February 14 was marked by nationwide festivities, concerts and conferences in Turkmenistan to celebrate the fourth year of Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov’s presidency. The ministries, government departments and state agencies organized conferences and massive public events praising the president’s achievements over the last four years in Turkmenistan. The state TV and radio channels broadcasted in a festive mood for three days before and after the event. However, none of these events provided for critical appraisal of any real reforms or changes made during these four years.
Four years into his rule, President Berdimuhammedov reversed the major idiosyncratic policies of his late predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov, who suddenly died due to heart problems in December 2006. Particularly, Berdimuhammedov extended full secondary education to ten years from the previous nine, and university education from two to five years. In 2007, he pushed through a new major law on social security, giving the country’s oldest their pensions and welfare benefits back. Minor financial reforms were made, including a currency reform – a removal of late President Niyazov’s picture from most denominations of Turkmenistan’s currency units and banknotes. Abandoning the strict limitations on domestic traveling and allowing citizens to travel internationally further significantly raised his reformist ratings both at home and abroad. However, these changes are only a reversal or dismantling of what the past president had built up during his 16 years in office and more comprehensive reforms need to be introduced.
Broader reforms need to address the absence of political pluralism in the country. Turkmenistan’s only political party, the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan chaired by Bedimuhammedov himself, has ruled the country since independence. In February 2010, Berdimuhammedov spoke of the necessity to create a multiparty system and recommended creating an agrarian party. However, the rubber-stamp Parliament has not yet carried out the president’s directives and did not present a bill that would regulate the party registration procedures in Turkmenistan. Nevertheless, ordinary people remain very skeptical of the Parliament’s ability to either promote their interests or act independently of the executive branch.
Instead of providing access to information and media freedom, there is a strong desire for controlling the minds of today’s youth in Turkmenistan. This includes last month’s arrest of two pop singers, Maksat Kakabaev and Murat Ovezov, allegedly for releasing a Western-style music video and giving an interview for the Turkish music TV channel TBM. The intimidation of youth also includes the travel ban imposed in 2009 on hundreds of students trying to leave the country and return to universities abroad in order to continue their education at their own expense. Also, after a single isolated incident last month when three male students from the Polytechnical Institute in Ashgabat invited three girls for an off-campus party where one girl was raped and strangled, the Turkmenistan Initiative for Human Rights (TIHR) reports massive restrictive measures such as banning students from living off campus, night time curfews, and constant surveillance at all universities in the country.
Despite the fact that the president opened for a limited number of state-owned internet cafes across the nation, opposition websites, basic youth-favored social network pages like Facebook and its Russian prototypes are indefinitely blocked. The Reporters Without Borders 2010 Press Freedom Index, released on October 22, 2010, ranked Turkmenistan as 176 out of 178 countries surveyed and noted a downward progress.
Similar figures are observed through other international indicators. Freedom House continued to rank Turkmenistan at the lowest ranking of 7 along the lines as countries like Uzbekistan, North Korea, Libya, Sudan and Burma. The Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Index of Economic Freedom gave Turkmenistan an overall freedom score of 43.6, ranking its economy as 169 out of 179 countries on its chart. Thus, amidst these lavish celebrations of the fourth anniversary at home and gloomy indicators of current situation, much remains to be done.