish in Beijing after an epic 10,735 kilometers. The race was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic. The rally has had competitions for various categories, including trucks, cars, SSVs (Special Service Vehicles, of a type often used by police or firefighting units for difficult conditions at high speeds) and quad bikes, which are four-wheel, all-terrain vehicles. [caption id="attachment_20146" align="aligncenter" width="374"] silkwayrally.com[/caption] The rally, which purports to follow routes used by merchants on the so-called Silk Road network many centuries ago, is reminiscent of the renowned Dakar Rally in West Africa. It has recently come under suspicion as an alleged front for Russian operatives. Past winners and competitors in the Silk Way Rally have included people from France, Spain and other Western European countries, as well as Ukraine, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Argentina. At least two dozen countries were represented in several editions of the annual race in previous years. This year, nationals from about half a dozen countries signed up and the vast majority are Russian, illustrating the impact of sanctions and the deterioration in ties since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Several two-member teams from Turkmenistan, including brothers Merdan and Shokhrat Toylyev, are competing in the T2 class of cross-country vehicles. A Kyrgyz citizen is listed with a Russian in a team in another vehicle category. The 2024 Silk Way Rally is not recognized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, also known by its initials FIA. The Paris-based governing body of motorsport has taken action to isolate Russia and its ally, the government in Belarus, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The race has caught the attention of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which on June 12 said it was imposing sanctions on the organization and its directors for alleged ties to the Russian military intelligence agency GRU. The department said Silk Way head Bulat Akhatovich Yanborisov, a Russian citizen, had received awards from the GRU for his work and appears to use his properties in Europe as transit points for Russian military intelligence officers. “Bulat, who is Silk Way’s CEO and general director, alongside his son Amir Bulatovich Yanborisov (Amir), use Silk Way’s logistical infrastructure to procure anti-UAV and radioelectronic warfare equipment for use on the battlefield in Ukraine,” the U.S. department said in a statement announcing a wider package of new sanctions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Russian economy is growing despite increasingly tough Western sanctions and has sought to expand trade with other countries to offset their impact. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, a big buyer of Russian oil during the Ukraine war, met Putin in Moscow on Monday. The media guidelines for the Silk Way Rally appear to reflect the concerns of a wartime country that is anxious about expressions of opposition. Drones, a common media tool, can’t be used along the rally route. Journalists are advised against “committing public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” and must not “intentionally destroy or damage or desecrate the flag and state symbols of the Russian Federation and Mongolia.” Promoting or displaying “Nazi paraphernalia or symbols, or paraphernalia or symbols that are confusingly similar to Nazi paraphernalia or symbols,” is also out, according to the press regulations. Russia has often said that Nazi ideology pervades the Ukrainian leadership, which characterizes such allegations as absurd. Against the backdrop of geopolitical intrigue, the Silk Way drivers crossed from Russia into Mongolia on Tuesday. They encountered “fast, winding tracks between picturesque hills, then the competitors found rocky sections with holes and mounds, passing through rocky deposits past the mountain Achit Lake,” organizers reported. “The crews reached the finish line through a canyon with fast roads, where they had the opportunity to rev their engines to full power.”

Women in Central Asia in Need of Protection from Violence

 Central Asian Countries are seeing a new wave of violence against women and girls, and the fight against their long-standing powerlessness is just beginning. In 2023, the Women, Peace and Security Index (WPS Index), published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security, found Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan the most dangerous countries in Central Asia for women. Things were deemed slightly better in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

The challenges faced by women in the region result from a combination of factors: the low number of women in government and law enforcement, women’s lack of financial independence, especially in rural areas, a distorted understanding of traditions across populations, and a mentality in society that often denies or covers up flagrant cases of injustice.

The law is written in blood: the case of Kazakhstan

According to WPS experts, Kazakhstan has progressed further than its neighbors toward equality. Still, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, 69 women and seven children died in 2023 in domestic conflicts alone. It is believed that, on average, at least 80 women die every year at the hands of those they live with; every day, the police receive hundreds of calls, while thousands of women need the help of specialized protection and support centers. According to the Prosecutor General, last year 150 women sustained severe injuries and 200 moderate injuries in marital conflicts, with another 4,000 suffering minor bruises.

