On 20-25 April, Turkmen energy minister Baimyrat Khodzamuhammedov visited Islamabad where he took part in the 10th meeting of steering committee of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Apart from him, the meeting gathered Indian, Pakistani and Afghan officials. Few days later, on April 28th Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov traveled to Kabul (first time in independent […]

It’s an obvious fact that the Turkmen do not only live in their native Turkmenistan, but also in other Central Asian states and in the Middle East. Lately I have decided to surf the net to count them.
The largest groups of Turkmen living outside Turkmenistan can be found in Iran (around 1.1 million), Afghanistan […]

There are many old Soviet cars still roaming the streets of Turkmen towns and villages. The Ladas Zhiguli model is most common, but one can also come across Moskvich cars (though much less often), which probably remember Brezhnev’s or maybe even Khrushchev’s times. The Turkmen must be feeling very sentimental about them, because they […]

It looks like the gas conflict between Turkmenistan and Iran which lasted for over 3 months is drawing to an end. The Reuters Agency informed on April 19 that Tehran is ready to pay a higher price for the Turkmen gas.
If Turkmenistan wants a logical increase in the price of gas it is okay […]

Information about the Turkmen democratic opposition, whose leaders live in the West, appear very rarely these days. The oppositionists’ activity has risen following Saparmurat Niyazov’s death, as they expected the new government to commence at least a basic dialogue. They also hoped for internal reforms to be launched in Turkmenistan, but their hopes very […]

This is the translation of Abdulgamid’s post from the Russian part of the blog.
The theme of relations of Turkmen with internet has been touched in his several posts, where he reviewed the subject from different points of view: sports (motor racing), Facebook social net, Turkmen hackers and public opinion online poll. This time […]

Several days ago, I wrote a post entitled “Forest in the desert”, in which I spoke negatively about the project of planting trees around Ashgabat that has been implemented for years by the Turkmen authorities. My post was criticized by many commentators and I was accused of constant “complaining and bragging”.
So I decided to […]

Below is the translation of Abdulgamid’s post from Russian blog.
If someone ever has had any doubts that the earlier the territory of Turkmenistan had been inhabited with dinosaurs, then today now these doubts are completely dispelled.Geologists from Kughitang Exploration Company, a division of “TurkmenGeology” State Corporation, found petrified saurian footprints in the Eastern Turkmenistan […]

It looks like the Turkmen government is going to continue economic reforms aimed at bringing Turkmenistan’s economy closer to market economy. Some commentators have even called it the beginning of an economic shock therapy.
On April 14 Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov held a government meeting, which addressed the results of the first quarter of 2008 as […]

This is the translation of Abdulgamid’s post from the Russian-language part of the blog

Earlier the Soviet newspapers used to publish news saying: “The mutual co-operation growth horizons are expanding and broadening for the good of world, progress and prosperity!” Now the outlines of another major project for Turkmen gas export become more and […]