[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E119-E120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS IN TURKMENISTAN: IS ANYONE LISTENING?

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 16, 2007

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, the Administration's crusade to spread 
democracy

[[Page E120]]

to the Middle East has been a major disappointment, but opportunity is 
knocking nearby in Central Asia and we should be taking advantage of 
it. But there isn't much time.
  The opportunity for positive change was created by the death late 
last month of Turkmenistan's despotic dictator, President Saparmurat 
Niyazov, whose role model was Josef Stalin. The urgency for the United 
States to act is created by those who want to follow in his footsteps.
  The Turkmen people deserve the right to elect their leaders in free 
and fair elections. That seems highly unlikely because of the junta 
that has tried to consolidate power in the aftermath of Niyazov's 
sudden demise. Consisting of the remaining holdouts from Niyazov's 
government and controlled by his former bodyguards, the junta leaders 
have pledged to continue the ``dear leader's'' style of ``democracy,'' 
ordering yet another statue of him to be built.
  The constitution has been re-written to allow the junta's candidate 
to run in the presidential elections--scheduled for February 11--
virtually unchallenged. The regime's most competent opponents--the 
exiled community of business leaders and intellectuals--have 
effectively been prevented from contesting the elections.
  For too long the United States has ignored Niyazov's abuses and we 
continue to fail to articulate our official position regarding 
relations with the ``interim government.'' I call on the Secretary of 
State to condemn the junta's unconstitutional actions and demand that 
it allow its opponents to participate in the February 11 election. 
Until that happens, the United States must refuse to recognize the 
government in Ashgabat as legitimate, and order federal agencies, 
including Treasury, State and Justice, to block all of its banking 
activities.
  Nurmuhammet Hanamov, the founding chairman of the Republican Party of 
Turkmenistan who was his country's former ambassador to Turkey and 
Israel, has written an incisive article in the Washington Post calling 
on the West to take advantage of Niyazov's passing to help lead his 
country toward Democracy. A leader of the prodemocracy movement, Mr. 
Hanamov was forced into exile and his two sons were assassinated in 
2005 in retaliation for his outspoken opposition to the regime. I ask 
that his article be included in the Congressional Record so that all 
may read the heartfelt plea of this courageous individual.

                [From the Washington Post, Jan. 3, 2007]

                    A New Beginning for Turkmenistan

                        (By Nurmuhammet Hanamov)

       Last week Turkmenistan buried its brutal dictator, 
     Saparmurad Niyazov. His ruthless reign spanned two decades, 
     during which time his policies became increasingly irrational 
     and unpredictable. The long list of Niyazov's crimes against 
     our people includes: banning all political parties except his 
     own and jailing his opponents; preventing thousands of 
     ``disloyal'' citizens from traveling abroad; persecuting 
     religious and ethnic minorities; outlawing opera; and 
     shutting down regional hospitals, firing thousands of doctors 
     and nurses. Under Niyazov, Turkmenistan became a corridor for 
     heroin trafficking from Afghanistan to the West and gained 
     for itself one of the highest heroin addiction rates in the 
     world.
       Above all, Niyazov was a selfish and kleptocratic despot, 
     stashing billions in proceeds from the sale of the country's 
     enormous natural gas resources in personal accounts in 
     Western banks. He used this money to fuel his outlandish 
     personality cult, building opulent palaces and golden statues 
     of himself even as his people were deprived of basic 
     necessities and suffer one of the world's lowest life 
     expectancy rates. The West's indifference was striking 
     compared with the relentless criticism by the United States 
     and the European Union against the more benign regime of 
     Alexander Lukashenko, president of gas-poor Belarus.
       With Niyazov gone, the West has a historic second chance to 
     help our country make a peaceful transition to democracy. 
     Turkmenistan's interim rulers have unfortunately pledged to 
     continue Niyazov's policies (even ordering new statues of 
     him), and their efforts to grab power amount to a coup 
     d'etat. The former health minister--under the de facto 
     control of Niyazov's Presidential Guard--has arrested the 
     speaker of Parliament, who constitutionally is next in the 
     line of succession. He has sealed the country's borders and, 
     using other unconstitutional measures, has set the stage for 
     his own unchallenged victory in presidential elections 
     scheduled for Feb. 11.
       The United States must send a clear message to Niyazov's 
     holdouts in the ``interim government'' in Ashgabat: that they 
     will not have its support unless they agree to hold free and 
     fair elections--ones that allow all citizens of Turkmenistan, 
     including exiled opposition leaders and political prisoners, 
     to take part.
       We know that the United States has tried to help the people 
     of Turkmenistan in recent years, and thanks to American 
     educational exchange programs, there is a thriving community 
     of bright Turkmen students and intellectuals who are living 
     in Western countries and are ready to return and help rebuild 
     their country. This community is largely held together by the 
     efforts of Khudaiberdy Orazov, a former chairman of the 
     National Bank and an accomplished and energetic leader who 
     was forced into exile several years ago. He was unanimously 
     nominated to be a candidate in the February presidential 
     elections by a broad coalition of opposition groups inside 
     and outside of Turkmenistan. According to a recent poll, 
     Orazov's candidacy would have the support of a majority of 
     Turkmen voters. Until Orazov and other opposition candidates 
     are allowed to contest the February elections, the United 
     States and the European Union must refrain from recognizing 
     the junta in Ashgabat and freeze all personal accounts of 
     Niyazov and his cronies abroad. We hope that members of 
     Congress and other government officials will visit 
     Turkmenistan soon to personally deliver that message.
       We must rebuild our country, and with the help of our 
     friends and neighbors we can do it in an open and transparent 
     way. Priorities for a democratically elected government 
     during the initial post-Niyazov reconstruction must be to 
     release all political prisoners, conduct open tenders and 
     allow Western companies to bid for a stake in developing 
     Turkmenistan's oil and gas fields; to consider new ways of 
     getting our gas and oil to Western markets; to restore 
     private property that Niyazov confiscated from Turkmen 
     citizens; and to create a reconstruction fund using Niyazov's 
     personal bank accounts and proceeds from the sale of oil and 
     gas to revive the health-care and education systems.
       The United States is spending billions of dollars trying to 
     turn Afghanistan and Iraq--both deep in the throes of civil 
     war--into democratic nations while all but abandoning their 
     peaceful post-Soviet neighbors to the north. Turkmenistan is 
     ready for a new beginning, and the West must finally step up 
     to the plate. To do otherwise would waste a historic 
     opportunity and allow yet another case of popular discontent 
     with an illegitimate government to become an anti-Western 
     lost cause.

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