last updated December 9, 2003

Introduction
Turkmenistan’s President-for-life Niyazov has established a highly isolated, Soviet-style state in which the government firmly controls all aspects of civil and political life. Turkmenistan’s ethnic minorities experience political exclusion and discrimination, particularly in education and employment, and appear unable to change official and unofficial policies, which disadvantage them. The government’s tight hold on civil society has impeded the formation of organizations focused on women’s issues.

History and current situation of minority groups
Turkmenistan’s population includes sizeable minorities of ethnic Uzbeks and Russians. Ethnic Russians, who enjoyed a privileged position in the Soviet era, have lost the most ground in independent Turkmenistan in terms of their social, economic, and political status.

Turkmenistan’s ethnic minorities have experienced steady marginalization in the post-independence years. Employment discrimination against non-Turkmen, particularly in government and politics, has weakened political representation of ethnic minorities. In May 2002, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern at allegations of discrimination against ethnic minorities in both employment and education. In 2003, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a resolution expressing similar concerns. The International Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has also noted worsening discrimination against minorities, especially in education. Circumstances are even more difficult for minority women. Women in Turkmenistan have historically had limited access to higher education and careers, and consequently have had difficulties securing governmental posts, political influence, and high positions in state firms. Only one official non-governmental organization is devoted to women’s issues, a group headed by the deputy chairperson of Parliament and dedicated to the memory of Niyazov’s late mother. One unregistered group in the capitol tries to help battered women. Domestic violence and workplace sexual harassment appear to be common.

Turkmenistan’s ethnic Russian population declined rapidly in the early post-independence years due to emigration, but emigration has since slowed due to the legal obstacles put in place by the Niyazov regime. Meanwhile, the government’s tightening restrictions on the use of the Russian language have disadvantaged ethnic Russians and other Russian speakers. The 1992 Constitution established Turkmen as the official language. In 2000, the president issued new restrictions on the use of Russian for official business, and in 2001, the government shut down all major Russian-language libraries. According to information made public by the Ministry of Education in August 2002, all Russian schools in the country had been closed, and the number of schools offering classes taught in Russian had been considerably reduced. The president has called for the Russian faculty at the state university in the capitol to be abolished. Though Russian remains in wide use in business and government, the government is pushing to have all state business conducted in Turkmen, and ethnic Russians appear to be under-represented in the civil service and the military.

On the positive side, ethnic Russians appear to be relatively free from overt government repression on the basis of religion, and there have been no reports of tension between the ethnic Russian and Turkmen people or of any ethnic-based violence.

The government’s Turkmen-only policy as also burdened ethnic Uzbeks. In recent years, the volume of Uzbek language print and broadcast media for the significant ethnic Uzbek population in the east of the country reportedly shrank.

Compiled from:

US Department of State Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Background Notes: Turkmenistan, November 2002.

Freedom House, Nations in Transit 2003: Turkmenistan, 2003.

Minority Group Assessments: Russians In Turkmenistan, last updated 10 December 2001.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Situation of Human Rights in Turkmenistan: Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2003/11, 16 April 2003 (document E/CN.4/RES/2003/11).

International Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Human Rights in the OSCE Region: Europe, Central Asia and North America, Report 2003 (Events of 2002): Turkmenistan, citing Human Rights Watch, World Report 2003: Turkmenistan.

Human Rights Watch, World Report 2001: Turkmenistan.