Oops. Not allowed today in Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan.
To press for physical fitness ahead of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov changed traffic laws.
“From 7 am to 7 pm, only public transport – including taxis and emergency vehicles – will be permitted to circulate around the city. Anybody unable to cram into the packed buses or pay for a taxi will be free to cycle, as Berdymukhamedov has advised, in temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit). Those who do not own a bicycle – which is most people – will just have to walk.”
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/84741
Showing posts with label turkmenistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turkmenistan. Show all posts
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Friday, January 29, 2016
We’re from Moscow and we are here to help you
World Bulletin / News Desk
“Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said during a visit to Turkmenistan that Russia is keen improve ties with Turkmenistan.
“Lavrov told Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov that Russia was ready to cooperate more closely with Turkmenistan in a number of areas including terrorism, drug smuggling, and organized crime, according to reports in Russian media. Plans to increase defense and security cooperation to ensure regional security was also in the pipeline.”
…
Uh, no thanks.
“During talks with his Turkmen counterpart, Lavrov said Russia was ready to help Turkmenistan patrol its southern border with Afghanistan, but he added Ashgabat does not need such assistance right now.”
(Or, We sort of remember when we were part of the USSR, and … Nah.)
http://www.worldbulletin.net/russia-to-protect-turkmenistan-afghan-border/168903/russia-to-protect-turkmenistan-afghan-border
Everybody gets in on the act.
Except the U.S., Russia and China. But you can bet all three are watching what happens on the ground, and most assuredly watching each other’s actions.
What it is: TAPI pipeline – Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. (As Sesame Street might say, “Which of those is not the same as the others?”)
“Turkmenistan has earlier said it expects the gas link with an annual capacity of 33 billion cubic metres to be fully operational by the end of 2018.
“However uncertainty hangs over the project, whose cost is estimated at $10 billion (9.0 billion euros).
“Aside from the risks associated with a link traversing war-torn Afghanistan, the four-country consortium has yet to confirm the participation of a major foreign commercial partner willing to help finance TAPI.”
http://www.worldbulletin.net/haber/167329/major-south-asian-pipeline-launched
“Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said during a visit to Turkmenistan that Russia is keen improve ties with Turkmenistan.
“Lavrov told Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov that Russia was ready to cooperate more closely with Turkmenistan in a number of areas including terrorism, drug smuggling, and organized crime, according to reports in Russian media. Plans to increase defense and security cooperation to ensure regional security was also in the pipeline.”
…
Uh, no thanks.
“During talks with his Turkmen counterpart, Lavrov said Russia was ready to help Turkmenistan patrol its southern border with Afghanistan, but he added Ashgabat does not need such assistance right now.”
(Or, We sort of remember when we were part of the USSR, and … Nah.)
http://www.worldbulletin.net/russia-to-protect-turkmenistan-afghan-border/168903/russia-to-protect-turkmenistan-afghan-border
Everybody gets in on the act.
Except the U.S., Russia and China. But you can bet all three are watching what happens on the ground, and most assuredly watching each other’s actions.
What it is: TAPI pipeline – Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. (As Sesame Street might say, “Which of those is not the same as the others?”)
“Turkmenistan has earlier said it expects the gas link with an annual capacity of 33 billion cubic metres to be fully operational by the end of 2018.
“However uncertainty hangs over the project, whose cost is estimated at $10 billion (9.0 billion euros).
“Aside from the risks associated with a link traversing war-torn Afghanistan, the four-country consortium has yet to confirm the participation of a major foreign commercial partner willing to help finance TAPI.”
http://www.worldbulletin.net/haber/167329/major-south-asian-pipeline-launched
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Forgetting Memory Day
"I hold it as a principle that the duration of the peace is in direct proportion to the slaughter you inflict upon the enemy. The harder you hit them, the longer they remain quiet." – Russian Gen. Mikhail Skobeklev, following the capture of Geok-Tepe.
http://asianhistory.about.com/od/centralasia/a/Geoktepe_2.htm
January 12 is usually "Memory Day" in Turkmenistan but not this year.
