Atageldi Aga speaks. Screen capture of a video available on hakykat.wordpress.com, an Islamist blog (click on it to read).

Editor’s note: The presence of radical Islamism in Turkmenistan is almost a legend, as the government is adamant that the threat is practically non-existent and under thorough control. neweurasia’s Annasoltan goes online to discover the truth, and what she finds is something very unpleasant.

There is almost nothing factually known about radical Islamism in Turkmenistan beyond a few hints reporting to its existence. We don’t know who they are, what they want, and who they’re working with.

Much of this is due to Turkmenistan’s self-imposed isolation. The government here would prefer at least to keep radical Islamism’s presence in the country “on the down low”, as the Americans say, both from foreigners and their own citizens. Equally quiet is how the authorities are dealing with it, that is, beyond their attempts to regulate Islam’s resurgence among the general population.

Yet, after some very careful and determined rummaging in the shadowy corners of the Turkmenet, I’ve been able to identify some of the constituents of Turkmen Islamism, and even make contact with a key figure. In this post, I’ll give the overview of the situation as I’ve seen it, and in my next post, I’ll actually post an interview I had with this figure, one of Turkmenistan’s underground Islamist leaders, about none other than the shoot-out in Ashgabat in 2008.

I’ve found several different groups, including pockets of followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tablighi Jamaat, Atageldi aga, and Myrat aga. They seem to play a much more significant role in Turkmenistan’s underground political life than the government has ever admitted, to the point where they may already command enough resources to eventually grow into a serious threat to the regime in the future.

It’s my impression that, like other extremist Islamist forces in Central Asia, some of Turkmenistan’s Islamists subscribe to the idea of a pan-Islamic super-state. Some also openly sympathize with the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and even claim to maintain ties with them. Indeed, those aligned to the Taliban outright denounce the Turkmen government as “the puppet of the Zionists.”

Interestingly, however, they all seem to agree that now is not the time to begin an armed jihad against the Turkmen government and evict foreigners from the region. Rather, the dominat opinion among them seems to be to focus on re-educating Turkmenistan’s population so that, in the long-term, they’ll be more receptive to “the truth” when the moment is right.

Unsurprisingly, the internet has proven very useful for them to connect, coordinate, and share resources and ideas. Most of all, it’s been the best tool available to directly propagandize regular Turkmen without taking the risk of revealing anyone’s true identity, as would happen in the case of dawa offline. But how successful they’ll be in their re-education efforts remains to be seen:

On the one hand, as I’ve blogged about before, Turkmen are sort of notorious for being a lot less religiously devout than other Central Asians, much less the Iranians and Afghans to the south. It seems unlikely that my average countryman would be willing to sign up for an ideology that supported the abolishment of national borders and the abolition of most cultural customs and social pleasantries.

On the other hand, the Islamists know this. I’ve noticed that they seem to be trying to construct a seemingly innocuous discourse based on the tenets and history of Islam. Yet, to those who are familiar with the issues, this discourse is easily recognizable for what it is because of certian key arguments and expressions, as well as an unyielding and intolerant conviction. For exmple, there’s a lot of implicit “sixth pillar” talk about how jihad is necessary, and anyone who disagrees is weak or foolish.

My search for my country’s hidden Islamists was not only online. I also managed to get in touch with a man who claims to have the inside story to the mysterious shoot-out in Ashgabat from 2008, and in my next post, I’ll publish my interview with him. Stay tuned!