Tag Archives: Turkmenistan

Turkmen officials purge Gulenists

DEC. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Security forces in Turkmenistan have detained dozens of people with alleged links to Turkey’s Gulen movement, Eurasianet reported quoting relatives. Turkey, one of Turkmenistan’s biggest foreign allies, accuses followers of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen of a failed coup in July. It has asked its allies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus to persecute Gulenists.

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(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Turkmenistan’s Democratic party puts Berdy forward

DEC. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s Democratic party formally put President Kurbangkuly Berdymukhamedov forward as its candidate in an election set for February. Mr Berdymukhamedov has been in power for a decade. He is likely to easily win the presidential election. No Western vote monitors have ever judged an election in Turkmenistan to be either free or fair.

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(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Turkmenistan proposes discounts for airlines

DEC. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a move designed to increase its competitiveness for the lucrative trans-asia aviation market, Turkmenistan is offering large discounts to airlines that stop at its airport near Ashgabat, media reported. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have also tried to position themselves to attract international airlines flying from Europe to East Asia. Earlier this year, Turkmenistan unveiled a new terminal building.

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(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Turkmenistan and Afghanistan open railway

NOV. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan and Afghanistan opened a long awaited rail link which should ease trade, especially shipments of refined fuel. Turkmenistan’s economy relies of gas sales, mainly to China, but it has been looking to diversity into refined fuel and electricity exports and it sees Afghanistan as a potentially important market. It has built a 540,000 tonne oil product terminal at the Ymemnazar customs point on the border with Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Taliban to protect Turkmen pipeline

NOV. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Apparently in a bid to win popular support from locals, the Taliban have pledged to protect major infrastructure projects planned for Afghanistan, media reported, including the ambitious TAPI gas pipeline that is being built. TAPI is supposed to run from Turkmenistan to India via Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects attempted. One of its major weaknesses, its critics pointed out, was the poor security situation in Afghanistan. If they do support TAPI, the Taliban would immediately improve its prospects of success.

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(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Fighting becomes intense in Turkmen-Afghan border

NOV. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Residents of Marchak, a village on the Turkmen-Afghan border,told the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that fighting in the border areas was becoming more serious. The Turkmen government has said it was concerned about a move north by the Taliban but has denied that there is currently a problem. The RFE/RL report suggests otherwise.

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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

MTS revenues in Armenia and Turkmenistan drop

NOV. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian telecoms company MTS published its first quarterly report after discontinuing operations in Uzbekistan, posting a 1.3% decline in revenues in Q3 across its operations in the former Soviet Union, compared to the same period last year. In rouble terms, revenues in Armenia were down 19% to 2.1b roubles and in Turkmenistan they fell by 17% to 1.2b roubles.

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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Turkmen President’s son wins parliamentary seat

NOV. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The son of Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Serdar Berdymukhamedov, has won a seat in the country’s parliament, local television reported, a possible first step towards inheriting the presidency from his father.

Turkmen TV broadcast Serdar Berdymukhamedov being congratulated after winning a by-election three days earlier. He had previously worked in a senior management position in the foreign ministry.

Little is known about Serdar Berdymukhamedov. Eurasianet ran a story earlier this year which said that as well as holding down government jobs he also owns a “a cotton-spinning plant, a mineral water factory and a chain of hotels”.

Earlier this year, Mr Berdymukhamedov tweaked the country’s constitution so that he could remain in power for life. He also extended the length of presidential terms to seven years from five years.

Succession has become an enduring issue in Central Asia. In September, Islam Karimov, who had ruled Uzbekistan for 25 years died. His daughter had been his preferred successor but was sidelined two years ago, paving the way for PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev to take over. In Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev dodged the issue of a family succession during an interview with Bloomberg this week.

Mr Berdymukhamedov took over in 2007 as Turkmenistan’s president from Saparmurat Niyazov. The only country in the region which has successfully completed a power handover within a family is in Azerbaijan, where Ilham Aliyev became president in 2003 after his father Heydar.

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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Turkmenistan to modernise oil refineries

NOV. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his government to modernise the country’s oil refineries so that it could boost its output of refined oil to 20m tonnes by 2020, 22m tonnes by 2022 and 25m tonnes by 2025, media reported. The Central Asia region in general has been suffering from a shortage of refinery capacity.

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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Turkmen minister visits Pakistan

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s defence minister Colonel-General Berdiyev Yaylym Yagmyrovich flew to Rawalpindi in Pakistan to meet with the head of the Pakistani army General Raheel Sharif, media reported. According to the reports the main focus of the trip was regional security and the growth of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The meeting is important because it is more evidence that Turkmenistan, normally reclusive and proudly neutral, is increasingly concerned about regional stability.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)