The Turkmen authorities announced some months back that Memory Day was being merged with another somber anniversary, which annually marks the October 6, 1948 earthquake that nearly flattened the capital Ashgabat.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov did not offer any reason for transferring Memory Day, officially a holiday since 1990, but then he and his government rarely offer reasons for their actions.
But there are some who feel forgetting to mark Memory Day is a nod to Russia, or rather a sign that the Turkmen government does not wish to offend the Kremlin. Some of my colleagues at RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, told me that starting several years ago Turkmen officials stopped mentioning Russia specifically when speaking about Memory Day and referred instead to the "enemy."
Memory Day marks a black moment in the history of the Turkmen; their disastrous defeat at the fortress of Geok-Tepe in 1881. The battle was the last major battle tsarist forces would fight against the Turkmen and the area that is now Turkmenistan would remain under Moscow's control from then until 1991.
For the Turkmen, the defeat at Geok-Tepe was not simply a loss; it was a catastrophe.
Tsarist forces had been steadily moving from their Caspian coast bases into the land of Turkmenistan since the early 1870s. The Turkmen at that time were nomadic raiders of the desert and had lived for centuries plundering caravans and taking slaves, including Russians who began to show up in the area in the 18th century as the tsarist army spearheaded Russia's expansion into Central Asia.
Russian forces had already attacked Geok-Tepe, a fortified city of some 40,000, in 1879 but they arrived for the battle in small numbers (some 4,000) and without sufficient supplies to maintain the siege. When the Russians attempted to force the issue by launching a frontal assault on the fortress they were beaten back with heavy losses and forced to retreat into the desert to reach the Caspian Sea coast. Several hundred Russian soldiers were killed and many more taken captive, along with their weapons, in Russia's worst defeat in Central Asia since Khiva in 1717.
The general who was responsible for the debacle was sacked immediately and the next year fresh troops arrived commanded by General Mikhail Skobelev. Few Russians evoke such sharp emotion from Central Asians as General Skobelev.
With the exception of 1877-1878 when he was fighting in the Russo-Turkish War, Skobelev had been fighting in the tsar's Central Asian military campaigns since 1868.
Skobelev came much better prepared for the assault than his predecessor had in 1879 but the deciding event was on January 12, 1881 when Russians tunneled under the fortress wall and planted explosives that blew out a huge section of the defensive structure. Russian troops rushed through the breach, killing some 6,500 people in the city and then chasing down and killing some 8,000 more who fled.
Edmund O'Donovan was a reporter with the "London Daily News" and witnessed what followed. He wrote, "No one was spared, not even young children or the elderly. All were mercilessly cut down by Russian sabers. In all, 8,000 of the fugitives are said to have perished, while a further 6,500 bodies were counted inside the fortress itself."
O'Donovan lived in an age of Russophobia in Britain so his description is in keeping with the views of his time. However, his death toll was accurate, though later it would emerge most of those killed were males and this was by design.
Peter Hopkirk in his book "The Great Game" notes Skobelev justified the massacre at Geok-Tepe by saying, "I hold it as a principle that the duration of the peace is in direct proportion to the slaughter you inflict upon the enemy. The harder you hit them, the longer they remain quiet."
And here we are almost 135 years later and the government of independent Turkmenistan has decided to remain quiet about Geok-Tepe and Memory Day.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71591
http://asianhistory.about.com/od/centralasia/a/Geoktepe_2.htm
January 12 is usually "Memory Day" in Turkmenistan but not this year.
The Turkmen authorities announced some months back that Memory Day was being merged with another somber anniversary, which annually marks the October 6, 1948 earthquake that nearly flattened the capital Ashgabat.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov did not offer any reason for transferring Memory Day, officially a holiday since 1990, but then he and his government rarely offer reasons for their actions.
But there are some who feel forgetting to mark Memory Day is a nod to Russia, or rather a sign that the Turkmen government does not wish to offend the Kremlin. Some of my colleagues at RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, told me that starting several years ago Turkmen officials stopped mentioning Russia specifically when speaking about Memory Day and referred instead to the "enemy."
Memory Day marks a black moment in the history of the Turkmen; their disastrous defeat at the fortress of Geok-Tepe in 1881. The battle was the last major battle tsarist forces would fight against the Turkmen and the area that is now Turkmenistan would remain under Moscow's control from then until 1991.