This year, however, marked a turning point for Kazakhstani society – more and more women are recording videos with marks from beatings, posting the videos on social media, and calling on the police to punish their abusers. Even high-profile domestic abusers can now be exposed. The trigger for these changes was the trial of former Nazarbayev-era Minister of the National Economy, Kuandyk Bishimbayev, who beat his wife, Saltanat Nukenova, to death last November. Following a live-streamed trial, this May, Bishimbayev was sentenced to 24 years in prison for her murder.

Even during the Bishimbayev trial, Karina Mamash, the wife of a Kazakh diplomat in the UAE, went public with allegations about systematic abuse, calling on the state to help. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs urgently recalled her husband, Embassy Counselor Saken Mamash, who may be fired. Karina is now at home with her children while a criminal case has been opened against her husband. She has since reported threats from her husband's relatives.

Also in May, Akmaral Umbetkalieva, a resident of Atyrau, alleged that her ex-husband, Rinat Ibragimov – the akim (mayor) of Makat District in Atyrau Region – had beaten her for eleven years and taken away their children. Ibragimov called the allegations slander.

The month before, former Taldykorgan police chief, Marat Kushtybaev was sentenced to eleven years for raping a girl in his office in November 2023. Another headline from April was that a security guard at an Almaty bar who had been convicted of raping a girl at knifepoint would serve eight years in prison. The police, according to the victim, refused to investigate the case for a long time and gave in only under public pressure, even though the perpetrator had filmed the rape.

These tragedies are certainly not the first. In 2020, a man from the West Kazakhstan Region, Serik Kapazov, burned down the house where his ex-wife Zhadyra Zhumalieva was located, along with their two daughters, seven-year-old Inabat and nine-year-old Aisha. Kapazov received a life sentence. And in 2015, a man poured gasoline on and set fire to his ex-wife, the mother of four children, teacher Svetlana Saduova. She died in the hospital, while her murderer received a sentence of 18 years.

The case of the murder of lawyer Ayman Asanova in Almaty is considered one of the victories of social activists and concerned citizens. In 2022, her ex-husband stabbed her 18 times, killing her, after which a court sentenced him to just a year and a half in prison. The unjustifiably lenient sentence sparked massive outrage on social media. Eventually, the case was reviewed, and Asanova’s murderer received eleven years in prison.

The list goes on – dozens of similar stories can be cited about repeated, unpunished violence against women and children. Nevertheless, the situation in Kazakhstan is starting to change for the better. This spring, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed amendments toughening punishment for rapists and domestic abusers. The amendments provide more opportunities to initiate criminal cases and protect victims. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kazakhstan called these “legislative initiatives protecting women’s [and] children’s rights [a] crucial step towards equality, justice [and] safety for all citizens” that “lay a foundation for a stable, prosperous society.” On Instagram, the OSCE Programme Office in Astana stated that it “welcomes the adoption and signing of two laws aimed at ensuring and protecting the rights of women and children, including the criminalization of violence towards them."

In addition, special women's police units are being created. Experts believe that a shift in the situation of violence against women will depend on how these initiatives are realized in practice.

He cut off her nose and ears: the cases of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

The situation of women in Uzbekistan also remains difficult and even alarming. According to surveys, more than 43% of women have experienced domestic violence. UNICEF says that 87% of cases of violence against women in Uzbekistan are committed in the family; often, these incidents are not recorded. Yet the country started talking about domestic violence only a few years ago. Some analysts attribute this to the appearance of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as president, since when amendments to the legislation on the protection of the rights and freedoms of women and children have been implemented. Nevertheless, legislative measures against abusers still need to be modernized and, most importantly, properly applied.

In 2022, a video went viral from a wedding in Uzbekistan where the groom was hitting the bride. The couple reportedly reconciled, as it is not customary in the country to go public with cases of domestic violence.

