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Round 1,000 Turkmen residents gathered on the Istanbul Airport on July 17, demanding the chance to fly house. Amongst these, 20 had been disabled folks, greater than 50 had been ladies with babies, and greater than 150 had been aged. One would possibly surprise why they determined to collect and protest on the Turkish airport as a substitute of merely reserving a flight house on their very own.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 Turkmenistan fully closed its borders to anybody getting into and leaving the nation, together with Turkmen residents. For 2 years, no person was allowed to cross the borders of Turkmenistan with out the express permission of the federal government. In follow, tens of hundreds of Turkmen residents weren’t capable of return house. On the identical time, many individuals weren’t capable of depart the nation for training, well being, tourism, or to affix their households overseas.
Affect on Turkmen Dwelling Contained in the Nation
One of many extra regarding results of the shortcoming of Turkmen to depart the nation was that the journey ban prevented the sick from in search of healthcare overseas. For instance, in March and Might 2022, there have been experiences {that a} 3-year-old, Meryem, and a 20-year-old, Ayperi, had been each so sick that their households needed to hunt emergency medical therapy overseas. Because of the journey ban, the Turkmen authorities didn’t permit them to depart the nation. After these experiences surfaced, Ayperi was capable of depart the nation and obtain therapy. There was not subsequent reporting about Meryem, so we don’t know her destiny.
On the identical time, the 1-year-old granddaughter of then-President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s sister was taken by a non-public ambulance aircraft to a prestigious non-public hospital in Turkey to hunt emergency medical care, illustrating the inequality inherent within the utility of guidelines and restrictions in Turkmenistan.
Journey bans additionally left many households divided by worldwide borders. Spouses couldn’t see one another or their kids. Younger folks in long-distance relationships couldn’t reunite and get married.
Affect on Turkmen Dwelling Outdoors of the Nation
Turkmen who traveled overseas for tourism, well being, and different causes earlier than the pandemic had been trapped overseas when the borders slammed shut. Many had been with out steady housing or employment, having by no means supposed to spend a lot time away from house. Turkmen touring overseas on tourism visas weren’t allowed to work within the international locations the place they had been caught and needed to depend on their households to ship them cash. These with out the means had been left alone and a few turned homeless on the streets of overseas international locations.
For instance, in March 2020, greater than 50 residents of Turkmenistan, labor migrants in Turkey, had been poisoned by counterfeit alcohol and subsequently died. The federal government didn’t manage a particular flight to deliver their again our bodies house and provides them to their households. They had been buried in Istanbul, with their households unable to attend because of the journey ban.
In January 2022, RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service reported that an aged man had spent two weeks on the Istanbul Airport hoping to be allowed to fly house. The person was ailing and not capable of work in Turkey; he took to the web to beg then-President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov for permission to fly house.
After which in April 2022, tales circulated that Turkmen nationals residing in Turkey had tried to cross the borders of Turkmenistan by Azerbaijan. Their makes an attempt proved futile. Greater than 70 Turkmen nationals had been caught in Azerbaijan, having spent their cash on air journey from Turkey to Azerbaijan and motels in Baku. Comparable instances occurred to those that flew from Turkey to neighboring Uzbekistan attempting to cross the land borders of Turkmenistan.
One other complicating issue for Turkmen caught overseas after the pandemic started is that Turkmen embassies don’t difficulty new passports. Residents dwelling overseas have at all times needed to return to Turkmenistan to resume their passports, a go to that turned nearly unimaginable when the borders closed. Turkmen both dwelling and touring overseas risked having their passports expire. A 12 months after the journey ban was put in place, Turkmen embassies started issuing stamps on expired passports with new expiry dates. Nonetheless, the immigration authorities of some international locations don’t acknowledge such stamps as legitimate.
The Reopening of Some Borders
Lastly in June 2022, worldwide flights operated by state-owned Turkmenistan Airways had been resumed from Turkmenistan to Dubai within the UAE and Kazan in Russia, however these flights ran solely as soon as every week. From July, flights to Moscow had been added and the frequency of all three routes was elevated to twice every week.
