Charm Offensive Belies Turkmen Reality

Turkmenistan’s plans to brush up its international image by opening more diplomatic and trade missions abroad ignore the fact that it remains a closed state, residents of the Central Asian state say.

President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov issued orders for an expansion in the number of embassies and trade missions in late December, with cultural attaches tasked with selling the country, advertising its role in regional, energy and pipeline politics, and reaching out to southeast Asian and Latin American states.

As a first step, the Turkmen foreign ministry is to start publishing a quarterly journal covering diplomatic affairs.

Soon after becoming president in 2007, Berdymuhammedov identified a need to open up to the outside world and get away from the isolationist policies of his predecessor, the late Saparmurat Niazov.

However, residents of Turkmenistan say little has changed for them.

A lawyer in the capital Ashgabat argues that despite their declared open-door policy, the authorities have kept the country as isolated as ever, with strict visa requirements for foreign visitors, and tourists prevented from travelling freely within the country.

The lawyer cited one case where former Turkmen nationals were denied entry visas by the country’s Moscow embassy.

"One gets the impression that our embassies are under instructions to make visa procedures so complex that no one will want to visit Turkmenistan," he said.

A foreign ministry staffer in Ashgabat said he doubted the diplomatic campaign would bring real change.

"Posting cultural attaches to embassies does not mean the world is going to obtain more information about our country," he said.

A journalist with the state news agency TDH said one way to open up the country would be to offer accreditation to foreign TV and agency journalists. "Then they will write about us," he said.

This article was produced as part of IWPR’s News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.