USCIRF and the U.S. Department of State disagree on the state of religious liberty in Turkmenistan. They may both be right.
by Massimo Introvigne
On March 25, 2024, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published an unusual document. The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). Its Commissioners are appointed by the President and by Congressional leaders of both political parties.
The USCIRF “implored” the U.S. Department of State to remove the waiver of the sanctions that should normally accompany the designation of Turkmenistan as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) for its violations of religious freedom. Turkmenistan is recognized as a CPC, yet sanctions were waived on November 30, 2023, because of an “important national interest of the United States.” The “important interest” corresponds to the U.S. hope that the new President Serdar Berdimuhamedow, who succeeded in 2022 his father Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow (who maintains considerable power and influence), will prove more friendly to the West and somewhat distance himself from China and Russia.
Reading between the lines, one has the impression that the USCIRF document is subtly critical of the U.S. Department of State’s section on Turkmenistan in its last yearly report on religious liberty, which does not claim that freedom of religion reigns in the country but emphasizes improvements, acknowledged by religious groups that participated in Roundtables hosted by the local U.S. Ambassador.
Some improvements concerned the Jehovah’s Witnesses. After Turkmenistan lost ten cases at the United Nations Human Rights Committee between 2015 and 2016, in 2021 it freed the 16 Jehovah’s Witnesses who were in jail for their refusal to serve in the military, and since then has not prosecuted any of their co-religionists for the same reason. It is however also true that Jehovah’s Witnesses have not been able to obtain the legal registration of their religious organization and complain that adherents of draft age are interviewed by law enforcement officers, who try to talk them out of conscientious objection, sometimes slandering their faith in the process.
The difference between the U.S. Department of State’s report and the USCIRF note is that the first focuses mostly on religious minorities, noting limited but real improvements, while the second “condemns Turkmenistan’s deplorable treatment of Muslims,” i.e., of members of the majority religion in the country.
USCIRF makes an important point, i.e., that states can persecute religious majorities, not only religious minorities. It claims such is the case in Turkmenistan, where the government is engaged in a harsh “repression of Muslims who deviate from the state’s preferred interpretation of Islam.”
One problem is that what this interpretation is, is unclear. “Throughout Turkmenistan, writes the USCIRF, in often contradictory and arbitrary ways, authorities dictate how Turkmens should observe Ramadan. For example, Lebap region officials are using Ramadan as an opportunity to further solidify former Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s cult of personality, calling on state employees to honor him by following his example and fasting during the holiday. At the same time, security guards have taken post in front of classrooms in unspecified regions of the country to force students to drink water and break their fasts. In Yoloten district of the Mary region, police acted on a sudden, unannounced ban on the sale of alcohol during Ramadan and raided shops that sell alcohol and seized all temporarily prohibited products. In some cases, police officers ordered business owners to pay a bribe upon threat of taking them to court. In Ashgabat, security services are surveilling mosques to publicly shame worshipers who have recently been released from prison and interrogating other citizens considered to be ‘too religious’ in order to find murkily defined ‘extremists.’ According to reports, officials have also forcibly shaved the beards of some of the individuals they interrogated.”
In short, Turkmenistan punishes both the Muslims who are not religious enough and those who are too religious, but finding a logic in the behavior of officials and the police, often dictates by the bribes they receive, is difficult.
This led USCIRF to criticize the Department of State’s attitude, claiming that “The Turkmen government will never have any incentive to reform if the U.S. government continues to allow Turkmen leadership to continue to violate religious freedom with impunity.”
On the other hand the Department of State and USCIRF may both be right. The Department of State’s minority-oriented report finds some progress in the treatment of minorities. USCIRF notes that the Muslim majority continues to suffer. Both statements may be true and they need to be somewhat reconciled. Improvements, small as they may be, should be acknowledged and encouraged. But all believers whose freedom of religion is violated in Turkmenistan should feel supported by the international community.