20.09.2021

Akhal-Teke

Cotton quotas, measuring COVID mortality from space, and the dauphin takes on the economy. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

This year’s cotton harvest began with the usual pomp and ritual, but what farmers are being asked to do is quite out of the ordinary.

Picking began across four provinces on September 8: Ahal, Balkan, Lebap and Mary. There will be a one-week delay for the start in Dashoguz province, where soil and climatic conditions are different.

«The main task of village workers now is to collect [the cotton] from the fields in a short time and without losses,» state media declared.

The phrase «short time» is crucial here. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov issued… >> подробнее

20.09.2021

George Krol

My first encounters with Central Asia occurred in 1995-1997 while I was serving as Special Assistant to Ambassador Jim Collins, the State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for the New Independent States.

Before assuming this position, I had witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union working out of the U.S. Consulate in Leningrad/St Petersburg where I spent most of 1991 covering events in the Baltic republics. As the State Department rushed to establish diplomatic relations throughout the former USSR, I was assigned first to our new embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, and then sent to Minsk, Belarus, where I served as Deputy Chief of Mission. Central Asia was therefore part of the Soviet Union I had never experienced first-hand.

Some background: In 1993 the Clinton Administration had created… >> подробнее

09.09.2021

Akhal-Teke

While clumsy on COVID-19, Turkmenistan is being more sure-footed, or consistent at least, on the Afghanistan front. Plus, unsustainable agriculture. Our weekly briefing.

Schoolchildren in Turkmenistan don’t know if they’re coming or going these days.

With the alarm persisting over the unacknowledged COVID-19 outbreak, authorities reportedly put out the word for many schools to remain closed until at least October.

But when September 1, which traditionally marks the start of the academic year, came around, children from grades one through six did indeed attend class, Vienna-based Chronicles of Turkmenistan reported. Five new secondary schools were inaugurated on that day, according to local media, although it is not clear if teaching began… >> подробнее