“Impunity is the result of silence,” Saida Mirziyoyeva, the eldest daughter of the Uzbekistani president and the deputy chair of a public fund for the support and development of the national mass media, said on Telegram a few years ago. “She threw herself under a train with her daughters because she could not give birth to a boy. She hanged herself because of the abuse. She was beaten up over five thousand som (0,5$) that she had dared to borrow from neighbors to go somewhere. The abuse of the girl went unpunished – she found no protection from the rapists. This kind of news makes me sick. And these are just cases that we know about. How many remain in the shadows?” Mirziyoyeva asked.

In Kyrgyzstan, meanwhile, for many years there has been legislation in place to guard against and protect women from domestic violence. It contains such progressive norms for Central Asia as restraining orders. But activists from Human Rights Watch argue that the law is almost impossible to apply, and abusers are getting off scot-free.

In 2023, a particularly brutal case of domestic violence occurred in the Kyrgyzstani village of Selektsionnoye, Sokuluk District. A man stalked his ex-wife for several years before breaking into her apartment, beating her, stabbing her with a knife, and cutting off her nose and ears. The couple had two minor children, one of whom was home when his mother was attacked.

Overall, human rights activists report many incidents of domestic violence that end in murder or suicide. Indeed, some activists believe Kyrgyzstan may be experiencing an epidemic of femicide – the killing of women by men motivated by gender hatred and discrimination.

Reporter in Turkmenistan Freed After Four Years in Jail

Authorities in Turkmenistan have released a freelance reporter who was jailed for several years on a fraud conviction that media groups alleged was retaliation for his journalism. Nurgeldi Halykov, who has worked for the Turkmen.news website, was arrested in Ashgabat on July 13, 2020 and freed on Saturday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday. Halykov was detained the day after the Netherlands-based website published a photo that it received from him in which a World Health Organization delegation is seen at a local hotel during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the committee. Turkmenistan strictly controls the media, making it hard to get information about what is going on in the Central Asian country. The government there did not report a single case of COVID-19, though there are widespread doubts about the government’s transparency regarding the impact of a virus that has killed millions of people worldwide. The photo of the WHO representatives was taken by an Ashgabat resident who saw them sitting by the pool of the Ashgabat Yildiz Hotel, Turkmen.news said. The resident posted the photo on Instagram and Halykov, “who had previously studied with this girl in the same school, saw it. He thought it necessary to send the photo to the editorial office of Turkmen.news,” the website reported. “The girl was identified from CCTV cameras. She and six of her friends, relaxing by the hotel pool, were called to the police. The police looked through all her photographs, including personal ones, restored previously deleted photographs, and reread all her correspondence with other people. Then they began to study contacts in the address book and her friends on Instagram,” the news outlet said. Halykov was detained and sentenced in September 2020 after being convicted of failing to repay a loan, according to Turkmen.news. It said a former close friend made the complaint about a $5,000 debt that Halykov allegedly owed. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was glad that Halykov had been released and it urged the Turkmen authorities “to improve the country’s international reputation by liberalizing the media environment so that independent reporters do not have to work clandestinely or under fear of arrest.” Turkmenistan’s state news agency did not mention Halykov’s release in its report on Monday. The main news was the visit to Ashgabat of South Korean President, Yun Suk Yeol, and his talks on trade and other issues with Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov. Other prominent articles talked about the start of the grain harvest and the Turkmen president’s recent participation in a mass bicycle excursion in Ashgabat.

