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Chronology for Russians in Turkmenistan
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| Date(s) |
Item |
| Jan 1990 |
The Communist Party of Turkmenistan (CPT) and its approved organizations were permitted to participate in elections to the republican Supreme Soviet and local councils. CPT members won the majority of seats. Saparmurad Niyazov, the First Secretary of the CPT since 1985 was elected the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, the highest government office in the Republic. |
| May 1990 |
The Turkmen language officially has become the state language, replacing Russian; Turkmenistan is the last of the Soviet Republics to introduce such legislation. |
| Oct 1990 |
Niyazov was elected, by direct ballot, to the new post of executive President of Turkmenistan. He was unopposed in the election and received 98.3% of the votes cast. |
| Mar 1991 |
Together with eight other republics, the population of Turkmenistan overwhelmingly voted "yes" (95.7%) in the all-union referendum on the preservation of the Soviet Union that took place on March 17. Voters were asked Do you consider it necessary to preserve the USSR as a renewed federation of equal, sovereign republics, in which human rights and the freedoms of all nationalities will be fully guaranteed?" The referendum, with no legal force, was intended as a test of popular support for the draft Union Treaty. |
| Oct 1991 |
In a referendum on October 26, 94.1% of the population voted for the independence of Turkmenia. Consequently, a special session of the Supreme Soviet passed a law on independence, giving republican laws precedence over all-union ones, and planning the creation of Turkmen currency, gold reserves and armed forces. |
| Nov 1991 |
The Communist Party of Turkmenia (CPT) was suspended after the failed coup attempt in Moscow against Gorbachev, and it changed its name to the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, criticizing the mistakes made by the CPT in the past. |
| May 1992 |
A new constitution was adopted with greater presidential authority, making Niyazov Head of Government, in addition to his position as Head of State, and giving him certain legislative prerogatives. Under the constitution, the Supreme Soviet was replaced as Turkmenistan's legislature by a 50-member Majlis, while a People's Council was established as the `supreme representative body of popular power.' However, the constitution stipulated that only ethnic Turkmen would be eligible for employment in state enterprises. Moreover, the Russian language was no longer to be used as the means of inter-ethnic communication (the status that it had held since 1990 when Turkmen replaced Russian as the official language). The constitution also guarantees state secularism. |
| Jun 1992 |
Saparmurad Niyazov was re-elected, unopposed, to the presidency receiving an estimated 99.5% of the votes cast in a direct ballot. |
| Jul 1992 |
Although the Russian exodus from Central Asia continues, particularly from Tajikistan, some emigrants have even returned to Turkmenistan, despite fears that the apparent stability there could quickly give way to anti-Russian nationalism and worries about a semi-secret new rule that reportedly reserves top jobs for ethnic Turkmen. Russian newspapers run hopeful "Let's learn Turkmen" columns. Ethnic Russians also dominate the nascent private business sector. (Los Angeles Times, 07/28/92). |
| Aug 1993 |
President Yeltsin has won pledges of military and diplomatic support from three Central Asian nations - Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - in an effort to defuse Russia's latest foreign crisis stepped up Islamic guerrilla raids from Afghanistan into Tajikistan. However, Turkmenistan, rich in natural gas and intent on economic and political independence from Moscow, sent a low-level observer to the summit, but declined to sign the agreement, citing what its Foreign Minister called a "policy of positive nonintervention." (Los Angeles Times, 08/08/93). |
| Dec 1993 |
Turkmenistan formally became a full member of the CIS on December 24, at a summit meeting of CIS leaders held in its capital, Ashkabad on December 23-24. Turkmen President Niyazov and Russian President Yeltsin signed an accord on December 23 in Ashkabad, allowing Turkmenistan's 400,000 ethnic Russians to hold joint Turkmen and Russian nationality. The accord, designed to ease ethnic tensions, was the first such agreement between Russia and another former Soviet republic. President Yeltsin held Turkmenistan up as an example for the other CIS states. Foreign Minister Kozyrev claimed that the agreement strengthened Turkmenistan's links with the CIS. With the signing of the agreements "On the Regulation of Questions of Dual Citizenship" and "On the Regulation of the Process of Migration and the Protection of Migrants," the situation of ethnic Russians are expected to improve. Reports suggest that no one had to flee Turkmenistan - it did not have the problem that is commonly referred to in other republics as "the problem of the Russian-speaking population in the ex-Soviet republics." (Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, 02/02/94). |
