Turkmenistan
First e-witness spoke again. Cannot confirm his statements but he was cited by Annasoltan. He has spoken again today:
“I escaped death at the last moment, running away and making an accident with my car, but the car is nothing. [The bomb] fell 15,20 meters close to me. I was almost dead, all the people were covered in blood, they didn’t escape, they all died, there were no survivors to come out from there.”
When asked where the bombs and rockets fell, he answered:
“They fell everywhere.”
Composite image from Russian media and the Chronicles of Turkmenistan.
Editor’s note: The still-mysterious explosion in Abadan was met with logic and courage by everyday Turkmens who were able to get online. neweurasia’s Annasoltan recounts both the struggles and discoveries of the Turkmenet during the crisis, including an important eyewitness account and the many netizens who were willing to challenge the official version of events as well as comfort and calm each other during a moment of terror.
We should note that at the moment we do not yet have the ability to investigate fully the individuals involved or confirm their statements made on Teswirler. However, readers are invited to review one of the areas where discussions took place: http://teswirler.com/index.php?q=microblog&page=6 (as of 08.07.2011 13:47 GMT).
Lately it seems the whole world is talking about the power of social media to get out news, not to mention its power to make normal people actually make the news themselves. neweurasia‘s Chris and I attach special importance to the use of social media to cast light upon on-the-ground realities in extremely closed societies like my nation, Turkmenistan, as well as a way to engage the citizens of these societies with new ideas. Yesterday’s explosion in Abadan is a perfect example.
So, the official story at the moment is that hot weather had detonated fireworks at a storage facility in the town and that there were no casualties. The opposition news organization Chronicles of Turkmenistan reported chaos in the streets of Abadan and a small-scale military intervention to keep the peace. They claim that this photograph is of smoke arising from the blast:
As Catherine Fitzpatrick remarks in a comment on Chris’ original post, the armory may have been a ticking time bomb:
[The armory appears to be] right next to apartment buildings and roads, not far from the center of Ashgabat. So you have to wonder if either a) the Turkmen authorities are so careless and inconsiderate that they’d put an arms depot right next to residential ares (always possible) or b) it isn’t an arms depot, exactly, but just a bunch of warehouses where maybe arms, but maybe fireworks were stored. The buildings look like dilapidated warehouses with lots of space around them for trucks to pull in, and piles of what look like logs
Last night, some chat friends and I were in teswirler, trying to figure out what may have really happened. Internet connections with Ashgabat were down for several hours, yet Turkmenetizens were sharing whatever they could of fragmented information coming from the Internet, television, and word of mouth. Then suddenly around 1 a.m. Turkmenistan time, the connections were restored. Almost immediately, a survivor of the explosion appeared online and volunteered to tell the amazing story about how the event unfolded:
neweurasia‘s Annasoltan reported three hours ago via sms that there has been a large explosion in southern Turkmenistan.
RFE/RL has been quick to develop the story. Apparently the explosion took place in the afternoon at a military armory in Abadan. It’s reported to have caused major damage and led to a mass evacuation of residents as the explosion damaged homes and other buildings near the armory.
Editor’s note: Recently, there’s been a blossoming of Turkmen social websites and Facebook groups, and the activity therein has been incredible. neweurasia’s Annasoltan thinks she sees the opportunity for a new strategy of engagement with the people of her isolated nation. “The way to engage the Turkmen people and to get them to think critically about their society may [now[ require talking with the population rather than at them,” she writes.
The recent weeks have been full of reasons to celebrate, and I don’t mean for the wedding celebrations that are taking place this summer throughout Turkmenistan. There’s been a small explosion of new Turkmen social websites and new Facebook groups. Here are some examples:
Editor’s note: A 137 million euro television tower is set to be inaugurated in October in Ashgabat. The facility shall be incredibly state of the art — and totally hypocritical. neweurasia’s Emerson reports. “Besides the fact that it’s basically an enormous hypno-ray beaming out propaganda, who knows what technical abuses can be done with it?” he writes, “This tower is practically a dictatorship’s gift to more extensively monitor and pry into the private electronic communications of the Turkmenistani population.”
