Wednesday, 19 February 2003

TURKMEN PRESIDENT CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY; INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS CALL FOR REPRESSIVE REGIME TO REMEDY ABUSES

Published in News Digest

By empty (2/19/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Turkmenistan celebrated the birthday Wednesday of President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov with a parade including the country\'s internationally renowned horses, while international human rights groups called for a day of protest. In the Turkmen capital Ashgabat, Niyazov — who turned 63 — presided over a parade of soldiers and prominent displays of the country\'s green flag striped with its five traditional clan designs. His birthday has been officially celebrated as Flag Day since 1995 and is a public holiday in this Central Asian nation.
Turkmenistan celebrated the birthday Wednesday of President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov with a parade including the country\'s internationally renowned horses, while international human rights groups called for a day of protest. In the Turkmen capital Ashgabat, Niyazov — who turned 63 — presided over a parade of soldiers and prominent displays of the country\'s green flag striped with its five traditional clan designs. His birthday has been officially celebrated as Flag Day since 1995 and is a public holiday in this Central Asian nation. Niyazov, who has ruled Turkmenistan since 1985, has built a cult of personality virtually unrivaled in the world and made himself the central element of independent Turkmen national culture. His image is inescapable in Ashgabat, with dozens of billboards and monuments to him adorning virtually every street corner. Since an alleged assassination attempt against Niyazov on Nov. 25, human rights groups say that the regime has ratcheted up its repression and abuses — staging Stalinist-style show trials without due process, allegedly torturing suspects and arresting and harassing relatives of the accused plotters. In a joint statement, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Helsinki Federation, the International League for Human Rights and Memorial Human Rights Center called for Niyazov to mark his birthday with a commitment to human rights. The groups cited abuses ranging from lack of freedom of expression, religion and movement to persecution of ethnic minorities and cultural prohibitions. \"For the past decade President Niyazov has presided over a disastrous human rights situation,\" the statement said. In neighboring Uzbekistan, about 15 independent human rights activists gathered at the Turkmen Embassy for a protest with signs reading, \"Freedom for Political Prisoners\" and \"No to Repression.\" The group signed a letter addressed to Niyazov pleading he respect the rights and liberties of Turkmen people, but no one at the embassy would accept it because they said it was a holiday. (AP)
Read 4597 times

Visit also

silkroad

AFPC

isdp

turkeyanalyst

Staff Publications

Screen Shot 2023-05-08 at 10.32.15 AMSilk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.


Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.

Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023

Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle,  Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.

2206-StarrSilk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022 

Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.

Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.

Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.  

Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.

Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.

StronguniquecoverBook S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.  

Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.

The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.

Newsletter

Sign up for upcoming events, latest news and articles from the CACI Analyst

Newsletter