| Oct 8, 1994 |
The BBC reports that the Russian language weekly "Subbota" and the Moscow newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" have been shut down. The official reason is a shortage of paper. Currently the only Russian language newspaper in Turkmenistan is "Turkmenskaya Iskra." Russian language broadcasts have been reduced to 4 hours a day. |
| Dec 1994 |
In Parliamentary elections, 2 Russians are elected to the 50 seat assembly. This about half of what their proportion should be based upon their percentage of the population. There is only one candidate for each seat and all 50 candidates win. The candidates are mostly members of the ruling, former Communist, Democratic Party and the rest are civil servants. |
| Jan 1995 |
The Information Access Company reports that Turkmenistan's Russian minority "is becoming disaffected, as jobs and perks go to Turkmens rather than foreign inhabitants, among whom the Russians are included. Some 600 of them are leaving per month, depriving Turkmenistan of skilled engineers, doctors and other professional people." |
| Feb 1995 |
Dissident Ata Aymamedov led a peaceful demonstration in Ashkhabad, during which he called for the president's removal from office. Of approximately 20 persons involved in the demonstration eight were arrested, including two journalists, Mukhammed Muradliev, and Yowshan Anagurhan, and Aymamedov himself. The three were sentenced to 4 2 years in prison for hooliganism only a few hours after their arrest. The government has reportedly persecuted Ata Aymamedov’s entire family since his arrest. (Source 1997 U.S. Dept. of State--Department of State Human Rights Country Reports, February 1997) |
| Apr 14, 1995 |
United Press International reported that Russia has decided to pull its troops out of Turkmenistan. This rare Russian move is based upon a mutual agreement with Turkmenistan and Russia and reflects the fact that Turkmenistan has raised its own army which is capable of defending the country. |
| Mar 1996 |
A State Department Dispatch on the socio/political climate in Turkmenistan reports that the country has made little progress in moving from a Soviet-era authoritarian style of government to a democratic system. Saparmurad Niyazov, head of the Communist Party since 1985 and President since October 1990 when the post was created, remained in office. The Democratic Party, the old Communist Party under a new name, retained a monopoly on power; the Government registered no opposition parties in 1995 and continued to repress all opposition political activities. Emphasizing stability over reform, the President's nation-building efforts centered on developing Turkmen nationalism and glorification of the President. In practice, the President controls the judicial system. (Source 1996 U.S. Dept. of State Dispatch, March 96) |
| May 15, 1996 |
The Russian Embassy in Turkmenistan sent a note to the republic's Foreign Ministry complaining that local officials were hampering attempts by ethnic Russians to return to Russia from Turkmenistan. Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his Turkmen counterpart Saparmyrat Niyazov signed agreements designed to facilitate this return in December 1993. However, by mid-March 1996, only 200 Russians from Turkmenistan had been granted resettler status, while the waiting list of those wishing to receive it in Ashkhabad alone stood at 12,000. One of the problems is that the privatization of housing is prohibited in Turkmenistan. Houses and apartments can neither be sold, leased, nor given away. Resettlers hoped that, as was stipulated in the signed agreements, they would now be able to dispose of their apartments at their own discretion. But local officials have not yet adopted the relevant norms. (Source BBC, 5/15/96) |
| Feb 28, 1998 |