A lucrative new television tower is set to be inaugurated in October in Ashgabat. It has cost almost 137 million Euros but it appears to have been well worth the investment. Consider: the Turkish construction company Polimeks, which has been responsible for several projects in the capital, boasts that it shall stand at 211m atop the Gindivar foothill of the Kopetdag range and shall be state of the art:
The tower has viewing terraces, a restaurant, a VIP lounge and a revolving restaurant of 100 people capacity. There are 4 large TV studios and 2 small TV studios, 140 editing labs and 5 broadcasting studios. There are rooms, offices for technical staff, exhibition and conference halls, a child entertainment center, as well as teleradio broadcasting, satellite and radio communication and rooms for technical equipment of the Meteorology Department. TV broadcasting and communication antennas will be installed at the top of the tower. An underground parking structure with 189 car capacity, storage rooms for decorations, electrical rooms and other maintenance rooms will also be included in the project.
Much of the technology has been supplied by the German company Rohde & Schwarz. Back on 23 July, 2010, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) quoted* a commentator in Ashgabat that the government was “spending millions of dollars on improving the way television works, staff are on high salaries by local standards, enjoy good working conditions- high-end equipment, and separate studios and rooms.”
This is an incredibly rich media outlet, and moreover, it’s intended to be the most distinguishing landmark of Turkmenistan. Yet it is for a country that has neither democracy nor a diverse and independent media.
Soros Foundations in Central Asia organize “Youth in the 21st Century: Debating and Producing Media” summer camp that will last for 12 days (yahoo!) with young brilliant people aged 17 to 25.
So here is a deal:
Apart from age, the following thing is the last requirement: participants must be young people from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to be eligible for applying.
“This is a regional series of workshops that will be held during the summer and early autumn of 2011 for young people throughout the world. These workshops teach youth to be effective producers of media information by equipping them to produce and package content towards creating a better society,” Soros Foundation’s press-release says.
Editor’s note: An American diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks reveals that in 2007, Turkish businessman Ahmet Çalık believed that, vis-à-vis, Turkmenistan was “on the surface” the most independent of the post-Soviet Central Asian republics, “but not behind the scenes” — to the point that he insinuates Berdimuhamedov was put in power by Moscow. neweurasia’s Magtymguly reports. “This cable is like scripture for me,” he writes.
There is new WikiLeaks cable from middle of May that has not been reported. It is about views of Ahmet Çalık, owner of Çalik Group and ex-minister of Turkmenistan’s textile industry Niyazov days, on President Berdimuhmmedow in the first days of new regime. My comments are after the quote.
Editor’s note: neweurasia’s Annasoltan has discovered a Facebook group openly calling for the overthrow of the Turkmen government via Arab Spring-style tactics. In early May, the group was the locus of a fierce debate between Turkmens — in Turkmen and English — about the merits, demerits, and strategy for removing the current totalitarian regime. And were this not enough, the group’s mysterious founder, “Berdi Niyazov”, is planning to establish “an opposition committee” inside Turkmenistan.
We at neweurasia would like to hear from our readers: what do you think about Berdi Niyazov? What do you think about this story in general? Our managing editor, Schwartz, is running a poll on his personal blog. Please vote and give us your feedback by leaving a comment. (And to read about a similar Facebook group for Uzbekistan, but one which has since backed down on its goals, check out Avicenna’s angry post on ETAR!)
Will there ever be a revolution in Turkmenistan? On the one hand, there is lingering fear among Turkmens about their country “turning into another Kyrgyzstan”, slowly unravelling after two revolutions and ethnic conflict; but on the other hand, for many in the Turkmenet, the regime has stopped being a fearsome dictatorship and become simply an absurdity. A quick and dramatic change in power is also attractive to many of my nation’s youth who are now online, but they mostly keep their desires to themselves.
