Page 64 - BNE_magazine_10_2020

64 Opinion
bne October 2020
Turkmenistan: They call me Mr. Boombastic
Akhal-Teke, Eurasianet
The reliable flow of news about the leader of Turkmenistan’s zany antics often blinds distracted observers to the arbitrary severity of the repression over which he presides.
Consider the ways that the government is enforcing its coronavirus prevention measures.
RFE/RL’s Turkmen service, Radio Azatlyk, reported on September 1 that people in the Mary province unable to pay 60 manat ($17) fines for failing to wear masks are being sent by police to pick cotton. Each violator is required to gather 20 kilograms of cotton daily.
Amendments have been made to the criminal code envisioning prison terms of between two and five years for people deemed to be evading treatment for “dangerous infectious diseases.” The changes came into effect upon publication in state media on September 7.
Strict rules have been drafted worldwide to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but there is an important distinction to be considered in Turkmenistan. And that is that conditions at quarantine and treatment facilities for coronavirus – whose presence in the country the authorities still does not acknowledge – are known to be abysmal.
In a September 7 account on life in a quarantine centre in the Lebap province, Amsterdam-based Turkmen.news described how people confined to shared tents are not provided with soap, toilet paper or even water with which to wash themselves. The food provided by the camp is inedible, so internees have to rely on relatives to deliver relief parcels. Phones are not allowed, lest anybody think to document the conditions. It is hardly surprising that many would want to flee such places, not least since they are more likely to spread disease than contain it. Doing so, however, will now potentially trigger those aforementioned punishments.
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President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov appearing September 2 on the evening news.
While dissidence inside the country is not tolerated in any shape or form, the past few months have seen the emergence of a lively community of anti-government activism outside the country. This has mainly manifested in pickets outside Turkmen embassies in places like the United States, Turkey and Cyprus – all home to sizeable diasporas.
Representatives from a group calling itself the Democratic Choice of Turkmenistan assembled at the Turkmen Embassy in Washington on September 1 to hold a protest against proposed changes to the Constitution. Vienna-based Chronicles of Turkmenistan reported that the ambassador, Meret Orazov, did not come out to meet the protesters, preferring instead to summon the police and report the picketers for incitement to terrorist activities.
Filing a false police report – a misdemeanor, incidentally – is all Turkmenistan’s man in Washington can do. State thugs back home can resort to far more forceful measures.
“People in the Mary province unable to pay 60 manat ($17) fines for failing to wear masks are being sent by police to pick cotton”
Moscow-based rights group Memorial issued a statement on how 48-year-old lawyer Pygamberdy Allaberdiyev was detained on September 5 in the western town of Balkanabat on suspicion of ties to activists in the foreign-based protest movement. As is customary, the interrogation of Allaberdiyev by officers with the National Security Ministry, which is the renamed KGB, took place without a legal representative present. Attempts by relatives to deliver food and drink were rebuffed, Memorial said. Allaberdiyev is now facing terrorism charges.