Recently, I have written about the only English language Turkmen blog. Today, I would like to continue the subject of the Internet. For some time now, I have been observing the News Central Asia (NCA) website. Its “About Us” section informs us that its authors intend to deal with the Greater Central Asia region, but 90 percent of all articles and news published on the site relate to Turkmenistan. The website is written in correct English, the articles are interesting and provide the reader with useful information about current events in Turkmenistan, especially those concerning economy (primarily, gas issues).

Nevertheless, the website is very “mysterious”. It never criticizes the government’s policy, nor does it mention any negative processes or events taking place in Turkmenistan. The positive news, however, are presented very skilfully (in a manner that could hardly be called a “success propaganda”), and they are very much different from the “coarse” pro-governmental websites, such as turkmenistan.gov.tm or turkmenistan.ru. Moreover, the “About Us” section tells us that NCA’s editorial office is located in Ashgabat (which would obviously be impossible without the consent of the Turkmen authorities), whereas the NCA is registered in Delaware (USA) and listed as a tax paying entity in Pakistan. All this is kind of strange.

The portal also informs that NCA is a regional news agency and…

… a financially, administratively and editorially independent media outlet. We generate enough revenues to finance our activity. NCA neither solicits nor accepts any aid, grant, loan or any other kind of support from any individual, organization or government.

It is curious that all articles on the website are fully accessible and there is no mention of paid access to some of the texts or news agency services. The information about NCA’s policy is also very interesting, it sounds like a political manifesto:

We believe that Central Asia belongs to Central Asians and no one has the rights to interfere in the region. We believe that any relationship with the rest of the world must be based on equality and mutual respect. We believe that the land and natural resources of Central Asia are the sole property of the people of each sovereign country in the region. We believe that Central Asia is not anyone’s playground and we oppose any power player who may be engaged in the so-called “New Great Game”. We believe that no one has the right to indulge in activities aimed at destabilizing the region as a whole or any single country in the region.

I doubt that such a manifesto could be written by someone from outside Central Asia, unless it be in order to conceal their true intentions or activities.

Maybe I am just being overly suspicious (I am aware that someone may feel offended), but considering all this, I can only think of two possibilities. Either president Berdymukhammedov has excellent advisors and PR specialists who are capable of creating such a clever tool to inform the world about Turkmenistan, or the portal was created by somebody (an oil company or one of the powers engaged in the Great Game) who wants to win favour of the Turkmen government in order to gain access to the country’s mineral deposits. In the past, some corporations used to finance the translation of the Ruhnama into various languages in order to win Turkmenbashi’s favour. Maybe now - in the era of the New Revival as Berdymukhammedov calls it - they switched over to creating Internet portals about Turkmenistan? Who knows?

I am very curious about your comments, especially the critical ones. I would also like to stress that I do not accuse anyone of anything. I am just expressing my opinion, sharing my point of view.