In hope of securing lucrative business deals with the Turkmen dictatorship,
many international companies haven given their support to the Ruhnama,
Saparmurat Niyazov's propaganda book - thus helping to suppress the
country's voices of opposition and dissidence. Since Niyazov's death, power
has transferred to Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov who has, for the sake of
appearances, made reforms. However, in terms of violations against freedom
of speech and human rights, everything has remained the same. He has also
praised the Ruhnama, and used it to increase his power. Therefore
international corporations continue to use the same techniques to please
the new leader as they did with Niyazov.
More information about different countries' relationships with
Turkmenistan:
Politically motivated harassment, detentions and imprisonments continue
unabated in Turkmenistan despite the government's promises to uphold human
rights, Amnesty International said today, ahead of the government’s second
anniversary.
It goes without saying that it was premature to expect rapid changes in the human rights field just two years after the death of the Turkmen autocratic leader S. Niyazov, who ruled unchallenged for 21 years.
Our volunteers conducted a network population survey to find out how correct the official data on the number of voters who took part in the recent election of the deputies to the Medjlis are.