Rights groups slam government over dual nationality

International rights groups have strongly criticised the government of Turkmen President Saparmyrat Niyazov over its recent handling of a controversial dual nationality debate with Moscow. In what could be a further bid to isolate Turkmenistan's five million inhabitants, thousands of ethnic Russians holding dual nationality were required to forfeit one of them, thereby adding to what many believe to be an already poor human rights record. "The IHF [International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights] is deeply concerned about the entire human rights situation in Turkmenistan, of which the dual citizenship issue is a part," Aaron Rhodes, the IHF executive director, told IRIN from Vienna, describing the rights situation there as a "catastrophe". He maintained that the decision to push forward the plan, first announced in April during a meeting between Niyazov and Russian President Vladimir Putin, appeared to be part of a concerted effort by the Turkmen leader to consolidate power. "The existence of an influential ethnic minority population and of a pluralistic society in general would be an obstacle to this apparent interest in monolithic domination," Rhodes said. Sharing that view, Rachel Denber, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), told IRIN from New York that by annulling dual nationality, the government had sealed the last gap in the country's otherwise utterly closed society. "People inside Turkmenistan will feel even more isolated," Denber predicted, noting that less information would become available to the rest of the world about what was happening in the country. Their comments followed the passing on 22 June of a deadline for all ethnic Russians holding dual citizenship and living in Turkmenistan to choose which passport they would give up. Since then, thousands of Russians have reportedly been scrambling to leave, often having to abandon many of their belongings and selling their homes at cut-rate prices. In accordance with Niyazov's decree, those failing to choose would automatically be classed as Turkmen citizens, an act Moscow has refused to recognise. While there are no exact figures on the number of Russians in the country, many of whom have complained of being treated as second-class citizens, Aleksandra Dokuchayeva, the head of the diaspora department at the Institute of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Moscow, told IRIN that with some 70,000 Russian citizens registered as voters living in Turkmenistan, the total number of ethnic Russians affected by Niyazov's decree would be well over 100,000. "We estimate that the number of Russian-speaking minority [Tatars, Bashkirs, Cuvash and other ethnic groups along with ethnic Russians themselves originally from the Russian Federation] in Turkmenistan as 3.5 percent of the five million population," Dokuchayeva said. But according to HRW, the dual nationality issue underscores something far worse than mere citizenship law, this being a country with one of the region's worst human rights records. Since the country gained independence in 1991, Niyazov, or Turkmenbashi, [Father of all Turkmens] as he prefers to be called, has stepped up his efforts to control every aspect of society, and severely punish those he suspects of challenging his control. "Dual citizenship allowed Turkmen citizens to travel unfettered to Russia, where they remain out of reach of the Turkmen government, where it cannot control their speech, their affiliations, and the like. It gave people an opportunity to get out of the country and speak the truth about what is happening inside, to have access to information, culture and organisations," Denber explained. Peter Zalmayev, the CIS programme coordinator of the New York-based International League of Human Rights, told IRIN from Strasbourg: "I believe this was done to further tighten control over the 'unreliable' elements within Turkmenistan," noting that Niyazov had long regarded the country's ethnic Russians as a fifth column, a suspicion strengthened by an assassination bid against Niyazov in November, the perpetrators of which allegedly held dual or Russian citizenship. And as for those who fail to choose? "Formally speaking it does not imply expulsion. But life for a foreigner in Turkmenistan is subject to so many absurd restrictions that they make life almost unbearable," the deputy director for HRW's Moscow office, Aleksandr Petrov, told IRIN. Asked what the future held for the country given Niyazov's increasingly unpredictable and irrational policies in the last few years, he said: I would prefer not to speculate on that. I can only say that the human rights situation has been steadily deteriorating for 12 years." Zalmayev, however, was more forthcoming - if not blunt. "It can only deteriorate with Niyazov in power. Even when he's gone, the country will probably have the hardest time rebuilding its social, political and cultural institutions and education system, practically annihilated under his policies." [For further information on the plight of ethnic Russians in Turkmenistan see: Focus on the Russian minority]