President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has decided to take another step to undo his predecessor’s personality cult. At the expanded government meeting on May 2, it was decided
to relocate the Neutrality Arch to the southern area of Ashgabat. It was noted that it would be expedient to locate this monument in the southern part of Ashgabat […]

The Turkmen government has announced it will take down the Arch of Neutrality monument topped by a revolving golden statue of former President Saparmurat Niyazov in what is possibly the most drastic act to date in the dismantling of the late leader’s cult of personality.
The 75-meter high monument will be relocated to a site […]

Below is the translation of Abdulgamid’s post from Russian-language part of the blog.
Starting from April 19 there is a new commercial exchange rate fixed for US dollars. From January 1, 2008 buying exchange rate was 19 800 Manat, and selling rate was 20 000 Manat. On April 19, 2008 the buying […]

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 […]

The oppositionist Turkmenistan Chronicles have recently published an article about human rights violations by Turkmen border guards. It describes the case of a Tazagul Saparova, who was detained for several hours at the Kunyaurgench border checkpoint between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
She presented her passport and the son’s birth certificate to a border guard. […]. She […]

It is Sunday, so I am not going to bother you with politics which everyone is fed up with any other day. In order to take a rest from it, I would like to show you two Turkmen hits that I found on the YouTube service. Their common theme are the Turkmen weddings which […]

Below is translated Abdulgamid’s post from the Russian-language part of our blog
According to International Labour Organization data the level of unemployment in Turkmenistan was 60% in 2007. with regards to this unfortunate index our country shared 4-5 position in the world rating following straight away after Nauru, Liberia and Zimbabwe. […]

Below is the translation of Abdulgamid’s post from the Russian-language part of the blog.
Though the situation with Internet access, what’s most important, connection speed remains the same as in 1995, there is a number of our compatriots in the world virtual space.
There are over 1000 users with Turkmen citizenship are registered in the most […]

I often visit an opposition website Turkmenistan Chronicles which I consider an interesting and rather credible source of information on Turkmenistan. I usually agree with its authors in their criticism of the Ashgabat regime. I must admit, though, that sometimes they exaggerate by blaming the authorities for all the problems.
To support my point I’ll […]