Story of a Statue: Turkmenistan Shapes National Identity

The giant bronze statue of a robed man holding a book stands on the southern outskirts of Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, and is visible from many parts of the city. Including the granite base, it is more than 80 meters high. The sculptor says the rising sun illuminates the structure at dawn, giving it a hallowed aura. Diplomats and other dignitaries recently assembled for the inauguration of the statue of Magtymguly Pyragy, a revered poet and philosopher who serves today as a state-sponsored symbol of national and cultural identity. Some carried bouquets of flowers as they walked up the steps toward the looming monolith. Later, there were fireworks, a multi-colored light show and a drone display in the sky that formed the image of a quill pen. Led by President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, the ceremony on May 17 marked the 300^th anniversary of the official birthday of Pyragy, who is little known outside Central Asia but is vital to a campaign of national cohesion in a country whose brand of personalized state control often seems opaque and eccentric to observers. Pyragy was born in the 18^th century in what is today Iran, and is associated with Sufi spiritualism. He wrote about love, family and morality, and also laced his poetry with yearning for Turkmen solidarity at a time of conflict and fragmentation. Today, his image adorns postage stamps and banknotes in Turkmenistan. A theater carries his name. A symphony. A street. A university. People put his verse to songs at festivals. His lines form aphorisms in Turkmen, a Turkic language spoken in parts of Central Asia. Turkmenistan is of interest to foreign powers for its deep energy reserves, but this year its diplomats made an intense push in world capitals to get people interested in something else about the country: Magtymguly Pyragy. They promoted events about the poet in cities including Washington, Paris, Beijing and Seoul. The message was, as the state news agency put it, that Pyragy´s work is “an invaluable asset of all mankind.” Indeed, the park where the giant Pyragy statue stands in Ashgabat also contains much, much smaller statues of writers from other parts of the world, including William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Rabindranath Tagore. One commentator has even compared Pyragy to German philosopher Immanuel Kant, saying they were born around the same time and had similar ideas. Russian granite was transported in nearly 100 railway cars to Ashgabat for construction of the new Pyragy statue, according to contractor Alexander Petrov. The statue is among the more grandiose monuments in a capital studded with them. Sculptor Saragt Babayev noted that the statue shows Pyragy in a turban, in contrast to an older image of the poet that shows him wearing a peaked Astrakhan hat, which was made of sheep fur and had no religious significance. That image dates to the time when Turkmenistan was part of the Soviet Union and Moscow was cracking down on expressions of Islamic piety. “During the time when the poet lived and worked, the turban was a part of the clothing of imams, theologians and, in general, highly educated people such as Magtymguly Pyragy,” Babayev said, according to media outlet Turkmenportal. The sculptor said that “today's historians have agreed and accepted the new image of the poet in which he appears with a turban.” The Soviet authorities promoted their own version of Pyragy’s legacy, portraying him and other Turkic literary figures who lived before the Russian Revolution  as “proto-Socialist visionaries,” Michael Erdman, a curator at the British Library, wrote in 2021. Pyragy died in 1807, more than a century before the Bolshevik takeover. However the poet’s legacy is shaped, some of his work holds up in today´s uncertain times. “Do not take for granted the state of the world,” Pyragy wrote.

Residents of Turkmenistan Urged Not to Disseminate What’s Happening in the Country

In the city of Turkmenbashi, local authorities, including the khakimlik (mayor's office), the National Security Ministry (NSM), the court, the police, and elders, are holding meetings with youth and cultural workers. At these meetings, they are warned not to disseminate information about events in the country, such as natural disasters and traffic accidents, on the internet or to journalists.

The meetings are hosted mainly by elders who reprimand the youth.

“They demanded not to share pictures and videos of someone asking for money for a sick child and not to write comments under posts about problems,” a cultural worker said during an anonymous conversation.

Meeting participants claim that the elders said, “There are no countries without faults, and faults need to be hidden.” They also emphasized that freedom on the internet should not lead to the spread of negative information.

Authorities stated that citizens who distributed videos about the Ashgabat floods have already been identified, and most were cultural workers.

"Cultural workers are lighthearted, and all the videos and information leaking online are mostly what you're doing. All problems come either from singers or actors, and the people following them,” a cultural worker was quoted as saying by an NSM official.

The elders and representatives of the khakimlik also urged parents to monitor how their children use the internet and what sites they visit and read. Participants in the meeting were required to use VPN programs approved by the authorities and only share positive photos, videos, and messages about the country online.

