The Turkmen authorities have been slowly but systematically shutting down or otherwise changing the status of the Turkish system of secondary schools in the country, reports neweurasia’s Annasoltan. She talks with a representative of the schools and students who know them well to discern the government’s motivations.

neweurasia’s Annasoltan concludes her interview with Abdulaziz, a man intimate with Turkmenistan’s underground Islamist community. What is the community’s shape and prospects among the young? What does the future hold for Islam and Islamism? Here are his answers.

neweurasia’s Annasoltan’s search for insight into the underground Islamist community has turned up a surprising lead: a man who claims to have the inside story of 2008′s mysterious shoot-out in Ashgabat. And what he has to say about what happened, and what that means for the Turkmen government, is striking.

The Turkmen government has announced plans to replace MTS with three supposedly private, independent telecoms, but both opponents of the regime and simple logic make the project seem highly dubious, reports neweurasia’s Annasoltan. “We might be seeing Evgeny Morozov’s thesis in ‘The Net Delusion’ confirmed,” she writes.