On 14 January, the Kazakh oppositionist website www.zonakz.net published Timur Shaov’s article entitled “Turkmenistan at the hight of the new revival” which summarizes the speech given by Vyacheslav Mamedov, president of the oppositionist Civic Democratic Union of Turkmenistan (currently a political refugee in the Netherlands), at a meeting organized in Almaty by the Kazakh discussion club “Politon”.

Speaking about the internal situation in Turkmenistan under Berdymukhammedov’s rule, Mamedov raised many vital issues (such as Niyazov’s succession, system of power, social problems, information policy of the Turkmen authorities, national minorities) the most important of which seems to be the problem of drug trafficking in Turkmenistan. The data cited by Mamedov struck me as shocking, that’s why I would like to quote here two passages of the article:

According to the World Health Organization, 10 per cent of Turkmenistan’s population is addicted to heroin […]. The WHO data are, unfortunately, underestimated. Sources in Krasnovodsk inform that 6 out of 10 individuals aged 25 or less are drug addicts. Three in five are heavy addicts. A heroin fix is twice as cheap as a bottle of vodka.

And one more excerpt:

Heroin was being supplied to the Turkmen market under the “patronage” of the late leader [Turkmenbashi]. Customs officers in Serahs claimed that heroin had been brought in from Afghanistan […] by trucks in tens and even hundreds of tons. Everything was carried out “officially”, because the regime’s three main sources of income were: oil and gas industry, heroin and black currency market (the black market course was five times higher than the official one and government officials had nothing against participating in such transactions). As a result, an entire system of drug trafficking was created and drugs could be bought at every cigarette stall.

It is difficult to assess the credibility of information cited by Mamedov because of the almost complete information blockage existing in Turkmenistan. However, it remains a fact that drugs are a serious problem in that country repeatedly described by various media and think tanks, such as the New York Times, Turkmenistan Chronicles, International War and Peace Reporting, the Silk Road Studies, the Jamestown Foundation and many others).

President Berdymukhammedov declared a ruthless struggle against drugs back in July, whereas during the executive director of the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime Antonia Maria Costa visit to Ashgabat on 9 January he announced that a specialized agency for drugs control would be opened in Turkmenistan.

The only question is: isn’t it all just putting on a brave face, given the fact that Turkmen authorities are themselves engaged in drug trafficking?