Turkish authorities have detained three Turkmen opposition activists in recent months and say they will deport them to Turkmenistan where human rights defenders warn they will likely face imprisonment and mistreatment.

The cases indicate once again Turkey’s diminished patience for critics of Turkmenistan’s regime as its cooperation with the insular and authoritarian Central Asian state has increased recently.

“The last two years have shown clearly that Turkey is not a safe country for Turkmen activists and bloggers. Before this it was, shall we say, fine,” said Annadurdy Khadzhiev, a member of the Bulgaria-based Turkmenistan Helsinki Fund for Human Rights.

Turkish authorities said that the activists threatened public order and security, while Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s regime in Ashgabat has rejected claims of systemic human rights abuses.

A district court in Samsun, on Turkey’s north coast, cleared activists Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov for deportation on June 13, rejecting their claims they could be tortured or mistreated in their home country as “unfounded,” the opposition outlet Turkmen News reported.

Sakhatov, 39, ran the popular YouTube channel “Erkin Garayyş“ that airs criticism of the regime. In one recent video, for instance, the channel reported on bribes staff allegedly demanded at a maternity hospital in Lebap Vilayet, according to Turkmen News.

Orusov, 31, ran a similar, slightly less well-known YouTube and TikTok channel, called “Abdulla,” where he interviewed opposition figures and inveighed against the regime. The men, who were arrested in late April and are currently being held in Ankara, will appeal, according to Turkmen News.

“Neither Alisher Sakhatov nor Abdulla Orusov did any kind of illegal acts to damage Turkish society by running their YouTube channels or being bloggers,” Khadzhiev told Eurasianet in an interview. “They’re trying to shut their mouths.”

Opposition politicians in Turkey have also highlighted the case. Left-wing MP Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu condemned the deportation proceedings during a June 3 press conference, according to Turkmen News.

Turkish authorities arrested a third activist, Umidajan Bekchanova, on May 29, and she is currently contesting her deportation in court, according to Human Rights Watch.

Bekchanova, 45, joined HSM, a group of exiled Turkmen dissidents in 2020; managed social media accounts of other dissidents; and worked on her own opposition YouTube channel “TAGA – Turkmenistan“ that focused on the condition of women in Turkmenistan, HRW said in a report earlier this month.

“Sakhatov and Orusov face a serious risk of persecution, torture, an unfair trial, and enforced disappearance if they are sent back to Turkmenistan,” Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, said in a release on April 30. “Türkiye should not send them anywhere they could face ill-treatment and should immediately release them.”

Much the same could befall Bekchanova if she is deported, Denber said in a June 3 release.

Sakhatov and Orusov both lived for years in Turkey legally and held protected status, but Sakhatov’s status expired after he was detained and Turkish authorities cancelled Orusov’s status after his detention, HRW reported.

Bekchanova had lived in Turkey legally since 2017 until Turkish authorities cancelled her residence permit in the autumn, according to HRW.

More than 200,000 Turkmen citizens live in Turkey, according to the Turkish migration service, and thousands more are estimated to be living there illegally. Turkey has become the hub of the Turkmen diaspora seeking to escape the economic stagnation and repression at home.

Recently, Turkmenistan has sought to exert more control over its citizens in Turkey. Human rights organisations say the government has stopped renewing passports for its citizens abroad, forcing them to return. Turkey has indicated it is happy to help, deporting 78,000 Turkmen back to Turkmenistan since 2018, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

Vepa Hajiyev, Turkmenistan’s ambassador to the UN’s Geneva Office, rebutted allegations of abuse in the country’s prisons – which the activists have argued they will face if deported – during a meeting of the UN’s Committee Against Torture in late April.

“State, law enforcement and civil society institutions are carrying out practical efforts to prevent the conditions that could lead to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” Hajiyev, told a sceptical committee. He also claimed the government is undertaking reforms to strengthen human rights protections, while denying that embassies abroad are refusing to renew passports. He noted, however, that passports may not be granted abroad because “in the end this will become an additional burden on the state and eventually on the citizens.”

Turkey has deported at least six other Turkmen activists and bloggers in 2023, RFE/RL has reported. On returning home several were imprisoned. But four leading activists were set to be deported from Turkey in 2021 but were released after appeals from human rights campaigners, according to HRW.

Relations between Turkey and Turkmenistan have warmed in recent years. The two countries signed a natural gas deal that will eventually see 2bn cubic metres of gas flow to Turkey each year, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed strong support for a Trans-Caspian Pipeline in May of this year.

“Turkey is above all interested in being the transit point for Turkmen gas to Europe. And, Turkey sees itself as the centre of the Turkish world,” Khadzhiev said. So, to show Turkmenistan it is an ally, Ankara is willing to “indulge” Ashgabat’s political repression, he added.


This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.

Alexander Thompson is a journalist based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, reporting on current events across Central Asia. He previously worked for American newspapers, including the Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier and The Boston Globe.