Flights to Turkey, the place the vast majority of the Turkmen diaspora lives, are nonetheless not allowed. Leaving and getting into Turkmenistan by different technique of transport (prepare, automotive, bus, and by foot) can be nonetheless not allowed.
In accordance with the Turkish Migration Administration Directorate, there are 121,489 Turkmen residents who maintain residency permits in Turkey as of 2022. Nonetheless, because of the visa-free regime between the 2 international locations, in response to some sources, over one million Turkmen nationals reside in Turkey, together with migrant staff, college students, and their members of the family. Turkmen nationals residing in Turkey have tried to fly to Turkmenistan by Dubai, the place air journey has been resumed; nevertheless, they’ve a tough time flying from Turkey to the UAE on expired passports.
The Turkmen authorities, by Turkish Airways, has organized constitution flights round two to a few instances a month to repatriate residents caught in Turkey. Nonetheless, residents reportedly have needed to pay bribes of round $2,000 to the workers of the consulate to get on these flights. Given the sheer variety of folks wishing to return again house, these constitution flights should not sufficient. In the meantime, the excessive value makes accessing the flights which can be organized merely out of attain for a lot of.
In July 2022, the consulate in Istanbul supplied Turkmen nationals the chance to return to Turkmenistan by bus by the Iranian border. The journey from Istanbul to Serakhs, Turkmenistan, is round 3700 km (2299 miles) and may take greater than 42 hours of driving (with out stops, that’s).
Why Not Turkey?
Given the excessive demand for flights from Turkey to Turkmenistan, and the problem in accessing different routes house, why has Ashgabat not reopened the air route?
Maybe the Turkmen authorities has not resumed flights to Turkey because of the prevalence of COVID-19 within the nation. However taking a look at COVID-19 instances in Russia and the UAE, to which Turkmenistan has resumed flights, and Turkey, the place it has not, does little to help this line of argument. Taking a look at knowledge compiled by Our World in Knowledge on new COVID-19 instances per million folks, the 7-day rolling common in late Might was 41.75 within the UAE, 29 in Russia, and 12.17 in Turkey. By early July, instances had risen to 190 per million within the UAE and 141 in Turkey, whereas dropping in Russia to twenty per million. Wanting on the chart, the three international locations should not radically completely different.
In relation to the vaccination charges, over one hundred pc of individuals (a determine that features non-residents) within the UAE have been double vaccinated, whereas the quantity is 62.6 % in Turkey and 51.7 % in Russia. Thus, it’s exhausting to justify the non-resumption of flights to Turkey alongside the resumption of flights to Russia, particularly, primarily based merely on COVID-19 instances or vaccination charges.
The Rumors and Actuality
Some declare that the Turkmen authorities is afraid of a mass inflow of Turkmen migrants coming again house, which arguably would happen if flights from Turkey had been resumed at a daily fee. Turkmenistan is a totalitarian nation by which protests are basically non-existent. Nonetheless, over the previous two years for the reason that journey ban was put in place, Turkmen nationals in Turkey have organized dozens of protests in entrance of the consulate over many points: journey bans, Turkmenistan’s COVID-19 denial, floods within the japanese areas of Turkmenistan, the dynastic succession of the regime from father to son, and plenty of different points. The federal government in Ashgabat might concern that Turkmen who’ve protested comparatively freely in Turkey will deliver their concepts again house and create a menace to the survival of the regime.
Regardless of the cause, the stranding of Turkmen overseas has severe private and financial implications for Turkmenistan’s residents. In the meantime, the family members of the president had been leaving and getting into the nation at whim, seemingly at any time when they needed to. Along with the non-public ambulance aircraft for the previous president’s grandniece talked about above, the president’s nephews, Shamyrat and Hajymyrat Rejepov, visited Turkey and Dubai many instances in the course of the two-year journey ban interval the place they partied on yachts and attended sporting occasions. They didn’t even attempt to conceal their actions, publishing footage of themselves enjoyable overseas on social media.
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