Source: www.forum18.org
Date: March 19, 2020
Police in Dashoguz raided two Protestant home meetings in February. During
one raid, officers threatened to take away the host's grandchildren and
have other participants sacked from work. The host was fined nearly a
week's average wage. Another home owner in Lebap Region was similarly fined
for hosting a Christmas celebration. Officials in Lebap Region banned state
employees from attending Friday prayers in mosques.
TURKMENISTAN: Raids, fines for religious meetings
http://www.forum18.org/archive
By Felix Corley, Forum 18
Police raids have continued on religious believers meeting in homes.
Officers in February raided two homes in the northern Dashoguz Region where
Protestants were meeting. After the first raid a court fined the home owner
nearly a week's average wage. Participants in the second meeting are
expecting to be summoned to court to be fined.
During the first Dashoguz Region raid, officials threatened that they would
take away the home owner's grandchildren, Protestants complained to Forum
18. They also made threats to others, including about possible sackings
from work (see below).
The homeowner in the eastern Lebap Region who hosted a Christmas
celebration in December 2019 was fined nearly a week's average wage in late
January. During the raid, officers searched the home, seized telephones and
then questioned the participants at the police station. Officers later
summoned participants one by one, forced them to write statements, and took
their photos and fingerprints (see below).
In the southern Ahal Region, the region around the capital Ashgabat, police
raided a group of Protestants meeting in a home in late 2019. Officers
threatened participants not to meet. "They're used to this," one local
Protestant told Forum 18. "They periodically get such visits or phone
calls" (see below).
In the eastern Lebap Region, officials in February banned state employees
– including those working in education, culture, health, the military and
the police – from attending Friday prayers in mosques. They warned that
if they were seen in mosques they would be sacked from their jobs.
Officials also banned them from praying the namaz at their place of work
(see below).
Meanwhile, the Customs Service in the capital Ashgabat in 2019 refused to
hand over a parcel of Christian books sent to an individual from Germany.
Officials told the Protestant "receiving these books is banned", but gave
no explanation for the ban (see below).
The telephones of the regime-appointed Chair of the Mejlis (Parliament)
Human Rights Committee Yusupguly Eshshayev and the regime-appointed Human
Rights Ombudsperson Yazdursun Gurbannazarova went unanswered each time
Forum 18 called on 19 March.
Tight state controls on freedom of religion or belief
Turkmenistan imposes tight state controls on exercising freedom of religion
or belief (http://www.forum18.org/archiv
approved activity in approved locations by approved religious communities
is allowed. Unregistered religious activity is banned and punishable.
All religious literature is under tight state control and unapproved
distribution of such literature is punishable. Sharing of faith is banned
and punishable.
The regime arbitrarily denies registration to communities it does not like.
Only mosques subject to the state-controlled Muftiate (led by Chief Mufti
Yalkab Hojagulyyev) are allowed to exist. Only a small number of non-Muslim
communities are allowed to register, while many (particularly Protestant
communities outside the capital Ashgabat, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses)
have had registration applications rejected.
Many of the small number of religious communities the regime had earlier
allowed to register now live in legal uncertainty. The amendments to the
Religion Law which came into force in April 2016 mandated re-registration
(http://www.forum18.org/archiv
is believed to have re-registered Mosques of the state-backed Muslim Board
soon after. The Justice Ministry re-registered the 12 Russian Orthodox
parishes in 2017, a priest told Forum 18 from Ashgabat. Two Pentecostal
communities also gained re-registration.
However, a number of non-Muslim and non-Russian Orthodox religious
communities complained to Forum 18 in March 2020 that the Justice Ministry
has still not granted re-registration. Officials treat their previous state
registration as no longer valid. This leads to fear that any of their
public worship could lead to punishment.
Forum 18 was unable to reach anyone in the Justice Ministry in Ashgabat on
19 March to find out why not all communities that sought the mandatory
re-registration in 2016 and 2017 have been able to receive it.
Jehovah's Witnesses say that since September 2018, government interference
with their religious activity has increased. They complain of police
harassment and threats, police interference with the public manifestation
of belief, government denial of the right to possess religious material and
government denial of registration. They also complain that the
international Jehovah's Witness website, www.jw.org, is blocked in
Turkmenistan.
Fined for hosting Christmas celebration
On 30 January, a court in Turkmenistan's eastern Lebap Region fined a home
owner 200 Manats in punishment for hosting a gathering on 26 December 2019
to celebrate Christmas, Protestants told Forum 18. The fine represents
nearly a week's average wages for those in formal work. The home owner's
computer was also ordered confiscated.
The court is believed to have fined the home owner under Administrative
Code Article 76 ("Violation of the Religion Law"). In recent years, members
of a variety of religious communities have been fined under Article 76.
Most of the 8 Jehovah's Witnesses known to have been fined in 2019
(http://www.forum18.org/archiv
this Article.
Administrative Code Article 76, Part 1 punishes "violation of the procedure
established by law for conducted religious rites and rituals, the carrying
out of charitable or other activity, as well as the production, import,
export and distribution of literature and other materials of religious
content and objects of religious significance"
(http://www.forum18.org/archiv
individuals of 1 to 2 base units, on officials of 2 to 5 base units and on
legal organisations of 5 to 10 base units (each base unit is 100 Manats).
