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‘Turkmen govt destroyed seven mosques, husseiniyaat in one year’

By: Khadija Chinese

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: Attempts to curb religious freedom in the reclusive oil-rich state of Turkmenistan continue with at least seven mosques and husseiniyaat demolished in 2004 alone.

“By destroying mosques - as well as a Christian church and Hare Krishna temples, as was done in the past - the Turkmen government is demonstrating its contempt for the rights of believers of different faiths to maintain their own places of worship where they can pray freely in the way they wish to,” Felix Corley, editor of Forum 18 News Service, an agency covering religious freedom in the former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe, told Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) from London.

The destruction of places of worship is hardly new in the former Soviet republic.

According to a Forum 18 report, in 2001 the Baptist and Pentecostal churches in the capital, Ashgabat, were closed down, leaving both communities with nowhere to worship, while in 1999 the Adventist church in Ashgabat and two Hare Krishna temples were bulldozed.

And though both groups later gained official registration in 2004, neither community has been allowed publicly to worship. Moreover, they received neither compensation for their properties, nor were allowed to rebuild, Corley claimed.

Yet in a country said to be 89 percent Muslim, the destruction of mosques only underscores the complete disregard for religious freedom by the government of Turkmen president for life Saparmurat Niyazov, human rights groups believe.

Occurring in two waves, two mosques and one husseiniyah in the western town of Serdar (formerly Kyzyl-Arvat), in the village of Geoktepe and in the village of Bagyr near Ashgabat respectively were demolished at the beginning of 2004, and a further four have been demolished since October, two of which were destroyed on the eve of the fasting month of Ramadan.

According to the Forum 18 report, the autumn wave began with the demolition of two mosques in Ashgabat, both of which occurred on 15 October, just a day before the start of Ramadan.

“Religious believers of all faiths are restricted, controlled and monitored closely. Unregistered and independent mosques that don't toe the line can be closed down and even destroyed.”

Two private mosques built by Imam Ahmed Orazgylych in a suburb of Ashgabat and in the village of Govki-Zeren near Tedjen in southern Turkmenistan were bulldozed in 2000, Corley explained, adding that it was possible other mosques had been destroyed in recent years.

Although heavy international pressure on Ashgabat over the past year over its appalling religious freedom record had elicited a few cosmetic changes, these did little to provide true freedom of worship, Corley said. For example, the Adventists regained registration after some seven years, but still cannot meet as a church community for worship in Ashgabat. More international pressure might lead to real change on the ground, he said.

END