Image by Flickr user Vassilis Galopoulo (CC-usage).

On August 12, dozens of students at Ashgabat airport were not allowed on board a plane heading to Almaty. They were traveling to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. According to a passenger who made it to Kazakhstan on that plane, two-thirds of the plane was empty.

This is the latest incident in a broader trend: hundreds of Turkmen students still cannot leave the country in pursuit of education abroad.

For nearly a month students have been having problems since the implementation of new rules according to which one can only exit the country in pursuit of higher education overseas with the approval of education ministry and state immigration service.

The students learned the hard way about the new rule when border officials rejected them at Ashgabat airport.  The officials claimed the students didn’t have a certificate bearing the national emblem.  Such certificates can be obtained at the Institute of Education.

However, not everybody can get the certificate.  Students intending to go to state universities have few problems, but those intending to study in private universities as opposed to state universities have their requests turned down.  They are also reproached for being “unpatriotic” and almost traitors.

According to the Turkmen Initiative of Human Rights, a Vienna-based NGO, Turkmen authorities are mostly concerned with non-state universities, such as American University in Central Asia (AUCA) based in Bishkek. Most of approximately 150 Turkmen students enrolled in this school are financially supported by the U.S. State Department and other American donors.

According to a source in the United States from an organization that supports Turkmen students,

These are exit visas, pure and simple. And there can be only one reason for them: control.

Above all, this shows that the officials who run the Turkmenistan government are not thinking in the long-term with their country’s interests at heart. They are not thinking in the long-term because they don’t realize that they only cripple their country.

According to a student from Charjou oblast, he tried to leave for Kyrgyzstan by taxi through “Farab” check-point on the Uzbek border. He was denied exit without the certificate. His parents tried to bride the border official, but the man refused and said that there was a clear message from the top not to let anybody go.

Attempts to leave Turkmenistan with a tourist visa or private invitation also fail. On every border check-point there are lists of students studying abroad with information about their schools provided by the Ministry of national security and education.

In the spring of 2009 the Ministry of Education visited all schools in the country and interviewed every (!) graduate. The main question was: where would you like to apply when you graduate from the school?

In the meantime, the denied Turkmen students are hoping to get support from the U.S. Embassy in Ashgabat and from AUCA. Rumor has it that talks are being held “at the very top” and that soon there will be some decision made.  Students can only now wait…