But then a few weeks ago, in early May, I stumbled upon a Facebook page entitled “The Green Revival” (“Yaşyl Galkynyş”). What’s amazing is that their profile is openly calling for the overthrow of the Turkmen regime:
“This group was created in hope that Turkmen people will someday be free from the endless dictatorship. Through this page I’m hoping to reach all Turkmen students around the world who believe in freedom. I’m calling all Turkmen students around the world to stand up against these endless rules of reckless dictators starting from the Lenin up to S. Niyazov and G. Berdymuhammedov. I’m calling my fellow mates studying abroad to end the plans of dictators to illiterate Turkmen people so to keep them in control.
“While we are enjoying highest levels of education studying in US, UK, EU, Kyrgyzstan, etc. our counterparts in Turkmenistan continue to suffer from mandatory participation of useless festivities and opening ceremonies of buildings. I call all students abroad to return to their homes this summer and gather up in front of the TSU named after Magtymguly on the date of admission exams in to the universities. From there we shall march to the Independence Square and make clear our demands. I believe that students who came to admission exams will join our march, at least those who were not able to pay bribe for admission but are dreaming to get an education.”
There was a small torrent of really interesting reactions from readers, but then the page was mysteriously shut down. It’s since been resurrected without the comments, but while it was still operational, I was able to preserve excerpts of some of the most striking and amazing ones (I wanted to wait a little while anyway before publishing this to make sure that no one would get hurt, and I’ve deleted all the names, too. However, when I think about it now, I’m sure the Turkmen authorities already data-mined them…) Incredibly, almost half of the conversation was in English. I’ve preserved the comments as they originally appeared, without editing:
Kara Mustafa Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, being executed by strangulation.
Editor’s note: As Turkmenistan marks a national holiday, another round of amnesties for prisoners has occurred. neweurasia’s Annasoltan explores the practice, criticizing it as a sign of the pervasive injustice in Turkmenistan’s justice system: “Amnesty gives innocent prisoners a chance at freedom [but] it’s also testimony to the fact that our justice system is in total shambles,” she writes. “Not only this, but the practice of amnesty itself is unjust and cruel, because it doesn’t actually correct injustice, it just produces more of it.”
Every culture has its “life cycles”. Here’s a typical one from the West: a man falls in love with a woman, marries her and creates a family and lives happily ever after in their nice suburban house with a white picket fence. In Turkmenistan, the story goes this way: a man gets a job, and shortly after he’s accused of wrongdoing and sent to prison; if he’s lucky, he’ll receive amnesty after a few years. I’m exaggerating, of course — somewhat. Routine, even ritual amnesties of prisoners was not only an old Ottoman practice, but a contemporary Turkmen one, as well, and it’s a symptom of how our people are being strangled by Turkmenistan’s so-called “justice” system.
Image by neweurasia's Schwartz (CC-usage).
Editor’s note: As Turkmenistan’s authorities quietly move to shut down the system of Turkish secondary schools, neweurasia’s Annasoltan communicates with alumni to get insiders’ view. This time she talks with an ex-Muslim turned deist, and what he has to say about the pedagogical content of his school and his own spiritual journey may surprise you.
I’ve previously reported on the rather secretive, gradual mass closure by the Turkmen authorities of my nation’s network of Turkemn-Turkish schools. Only five are allowed to remain open, but their status is being changed. As a follow-up to that report, I interviewed an alum of these schools, who defended them as only lightly religious and generally congenial in tone.
I’ve now found another one willing to go on the record about his education, and his experiences were completely different, up to and including a very active but hidden proselytization campaign on the part of his teachers. The differences in experience are jarring and suggest that the situation within these schools has been far more complex than I originally thought.
I should note that many alum of the Turkmen-Turkish schools in Turkmenistan that I know have one thing in common: they refer frequently to Allah when they talk, like other devout Muslims. Moreover, it’s my impression that their style of Muslimhood tends to be closer to that of the Turks. However, there are other alum who develop differently. The young man I interview here, Shanazar, was brought up in a religious Muslim family, but as a result of his education he chose to become a deist. In his view, the fundamental difference between those alumni who become more religious and those who don’t or become less lies in our nation’s evolving socioeconomic situation, the intellectual qualities of the pupils themselves, and, it seems very critically, the gradual penetration of the Internet.
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