According to an article published in the Russian daily 'Moskovskiy Komsomolets'on 19th February the Turkmen people, according to the article, may be free to express their thoughts, but they have difficulty forming opinions owing to the absence of media reports other than those disseminated by the state. Russian newspapers have been banned for more than three years and the only remaining media "outlet" for Turkmen and the ethnic Russian population is the Russian Public Television channel, which, as the article noted, could also be terminated in the near future. As for the "well being of the people" , the article summed up the mood by quoting an old ethnic Russian pensioner as saying that Turkmenistan "looks more like Iraq" than the Kuwait promised by the president, with the majority of the population, both Turkmen and ethnic Russians, living below the poverty line. Whether the Russian pensioner's comments about the president are true or not, unlike its neighboring states, Turkmenistan does not have as acute a problem with Russians moving out. According to the paper, this is because there is no real competition to the Russians from the Turkmen themselves and also they are not forced to communicate in the Turkmen language. (Source BBC, 2/28/98) |
| Jan 4, 1999 |
On New Year's night, over 500,000 Russian speakers in Turkmenistan were left without Russian Public TV programs. First channel broadcasts were switched off an hour before the new year. A similar situation arose in the republic early in November, when Russian Public TV broadcasts were reduced from 18 to five hours a day. (Source The British Broadcasting Corporation, 1/4/99) |
| Apr 30, 1999 |
Renat Ismailov, director of the Russian drama theater in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, will take to the stage for the first time in 35 years on June 6, 1999 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin. Mr Ismailov will be writing a play in honor of Pushkin, and he has reserved one of the roles for himself. But his decision to return to the stage is due more to expediency than anything else. Mr Ismailov has what he calls an "actor deficit" caused by emigration of most of his troop since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The native Russian speakers who are the backbone of the Russian drama theater are increasingly dwindling in Turkmenistan, as they are in other non-Russian republics of the former Soviet Union. (Source Financial Times (London), 4/30/99) |
| Oct 5, 1999 |
Turkmen national radio has ceased its Russian language broadcast. At the same time, the national television and radio company has reduced its Russian-language TV broadcasts. The local television used to broadcast a 15 minute news bulletin in Russian on a daily basis. Henceforth, it will broadcast a bulletin once every two days. (Source BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 10/5/99) |
| Dec 12, 1999 |
While official government sources in Turkmenistan claimed that in parliamentary elections held the Weekend before, 98.9 percent of the eligible population turned out to vote, foreign organizations abroad have assessed the vote as "not very democratic". In some areas election commission officials turned up at people's apartments to collect the votes of "forgetful" citizens. Some 2.2 million eligible voters were called upon to choose 50 deputies for the new Majlis. Nearly all of the 104 candidates belong to the Democratic Party of President Saparmyrat Niyazov, which held all seats in the last parliament elected in 1994. The parliament is regarded as little more than an organ of the president. Sunday's election in the Central Asian nation was taking place in the absence of international poll observers. The OSCE said it doubted whether the vote met OSCE’s democratic principles. (Source Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 12/12/99) |
| Dec 30, 1999 |
Following a request by the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Turkmenistan, the president ordered the return to the Church of a building in eastern Lepab Region used by the Defence Ministry. He also said that there would be no discrimination of Russians living in Turkmenistan and said his country wanted equal relations with Russia. (Source BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 12/29/99) |
| Jan 4, 2000 |
According to a schedule for Turkmen Radio, published in the Turkmenistan newspaper, the Russian-language news bulletin, previously broadcast at 12:20 gmt four times a week, has now been replaced by an English-language program. (Source BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 1/4/00) |
| Dec 17, 2006 |
Andrei Zatoka, an ethnic Russian
environmental activist, who had originally been arrested for disturbing the peace, had his charge upgraded to "illegal possession of poisonous materials and firearms". (International Crisis Group. 2007. "Turkmenistan after Niyazov." Asia Briefing No. 60, p. 6 ) |
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