Tag Archives: Turkmenistan

Comment: Cameron tours Central Asia to secure migrant labour routes

APRIL 23 2024 (The Bulletin) — The British government has framed David Cameron’s trip to Central Asia as a push to persuade the region’s leaders to take a pro-West stance on global affairs, particularly around the war in Ukraine.

But this is only part of the British foreign minister’s visit. The other part is strengthening labour migration routes.

Over the past four years, Britain has turned to Central Asia to plug labour gaps created by Brexit. It has set up schemes to import migrant workers, particularly from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, to Britain to pick fruit, the sort of job that workers from the Baltics were doing until Brexit made it far more difficult.

Either way, it is a win for the West as the more contact there is between Britain and Central Asia, the more chance there is of breaking down Russia’s hold over the region.

On another level, it has been an awkward trip for Cameron, having to pose for photos with Kyrgz Pres. Sadyr Japarov after he imposed Kremlin-inspired laws that make operations for Western-backed media and NGOs far harder.

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— This story was published in issue 565 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 23 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

UK foreign minister goes on “grand tour” of Central Asia

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APRIL 22 2024 (The Bulletin) — David Cameron, Britain’s foreign minister, started a “Grand Tour” of Central Asia designed to win backing for migrant labour deals from the region’s presidents and persuade them to support the West over the Kremlin. Lord Cameron becomes the first British foreign minister to visit Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, highlighting the increased importance of the region. Britain has been trying to plug Brexit labour shortages with migrants from Central Asia.

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— This story was published in issue 565 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 23 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

Turkmenistan opens new road to boost trade

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APRIL 17 2024 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan opened a 109km section of road linking the cities of Mary and Tedzhen in the south of the country that officials said would boost trade.

Pres. Serdar Berdymukhamedov described the Ashgabat-Turkmenabat road, which aims to carry products imported from East Asia to Europe, as a new “Silk Road”.

Work on the 600km Ashgabat-Turkmenabat highway across the Karakum Desert began in 2019. Turkmenabat lies on Turkmenistan’s northern border with Uzbekistan.

Like other countries in Central Asia, Turkmenistan has benefited from a boom in East-West trade since the start of the war in Ukraine and in particular an increase of trade between Russia and Iran. Russia has been buying drones from Iran, which are shipped across the Caspian Sea, and has sent back fuel on rail, through Central Asia.

This week too, Russian officials said that they were interested in restarting the Moscow-Ashgabat passenger railway route which was closed in 1993.

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— This story was published in issue 565 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 23 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

Turkmenistan wants to supply Tajikistan with power through Uzbekistan

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APRIL 6 2024 (The Bulletin) — On a visit to Dushanbe, Turkmenistan’s former president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov offered to supply Tajikistan with power.. Turkmenistan already sends power to neighbouring Uzbekistan and Mr Berdymukhamedov, who handed the presidency to his son in 2022, said that it could then be shipped on to Tajikistan. Tajikistan suffered from serious power cuts over an unusually cold winter as demand soared. Turkmenistan is positioning itself as something of a power generating regional superpower. As well as sending electricity to Uzbekistan, it sent emergency supplies to Kyrgyzstan last year and also exports power to Afghanistan.

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— This story was published in issue 564 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 15 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

Turkey needs to do more to protect Turkmen exiles, say human rights groups

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NOV. 2 2021 (The Bulletin) — Thirty-three human rights groups signed a petition calling on the Turkish government to provide more protection for Turkmen exiles in Turkey after what it said had been a spate of attacks against them. Turkmen diplomats have refused to extend passports and other documents in Turkey forcing expats to break migration rules. They have also said that the Turkmen government has stepped up its harassment of exiled Turkmen.

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— This story was published in issue 506 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Nov. 4 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Turkmenistan extends Covid lockdown

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NOV. 1 2021 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan, one of the only countries in the world to claim that it hasn’t had a single case of the coronavirus, said that it was extending its lockdown measures. A lockdown that closed shops, restaurants and bars was imposed in August and was supposed to run until the end of October. This has now been officially extended until mid-November.