Each 100 Manats is equivalent to three days' average wage for those in
formal work. However, for pensioners or others without a formal job, fines
can represent a severe burden.
During the raid on the 26 December 2019 Christmas gathering of Protestant
women, officers searched the home, seized telephones and questioned the
women at the police station. In early January 2020, police summoned the
women one by one, forced them to write statements, and took their photos
and fingerprints. (http://www.forum18.org/archiv
First February Dashoguz raid
In early February, police, Ministry of State Security (MSS) secret police
officers and local administration officials raided a home in the northern
city of Dashoguz, where local Christians were meeting. They forced all
those present, including the home owner, to go to the police station. There
officers recorded their names and photographed them "as a reminder".
Officials also threatened that they would take away the home owner's
grandchildren. They also made threats to others, including about possible
sackings from work.
Several days later, a local court fined the home owner 200 Manats, nearly a
week's average wage. The court is believed to have handed down the fine
under Administrative Code Article 76 ("Violation of the Religion Law").
Second February Dashoguz raid
Also in Dashoguz, on the morning of 29 February police raided a group of
Protestants who were attending a house-warming celebration. "Officers
barged their way into the house and started driving them outside, filming
them and threatening them to make them go outside and go to the police
station," a local Protestant complained to Forum 18.
Some older women refused to go to the police station, while one woman who
has disabilities and cannot move unaided continued to lie on the floor.
At the police station, an MSS secret police officer – who did not give
his name – read out a statement on various religious and that the group
had violated the law banning religious meetings in homes. He showed three
leaflets with prayers that officers had seized from some of those present,
together with notebooks.
Officers pressured the detainees to write statements that they had attended
an illegal religious meeting. Officers released some of the detainees after
about four hours, holding some of them till later.
At least some of those present are expecting to be summoned to court, where
they expect to be fined, possibly under Administrative Code Article 76
("Violation of the Religion Law"). No trial had taken place by 19 March.
Ahal Region raid
In late 2019, police raided a Protestant meeting for worship in a home in a
town in Ahal Region, the region surrounding the capital Ashgabat. Officers
threatened those present and told them not to meet for religious purposes.
No one was brought to trial or fined.
"They're used to this," one local Protestant told Forum 18. "They
periodically get such visits or phone calls." The Protestant added that no
raids have taken place on the group so far in 2020.
State employees banned from attending mosque prayers
Officials in Lebap Region in February banned state employees from attending
Friday prayers in mosques.
"Workers in the spheres of education, culture and health, as well as
military and police officers throughout the Region were ordered not to
attend Friday prayers and not to perform the namaz at their places of
work," a local correspondent told Radio Free Europe's Turkmen Service from
Lebap Region on 24 February. "They were warned that if they are seen in
mosques, they will be sacked from their jobs. But a few state employees,
despite the fear of losing their jobs, still go to mosques."
Heads of state agencies warned their employees of the ban, but did not
explain the reasons for it, the correspondent added. "I have not yet heard
that measures have been taken against anyone for visiting mosques. But
according to several state employees, state security officers who conduct
surveillance on mosques are at the moment limiting themselves to warnings."
The ban on state officials attending Friday prayers in mosques came as
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov attended the opening of a new
government-sponsored mosque on 21 February in Lebap's regional capital
Turkmenabat. Accompanying the President at the high-profile event were all
six of the government-approved regional imams.
In his remarks at the mosque, the President claimed that "the government
secures all the necessary conditions to protect freedom of conscience", the
government website noted the same day.
Local elders who were due to meet the President at the mosque were forced
to rehearse from 14 February for the following week, at times for many
hours on the same day, the emigre news website Chronicles of Turkmenistan
noted on 22 February. One elder, who suffered from diabetes, collapsed
during one long evening rehearsal. Police bundled him out of the mosque and
only there did they allow him medical attention.
Forum 18 was unable to find out why officials banned state employees from
attending Friday prayers in mosques in Lebap Region. The man who answered
the phone at the regional administration's Religious Affairs Department put
the phone down on 19 March as soon as Forum 18 introduced itself.
Radio Free Europe's Turkmen Service was similarly unable to get comment in
February from the administration of Lebap Region or the MSS secret police
in Turkmenabat.
Customs refuse to hand over Christian books
Friends from Germany sent a parcel of Christian books to a Protestant in
Turkmenistan in 2019. However, when the individual went to the Customs
Service in the capital Ashgabat to collect the books, customs officials
told the Protestant "receiving these books is banned", local Protestants
complained to Forum 18. Customs officials gave no explanation for the ban.
Officials also often seize religious literature and objects from
individuals returning to Turkmenistan from abroad. In December 2018,
security personnel at Ashgabat Airport detained a woman working in Turkey
bringing in Arabic Korans as gifts for relatives, questioning her for 24
hours. She was later banned from leaving Turkmenistan.
(http://www.forum18.org/archiv
In addition, police often seize religious literature they find when raiding
individuals' homes or detaining individuals on the street
(http://www.forum18.org/archiv
Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Turkmenistan
(http://www.forum18.org/archiv
For more background, see Forum 18's Turkmenistan religious freedom survey
(http://www.forum18.org/archiv
Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion and belief commitments
(http://www.forum18.org/archiv
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