Relatively soon after their arrest in June, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist, Ogulsapar Muradova, a worker for the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation, Sapardurdy Khadjiev, and another human rights activist, Annakurban Amanklychev, were sentenced to six to seven years in jail for illegal posession of weapons on August 25, according to an IRIN report. The […]

The laying of the foundation stone for Saudi Arabia’s expansive new embassy complex in Ashgabat on Tuesday offers a glimpse into the current direction of Turkmenistan’s engagement with the international community. As NewsCentralAsia reported, the new grounds of the embassy will cover an area of 15,000 square metres and built in the centre of […]

What follows is one part of a cross-blog initiative that commemorates the 1991 Moscow coup and evaluates the years in between.
As was the case for his Central Asian neighbours, the General Secretary of the Republic of the Turkmen SSR, Saparmurat Niyazov, was put in an awkward position by the unfolding of the coup plot […]

After the dramatic arrest of the General Prosecutor Gurbanbiby Atajanova in April, the time of reckoning has also come for another figure close to the Niyazov regime. President Saparmurat Niyazov had signed a decree in June ordering Kakamurad Balliyev’s dismissal from his position as editor as the Ministry of Defence’s official newspaper, Esger, for […]