Only a handful of people within Turkmenistan learned of the resolution from news reports on the Turkmen “Svoboda” (Freedom) radio station, the BBC and “German Wave”. On the other hand, the only Russian-language newspaper in the republic, “Neutral Turkmenistan”, published an interview with a UNICEF consultant under the bold headline, “Turkmenistan is entering the top ten countries in the world for the urgent implementation of a programme of eliminating iodine deficiency.” This programme is considered to be more significant than respect for human rights in the country.

Meanwhile discrimination against ethnic minorities continues. Thus, a deadline has been set – by 18 May all specialists who received their educational diplomas outside Turkmenistan since 1993 must be dismissed. Teachers, doctors, lawyers and other professionals will lose their jobs. As a rule, the majority of people holding such diplomas are Russians, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Armenians and children of mixed marriages, even those who have one parent of Turkmen nationality.


“I am an excellent teacher,” said one young woman, who graduated in 1994 from a Russian teacher training college, “But they are firing me all the same. I am trying to demonstrate my professional value, by appealing to the highest authorities, but so far it has all been in vain, and the director of the school told me straight out: Even if you manage to save yourself, you will still be number one on the list to go. I believe that it’s all due to my nationality – my passport says I am Russian, although I have Turkmen blood.”


“I received my diploma from Kharkov Law Institute”, says a professional lawyer, with almost ten year’s experience of working in the prosecution service, “It makes you wonder, is the education in Kharkov worse than in Ashgabad? Of course not, it’s just because I’m not Turkmen, and they have to give my post to a Turkmen.”


There are numerous similar cases. It is easy for the authorities to enact a policy of discrimination within an information vacuum. So long as the victims of discrimination remain ignorant of the resolution by the UN Commission on Human Rights, it will be easy for the dictatorial regime to complete what they have begun.