Is the Turkmen government so politically naked that no one dares tell it the truth? Photograph of a statue of the Roman Emperor Trebonianus Gallus on Display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (CC-usage).

Editor’s note: Turkmenistan’s president is used to receiving letters of praise, even when he’s bungled a job, as in the case of Turkmen students stuck in southern Kyrgyzstan during June’s tragic events there.  However, not everyone has been happy with the government’s response, neweurasia’s Annasoltan reports.  “Some Turkmen students said that they had hoped for more help from their government but felt neglected,” she writes.  “Some of them said they even tried to hide and didn’t leave their residences for days during the events.”

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a popular fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen in which two scoundrels trick an emperor into purchasing an invisible suit.  The scoundrels claimed that only the incompetent were unable to see the magnificent new attire.  The emperor could not see the suit either but he was too conceited to admit it, and preferred to parade naked. That turned him into the secret laughing stock of the empire — until a little child told him the truth.  My nation Turkmenistan resembles this fairy tale: the rest of the world and the people of Turkmenistan alike can see the truth, but almost no one will admit it.

Berdimuhammadov is used to receiving adulation from his people, foreign heads of state, and business executives. This usually comes in the form of letters that are widely promoted by the state-controlled media.  For example, back on 5 February, an Aerosvit Airlines passenger plane flying from Kiev to Baku made an emergency landing in the town of Turkmenbashi town due to inclement weather. After that, Turkmenistan’s official website published a letter of appreciation from the airline addressed to Berdimuhammadov, praising him for providing the “necessary support and assistance”  — despite a RIA Novosti report that the passengers have been ill-treated.

I’m thinking about this particular topic because something’s been bothering me for a few weeks: when the Turkmen government eventually broke its silence about the April uprising in Kyrgyzstan, the interim government in Bishkek sent a “letter of gratitude” to Berdimuhammadov.  This was particularly strange, given the latter’s evident nervousness about the impact of such events on the region, as well as the fact that Turkmenistan has no official representative in Kyrgyzstan, which became obvious when several hundred Turkmen were stranded in Osh during the recent crisis there.

Berdimuhammedov a lot of praise for showing concern for the security of its citizens abroad when it sent planes to evacuate some of its students from Kyrgyzstan during the recent tragic events there.  Still, some Turkmen students said that they had hoped for more help from their government but felt neglected and exposed.  Some of them said they even tried to hide and didn’t leave their residences for days during the events.

One Turkmen student from Osh told an RFE/RL correspondent that Turkmenistan’s ambassador in Uzbekistan, Soltan Pirmuhamedov, even blamed the students for going to Kyrgyzstan without permission from the Turkmen government.   The student said there is now fear they and their families may be persecuted by the Turkmen authorities upon returning home, not to mention whether they’ll even be allowed to continue their studies.  There’s good precedence for their fear:  since July 2009, Turkmen students have neither been allowed to depart for universities in Kyrgyzstan, nor have they been offered options for studying or working in their home country.

It’s no surprise that the Turkmen state media has been promoting the opposite story.  The Turkmen State News Agency (THD) reported that the residents and the leaders of social organizations of Turkmenistan’s Lebap province sent a letter of thanks to Berdimuhammedov for “showing paternal care and attention” to the endangered students:

“We are immensely grateful for the many opportunities for Turkmen youth to receive education abroad, and express our sincere appreciation for the constant attention to their fate.”

(By the way, the situation in Kyrgyzstan was merely described as “tense.”)  But in a chatroom meeting shortly after this letter was published, the transcript to which I have access, a young Turkmen remarked:

“The job of the government is to serve the people.  If not for that, what else do we need a government for?  The government isn’t concerned at all about its citizens or their education opportunities.  Here, the government does things for its own benefit.  That’s why the airplanes were sent in, and you are making a big issue out of it, when it was just doing its job.”

Another student heartily concurred.  Like the child in Andersen’s story, it is young Turkmen like these who can see through the propaganda at the horrible truth.  Berdimuhammedov is naked to them for what he really is — a self-pandering dictator.