Will Turkmenistan’s Education Reform Work?
Turkmenistan's switch to a 12-year educational system is the clearest sign to date of the cataclysmic lack of intellectual capital created by poor and often erratic policy.The change, which is to take...
View ArticleTurkmenistan Attempts Quixotic Greening of the Desert
Turkmenistan has begun an epic project to turn itself from one of the driest nations on earth into a land of sweeping forests.The Karakum Desert covers 80 percent of the country’s territory and...
View ArticleTurkmenistan: Health Week Kicks Off with Forced Calisthenics
When Turkmenistan’s president says his nation should celebrate a Week of Health and Happiness, it seems no one can escape the fun.The celebrations started on April 1 with government minders leading...
View ArticleReport: Turkmenistan Attacks Azerbaijan In Caspian, Aliyev Asks Help From Russia
Azerbaijan has asked Russia to relocate some of its Caspian Fleet to Baku after Turkmenistan's naval forces fired on some of Azerbaijan's offshore oil drilling facilities. That's according to Russian...
View ArticleUzbekistan, Turkmenistan Shielded by Like-Minded Authoritarians at UN
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, two of the world's most repressive dictatorships, came under harsh criticism from Western democracies during the latest Universal Periodic Review hearings at the United...
View ArticleTurkmenistan: Satellites Expose Oil Spills on Caspian Sea
The word “wasteland” comes to mind when driving around Turkmenbashi, the oil and gas hub on Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea coast. Rusting pipelines crisscrosses barren, sandy expanses; an acrid smell hangs...
View ArticleKazakhstan and Turkmenistan Launch Caspian Rail Link
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have launched a direct railway linking their oil-and-gas-rich Caspian Sea regions, bypassing Uzbekistan. The new line promises to benefit "tens of countries" in the region,...
View ArticleTurkmenistan-EU Rights Talks Neglect Detained Journalist
A human rights dialogue between Ashgabat and Brussels has failed to clarify why journalist Rovshen Yazmuhamedov was detained two weeks ago. Yazmuhamedov, 30, a correspondent with Radio Free Europe’s...
View ArticleTajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Airlines Among World’s Worst – Survey
When the countries of Central Asia end up on a list, they’re usually at the bottom (or the top, depending on how you look at it, as in “most-corrupt”). A new ranking is no different: Three of the...
View ArticleTurkmenistan: As Ashgabat Breaks Another Record, President Anointed...
On the day his capital received a Guinness rating as the world capital of white marble-clad buildings, Turkmenistan's attention-craving President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov added yet another title to...
View ArticleTurkmenistan Makes Another Quiet Purchase of Warships
Turkmenistan is buying eight new well armed naval vessels from Turkey, marking a substantial increase in capability for the country's nascent navy. The ships will be built by Dearsan, the Turkish...
View ArticleTurkmenistan to Recognize Russia’s Dual Citizens
Turkmenistan says it has dropped one of the most contentious issues in its relationship with Russia, promising, after leaving them in limbo for 10 years, to grant passports to Turkmen citizens who also...
View ArticleTurkmenistan: J.Lo Shakes it for Berdymukhamedov
UPDATE: The publicist for J.Lo (or J-Low, as she's being called on Twitter) has effectively admitted not knowing how to use Google: "Had there been knowledge of human rights issues [of] any kind,...
View ArticleWas J.Lo a Chinese Bribe to Turkmenistan?
Reports about Jennifer Lopez’s weekend birthday tribute to Turkmenistan’s president have mostly focused on her apparent lack of concern for the country’s staggering human rights abuses and systemic...
View ArticleTurkmenistan Jams Mobile Signals in Prisons – Report
Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most isolated countries, intends to cut its prisoners off the mobile phone network, their “only means of communication with the outside world.”The Chronicles of...
View ArticleTurkmenistan: Schools to Scrap Late President’s Holy Book
After a decade of grilling students on the former president’s “book of the soul,” this fall Turkmenistan will remove the Ruhnama from its school curriculum. A news website run by Turkmen exiles in...
View ArticleTurkmenistan Supplying over Half of Chinese Gas Imports
When China opened a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan in 2009, Ashgabat got what it had long wanted: independence from Russia with an alternative market for its abundant natural gas reserves. What wasn’t...
View ArticleTurkmenistan: Ashgabat Allows Local Firms to Build
For the first time since independence over two decades ago, Turkmenistan’s government has entrusted a local construction firm with a major infrastructure-development project. The shift follows...
View ArticleTurkmenistan’s New Personality Cult: Two for the Price of One
Turkmenistan’s president has dismantled some of his predecessor’s personality cult – only to replace it with a new one, in the spirit of two for the price of one: Aside from filling television screens...
View ArticleLatest Fad for Turkmenistan’s President: Forced Hot Summer Cycling
A lover of all things fast, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is now heavily involved in promoting bicycles ahead of a national cycling race scheduled for September 1.Earlier this...
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