In an article in Vremya Novostei, Arkady Dubnov gives some of the background detail to the release of Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev. According to Dubnov, the Turkmen authorities denied for a long time that Durdykuliev had even been put in a psychiatric facility. The Turkmen ambassador to the OSCE, Esen Aydogdiyev, had declared at Permanent Council session in Vienna that there was “no person [according to information available to the Turkmen authorities] of that surname being detained”.
Dubnov also highlights the plight of 70-year old Kakabay Tejenov, who was confined to a psychiatric hospital in Turkmenabat on 6 January this year. This incarceration has also been reported by the respected Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Centre and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. Tejenov was incarcerated after sending protest letters complaining of human rights violations to international embassies in Ashgbat in September 2005 . In a letter issued by Memorial, some basic details were offered of the contents of the “Statement on human rights’ violations in Turkmenistan” distributed by Tejenov:

“[President Saparmurat Niyazov] doesn’t pay attention to the problems of his citizens, such as widespread unemployment and low living standards. Industry, agriculture and housing construction are in decline. Local administrations of towns and regions have built several monuments to the president, while people from the Jeyhun district have been living in unheated flats for 20 years”.

As Dubnov relates, upon trying to investigate into Tejenov’s fate, the EU representative in Ashgabat was given reassurances by Ibrahim Djikic, the head of the OSCE delegation, who defended the Turkmen authorities stating that the human rights testimonies were based on falsehoods.
Dubnov remarks further that the two Turkmen political prisoners to have been released to date benefited from the attention of U.S. politicians. In addition to Durdykuliev, U.S. citizen Leonid Komarovsky was released from prison in 2004 after five months detention on charges of collusion in the 2002 assassination attempt on Niyazov.