For the Turkmen, the defeat at Geok-Tepe was not simply a loss; it was a catastrophe.
Tsarist forces had been steadily moving from their Caspian coast bases into the land of Turkmenistan since the early 1870s. The Turkmen at that time were nomadic raiders of the desert and had lived for centuries plundering caravans and taking slaves, including Russians who began to show up in the area in the 18th century as the tsarist army spearheaded Russia's expansion into Central Asia.
Russian forces had already attacked Geok-Tepe, a fortified city of some 40,000, in 1879 but they arrived for the battle in small numbers (some 4,000) and without sufficient supplies to maintain the siege. When the Russians attempted to force the issue by launching a frontal assault on the fortress they were beaten back with heavy losses and forced to retreat into the desert to reach the Caspian Sea coast. Several hundred Russian soldiers were killed and many more taken captive, along with their weapons, in Russia's worst defeat in Central Asia since Khiva in 1717.
The general who was responsible for the debacle was sacked immediately and the next year fresh troops arrived commanded by General Mikhail Skobelev. Few Russians evoke such sharp emotion from Central Asians as General Skobelev.
With the exception of 1877-1878 when he was fighting in the Russo-Turkish War, Skobelev had been fighting in the tsar's Central Asian military campaigns since 1868.
Skobelev came much better prepared for the assault than his predecessor had in 1879 but the deciding event was on January 12, 1881 when Russians tunneled under the fortress wall and planted explosives that blew out a huge section of the defensive structure. Russian troops rushed through the breach, killing some 6,500 people in the city and then chasing down and killing some 8,000 more who fled.
Edmund O'Donovan was a reporter with the "London Daily News" and witnessed what followed. He wrote, "No one was spared, not even young children or the elderly. All were mercilessly cut down by Russian sabers. In all, 8,000 of the fugitives are said to have perished, while a further 6,500 bodies were counted inside the fortress itself."
O'Donovan lived in an age of Russophobia in Britain so his description is in keeping with the views of his time. However, his death toll was accurate, though later it would emerge most of those killed were males and this was by design.
Peter Hopkirk in his book "The Great Game" notes Skobelev justified the massacre at Geok-Tepe by saying, "I hold it as a principle that the duration of the peace is in direct proportion to the slaughter you inflict upon the enemy. The harder you hit them, the longer they remain quiet."
And here we are almost 135 years later and the government of independent Turkmenistan has decided to remain quiet about Geok-Tepe and Memory Day.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71591
Monday, December 22, 2014
Taliban take part of western Afghan province
Turkmeni soldiers and border police prepare for fighting.
Women professionals in danger.
“Gurbandurdy said, ‘The situation in Khamyab has seriously deteriorated. The number of Taliban has increased and they now set the rules in the area.
“And those rules are all too familiar.
“One woman, whose name we will not reveal, recounted her story to Azatlyk. This woman was a doctor at a hospital in Khamyab until the Taliban started taking villages in the district. She started receiving phone calls.
“’We are the Taliban,’ the callers said, then warned her that they did not want female doctors at the hospital.
“The callers said she could stay in Khamyab district but that she was not to practice medicine. She fled to Mazar-e Sharif.
“A schoolteacher still in the district said he also received phone calls from people identifying themselves as the Taliban. These callers told him the local school principal, who was a woman, had to quit and that all female teachers had to, as well.”
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71331
Women professionals in danger.
“Gurbandurdy said, ‘The situation in Khamyab has seriously deteriorated. The number of Taliban has increased and they now set the rules in the area.
“And those rules are all too familiar.
“One woman, whose name we will not reveal, recounted her story to Azatlyk. This woman was a doctor at a hospital in Khamyab until the Taliban started taking villages in the district. She started receiving phone calls.
“’We are the Taliban,’ the callers said, then warned her that they did not want female doctors at the hospital.
“The callers said she could stay in Khamyab district but that she was not to practice medicine. She fled to Mazar-e Sharif.
“A schoolteacher still in the district said he also received phone calls from people identifying themselves as the Taliban. These callers told him the local school principal, who was a woman, had to quit and that all female teachers had to, as well.”
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71331
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