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— This story was published in issue 506 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Nov. 4 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Turkmen foreign minister flies to Kabul for Taliban meeting

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OCT. 27 2021 (The Bulletin) — Turkmen officials were preparing to fly to Kabul after the Taliban government said that it supported its moves to build a gas pipeline, dubbed TAPI, across the country.

The project is important to Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov because he wants to diversify Turkmenistan’s gas clients away from an over-reliance on China. The Western-backed government in Afghanistan had supported the TAPI plans but there were some concerns that the Taliban, which took control of Afghanistan in August, might ditch it.

Turkmen officials, though, have taken a comparatively soft line towards the Taliban since they took power, opening up lines of communications and sending aid. Now, it seems, the Taliban have decided to back TAPI.

In a statement, the acting Taliban minister for mines and petroleum, Mohammed Issa Akhund, said that the project would now go ahead, although he didn’t give dates.

“We have been working hard for some time and we are ready to take pride in starting work on the TAPI project,” he said.

The pipeline is slated to carry 33b cubic metres of gas across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India from Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh field once it is completed, an ambitious plan by Turkmenistan to turn itself into the region’s main gas exporter.

Under the current plans, Afghanistan would keep about 5% of the gas supplies and also earn hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees.

Separately, the Taliban government also said that it will pay Uzbekistan millions of dollars in fees it owes for electricity purchases. Like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan has looked to engage with the Taliban government in Afghanistan since it took control of the country, hosting its officials in Termez and sending envoys to Kabul.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan agree border deal

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OCT. 25 2021 (The Bulletin) — On a visit to Ashgabat, Kazakh Pres. Kassym Jomart Tokayev said that he signed several agreements that delimitinated Kazakhstan’s shared border with Turkmenistan. The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border has been a source of tension in previous years. Mr Tokayev also said that he had also signed an agreement over fishing rights in the Caspian Sea with Turkmen Pres. Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Worried about the Taliban, Tajikistan mobilise entire army

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DUSHANBE/JULY 22 2021 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan mobilised its entire army and put it on “high alert” for the first time since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union as worries intensified about a move north into Central Asia by the Taliban.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan also mobilised their armies and Russia said that it was sending extra military hardware to its base in Tajikistan.

Media quoted a military source in Tajikistan as saying that the Taliban now controls around 80% of Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan. It has pounced on Afghan government military weakness since the US started to withdraw its forces in May.

In a statement, the Tajik ministry of defence said that it had ordered the mobilisation of all its 100,000 regular soldiers, and another 130,000 reservists. Inspecting some of these forces in Dushanbe, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon said that the Tajik military had to be ready to defend its borders.

“The situation in neighbouring Afghanistan, especially in the northern regions bordering with our country, remains very difficult and uncertain. The situation is getting more complicated day by day and even hour after hour,” he said.

Earlier this month, hundreds of Afghan government soldiers fled across the Uzbek and Tajik borders to escape the Taliban which now controls most of the northern section of Afghanistan, including the important border crossings into Central Asia, for the first time.

Also in Tajikistan, media said that Russia was sending an extra 17 BMP-2s to its base. The BMP-2 is a cross between an armoured personnel carrier and a tank that Russian infantry favour when deploying into battle. The Kommersant newspaper also reported that Russia had offered the US use of its base as a listening post to spy on the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Elsewhere in Central Asia, news leaked out of Turkmenistan of a road accident that killed 30 soldiers when, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a military convoy collided with a truck and another vehicle. The RFE/RL source said the scene was “horrible”.

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— This story was published in issue 493 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 22 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Turkmen police kidnap doctor, says HRW

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JULY 21 2021 (The Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch, the New York-based lobby group, accused the Turkmen government of the illegal abduction of Kursanai Ismatullayeva, a doctor, a few days after the European Parliament discussed her case for wrongful dismissal from a clinic near Ashgabat in 2017. Philippe Dam, the HRW Central Asia director, said that Turkmenistan had a “horrific” record of abducting people who tried to expose government corruption.

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— This story was published in issue 493 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 22 2021