On December 23rd 1995 the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution that recognized Turkmenistan as a permanently neutral state. This process into obscurity and ultimate hermitude had in effect begun three years previously, when a newly independent Turkmenistan outlined the strands of its foreign policy at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in…
Turkmenistan: Is Afghanistan aid programme an exercise in financial expediency by President Berdymukhamedow?
Not known as a man whose conscience unduly troubles him when it comes to the plight of his fellow Turkmen, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow has instead turned his attention to neighbouring Afghanistan in what appears to be an unprecedented act by the former dentist of humanitarian assistance to an outside nation. Turkmenistan has firmly established itself…
Turkmenistan: What is behind Germany’s continual dance with the devil?
As one of more than 130 countries participating in the Frankfurt Heimtextil international textile expo Turkmenistan cannot be singled out for favouritism by the host nation Germany, but nevertheless the link between President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow's closed, authoritarian state and Angela Merkel's Teutonic powerhouse remains strong, but all the while disconcertingly baffling. The Azerbaijan-based AzerNews portal…
Turkmenistan and North Korea: Autocratic regimes rely on opacity and agendas to oppress citizens and bamboozle those on the outside
Once again we visit Turkmenistan, the land of irony, where truth and fiction become entwined to a point where there can be little to differentiate these polar opposites. Every bad guy needs a patsy, someone who will take the rap when merely following orders - usually on the pain of death, imprisonment or some other…
Turkmenistan: Cop out that once more fudges the real issues affecting an oppressed nation
The cliched image of a 'fat cop' more au fait with bribery and corruption than a consistent and just delivery of the rule of law is synonymous with countries whose regimes provide the inspiration for their police force, both in terms of an amoral modus operandi and in physical appearance that can often mirror the…
Andrew: A Prince among Despots as Turkmenistan gives new meaning to a cashless society
A shortage of hard currency in Turkmenistan is hardly a new phenomenon, at least for the everyday man in the street. Queuing at cash machines(ATMs) is as commonplace a facet of everyday life in this former Soviet republic of Central Asia as the spin promulgated by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow's regime opining that all is otherwise…
Are the European Alps a fitting location for architectural experimentation?
For anyone who has seen the Top Mountain Star restaurant above Obergurgl-Hochgurgl or the glass cuboid Gaislachkogl top station in nearby Soelden, the latter whose use in the James Bond SPECTRE film has been mercilessly exploited by the lift operator, will already be of the opinion that the boundaries of conventional alpine design are not…
Turkmenistan: A presidential portrait of modern-day narcissism wrapped in despotism
In 2004 the Harvard Business Review called it right. Their take on narcissists concluded that the vainglorious are "unproductive when, lacking self-knowledge and restraining anchors, they become unrealistic dreamers. They nurture grand schemes and harbour the illusion that only circumstances, or enemies block their success". Does all this sound terribly familiar, even in the modern…
Turkmenistan: President Berdymukhamedow Continues to Have a Gas as the Country Craters
Footage of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow not allowing the tedious everyday affairs of state to get in the way of his hobbies are nothing new. Recent dramatic publicity shots of the former dentist putting a rally car through its paces close to the Darvaza gas crater were though unintentionally couched with metaphors aplenty, the most…
Turkmenistan: A totalitarian ‘paradise’ of forced holidays and disappearing people
The timing of a demand made of many of Turkmenistan's state workers situated in the Dashoguz region to take their vacations in the Caspian Sea resort of Awaza, the site of one of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow's many high-profile, exorbitantly costly and ultimately futile pet projects, could hardly have been worse. Faced with the bizarre ultimatum…
Turkmenistan: President Berdymukhamedow’s flights of fancy receive foreign assistance
With a little help from their friends Turkmenistan Airlines are once more airborne, undoubtedly to the delight of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow's family. In an era of meticulous attention to safety detail it is indeed rare for an airline's jets to be hooked from European airspace, but February's barring of the Turkmen flag carrier from operating…
Foreign Governments continue to turn a blind eye to gas-rich Turkmenistan’s despotic regime
Turkmenistan's appalling record of human rights violations and its ranking at the very bottom of the World Press Freedom Index should see it internationally regarded as a pariah state, but a continued clamour from the European Union and western powers to do business within the Central Asian republic only serves to underplay the oppressive, police…
Turkmenistan: The Hypocrisy of Food Shortages and Presidential Excess
In the world and mindset of a confirmed, unabashed dictator normal rules have long since gone out of the window, assuming of course that they ever applied in the first place. Only in a country whose throat is being kept under the boot of its protector, and predestined guide, can food shortages directly contributing to…
Turkmenistan: Will the European Union take to the floor to dance with the devil?
Not content with treating his own citizens with contempt Turkmenistan president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow now appears to have the European Union (EU) on a string, if reports of an upgrade from its current liaison office to a permanent mission in the nation's capital Ashgabat are to be believed. Quite what the EU want with and in…
Ignorance is no defence for celebrities taking money from oppressive regimes
I have said it before: what was Jack Nicklaus thinking? History is littered with autocratic regimes seeking legitimacy through celebrity endorsements, often exploiting the ignorance of those who have pitched up in good faith but only later find a wave of condemnation highlighting at best a hitherto unawareness of the firestorm such appearances create; at…
The root of modern day megalomania stems from a simpler, less materialistic age
There are obvious comparisons to be made between Adolf Hitler's unrealized vision of building Germania, the architectural prize the Fuehrer wished to bestow upon himself and the nation once victory in the Second World War had been secured, and the megalomania displayed by Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow that has seen the fruits of his skewed priorities represented…
Turkmenistan: When seeing is not believing in a land of (totalitarian) pretence
The continued bizarre, contrary modus operandi of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow again highlights the former dentist's despotic hold over the former Soviet republic. Self-styled as a deity predestined to shepherd the nation to greatness through his many initiatives that often amount to little more than yet another Potemkin-esque, white elephant construction project, Berdymukhamedow's absolute grip…
The UK: Bilateral trade and economic cooperation placed ahead of Turkmenistan’s many Human Rights violations
A meeting held in Ashgabat between Turkmenistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rashid Meredov, and the UK Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Department of Digital, Media, Culture, and Sport, Lord Ashton of Hyde, amount to a tacit endorsement by London of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow's totalitarian regime, one squarely accused of countless human…
Turkmenistan: Can Berdymukhamedow get what he came for from US visit?
It is as of yet unclear if recent US policy prohibiting the acquisition of Turkmenistan cotton has taken effect, or if it amounts to little more than lip service without actual implementation. Nevertheless, for the central Asian republic such publicity regarding its vital cash crop can only be bad, highlighting in the strongest terms the…
Alpine Adventures, Soccer, Central Asian Autocracies & Secessionist Politics 
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