Signs of Racism in Central Asia

By Bruce Pannier Incidents in May showed two Central Asian countries – Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan – are afflicted by racism that is tacitly or explicitly supported by their governments. Overnight on May 17-18, hundreds of young Kyrgyz men gathered in eastern Bishkek near a dormitory used by foreign students. The Kyrgyz men were angered by a video posted on popular Kyrgyz social media sites on the morning of May 17 that showed a fight in Bishkek on May 13 between a small group of Kyrgyz and foreigners. The foreigners in the fight on May 13 turned out to all be Egyptians, and they were all detained. However, some social media posts claimed at least some of the foreigners involved in the fight were Pakistanis. Many people from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan come to Kyrgyzstan to study at universities, particularly at medical colleges. More than 90% of foreign students at Kyrgyz universities are from India and Pakistan. A smaller number, in the low thousands, are working there illegally. In March, Kyrgyz authorities launched a campaign to find and deport illegal migrant laborers some 1,500 Pakistanis and 1,000 Bangladeshis have been caught. There have been isolated incidents when Kyrgyz were involved in physical altercations with South Asians in recent years, but nothing on scale of what happened in May 17-18. Besides bursting into the dormitory and assaulting foreign students, a group of some 60-70 Kyrgyz men broke into a sewing factory in Bishkek early morning May 18 and attacked foreign workers, who mostly from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. At least 41 people were injured, most of them South Asians. Pakistan in particular reacted, summoning the Kyrgyz Charge d'Affaires in Islamabad while a group of Pakistanis protested outside the Kyrgyz Embassy. Pakistani authorities also sent charter flights to Kyrgyzstan that brought back more than 1,000 Pakistani citizens. Kyrgyz authorities criticized the police for failing to calm the situation before it went out of control and later 10 policemen were sacked. Deputy Cabinet Chairman Edil Baisalov went to the dormitory to meet with some of the foreign students and apologize for the harm done to them “by a bunch of hooligans.” The top two people in the government – President Sadyr Japarov and head of security service Kamchybek Tashiyev – were more equivocal in their comments on the violence. Since coming to power in late 2020, Japarov and his longtime friend Tashiyev have promoted nationalist policies. Their emphasis on respecting Kyrgyz traditions and customs has gained them significant popularity in Kyrgyzstan. They need such support in a country that has had three revolutions since 2005, including the October 2020 revolution that resulted in them occupying their current positions. Young Kyrgyz men, like the hundreds who gathered on the evening of May 17, are an important pillar of support for Japarov and Tashiyev. President Japarov vaguely blamed “forces interested in aggravating the situation,” and added, “The demands of our patriotic youth to stop the illegal migration of foreign citizens and take tough measures against those who allow such activities are certainly correct.” Tashiyev remarked the “main demands” of the hundreds of Kyrgyz men who were on the streets on May 17-18 “concerned an increase in the number of foreigners working in our country, an increase in the number of students and workers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Egypt and other countries.” Tashiyev said, “I believe that the demands of the guys who gathered yesterday are, to some extent, correct.” In Turkmenistan discrimination is clearly part of state policy. “Uch arka,” the practice of checking an individual’s background going back three generations has been enforced since 2000. This genealogical requirement certifies that individuals’ previous three generations of relatives (parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents) who have not committed any serious crimes. The policy also helps separate ethnic Turkmen from other people living in Turkmenistan. It is nearly impossible to find a position in a government organization for people who are not ethnic Turkmen. School children are required to submit uch arka forms when they enroll. In May 2024, at the graduation ceremony for students in the western city of Balkanabad, school authorities segregated non-Turkmen students out of the group that accepted diplomas in front of the city’s central library. When the president visits towns and cities, the schoolchildren paraded out to meet him are usually chosen because they meet the uch arka requirements. It is not only schools. Balkanabad is the provincial capital of the Balkan Province. Earlier in May, all employees of the Balkan provincial medical facilities had their uch arka credentials checked. This appears to have also targeted ethnic Turkmen whose recent ancestors may have committed some crime. That would be sufficient grounds for dismissal, but it also ensures ethnic Turkmen occupy the top spots in the medical field. Kyrgyzstan had long been considered the most democratic of the five Central Asian countries, though that is changing under President Japarov, and Turkmenistan the most repressive. Their brands of ethno-nationalism are a dangerous sign for countries with increasingly authoritarian governments and decreasing possibilities for employment or improvement in the socioeconomic situation of their people.   Bruce Pannier is a Central Asia Fellow in the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the advisory board at the Caspian Policy Center, and a longtime journalist and correspondent covering Central Asia. He currently appears regularly on the Majlis podcast for RFE/RL.