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Source: www.forum18.org Date: May 13, 2008
By a Turkmen Protestant
Religious believers in Turkmenistan don't have freedom. We can be raided
as we meet for worship, and be stopped and searched anywhere. But one of
the biggest problems we face is not being able to freely maintain public
places of worship. You cannot build, buy, or securely rent such property,
let alone put up a notice outside saying "This is a place of worship".
Officials won't give a place of worship legal status as such - I don't know
why. All kinds of obstructions are imposed, whether through rules or just
in practice.
Some places of worship do exist. Mosques and Russian Orthodox churches are
usually reasonably visible and known as such. Within the capital Ashgabad
[Ashgabat] the handful of registered non-Muslim and non-Orthodox religious
communities are able to meet quietly for worship, however insecure their
arrangements, though not in a formal place of worship. Other faiths - and
those of us outside the capital - have it more difficult.
If the community has existed for some time, it might have a place of
worship which people know about, but which usually has no legal status. But
for those that had their places of worship bulldozed or confiscated in the
last decade - as has happened to Muslim, Protestant, and Hare Krishna
places of worship - there is no chance of getting them back or of
compensation.
Even registered religious communities (apart from most Muslim and Russian
Orthodox communities) find it hard to get a place of worship.
The many communities which exist without state registration (a process
which has now all but come to a halt) face the biggest difficulties. They
cannot officially get a place of worship and if they try unofficially they
always fear they will be discovered and punished for even trying.
I don't know why the authorities restrict places of worship - you will
have to ask them. Perhaps they are afraid.
Although a dedicated place of worship is not essential for a religious
community, in today's Turkmenistan it makes it difficult for a community to
operate without one. People interested in learning more about your
community and its beliefs cannot come to attend services - even if they
know you exist they don't know how to find you. We don't have telephone
directories (the last ones were issued in the Soviet period) but if we
could have an open place of worship people could find the phone number from
directory enquiries or from the local hyakimlik (administration).
If you meet in a private flat - and try to escape police or secret police
surveillance - this might be on the third or fourth floor of a block of
flats. Climbing stairs with no lift is difficult for some.
If it is difficult to meet unobtrusively in towns, it is almost impossible
in villages and small settlements. Aksakals (community elders), the police
and Ministry of State Security (MSS) secret police often ban minority
faiths from meeting in villagers' homes. They deploy a whole range of
threats - from intimidation and public humiliation to social ostracism or
denial of work.
In other ways too having a recognised place of worship is vital. It would
provide a safe place where a religious community could hold not just open,
public worship, but educational work with children or adults, something
that remains highly risky today. Maybe I'm being too ambitious here, but
our communities could try to hold larger events or conferences - this is of
course impossible today.
Most importantly, people would be assured that coming to worship is safe.
They could come knowing that - at least in theory - the place of worship
would not be raided and they would not have to give their name, address and
place of work. They would not be harassed and face questions such as: "Why
do you come here?"
The changes to the Religion Law in 2004 did help a little, especially the
reduction in the number of adult citizen members required to found a
religious organisation from 500 to just a handful. Finding 500 people was
impossible and without registration we were completely banned from meeting.
But since the changes very few non-Muslim and non-Russian Orthodox
communities have been able to get such registration, especially away from
Ashgabad. However, being able to meet for worship has become easier, even
if intermittent raids and check-ups continue.
It is important now for religious communities in the regions - such as my
own Protestant church - to be able to get registration. Of course, we
shouldn't be required to have registration before we can meet, but that's
how it is. Whenever officials raid our meetings the first thing they ask
is: "Where's your registration certificate?" The government likes to be
able to say to outsiders "We have registration" and show them communities
in Ashgabad. But people don't look at what we experience in places away
from the capital, where we have no hope of registration.
Officials are cunning in the way they obstruct registration. They never
give their refusals on paper. Anyway, local officials don't decide anything
- they just get their orders from above. They are afraid to take any steps
without such direction from on high, for fear of losing their comfortable
seats. Any official who approved a religious community's registration
application would be sacked.
The government's Gengeshi (Council) for Religious Affairs in Ashgabad is
not interested in the problems religious communities face. Its officials
can't decide anything anyway - they need to seek advice from on high. The
aim is a system of control. Everything is still as it was in the Soviet
period.
Many activities are banned for us. We can't spread our faith, meet in
public buildings like cinemas, show films, work in hospitals or children's
homes, distribute humanitarian aid or invite fellow-believers from abroad.
I know people from neighbouring countries who wanted to visit us who have
been refused visas five times. They are our brothers and sisters. We pray
together. This is - or should be - a normal part of our religious life. We
suffer because of this - it leaves us without teaching, encouragement,
friendship and exchanges of information.
Religious literature is especially difficult. We can't print such
literature at all - how can we when the state runs all printing houses and
you need official permission for anything that is printed? Nor can we
import it into the country - if you have more than one religious book when
you come back through customs they will be confiscated. I have had my
personal Bible confiscated from me at customs. It would be excellent if we
could print our own literature.
But I come back to places of worship. It is our desire to have a
freely-open place of worship in every place where we have a community. This
is vital - but at present impossible. Without freedom to meet for worship
it is impossible to claim that we have freedom of religion or belief. (END)
- a Turkmen Protestant contributed this commentary to Forum 18 News
Service <http://www.forum18.org>. Commentaries are personal views and do
not necessarily represent the views of F18News or Forum 18.
For a personal commentary by another Protestant within Turkmenistan, on
the fiction - despite government claims - of religious freedom in the
country, and how religious communities and the international community
should respond to this, see
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=728>.
For more background, see Forum 18's Turkmenistan religious freedom survey
at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=672>.
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Turkmenistan
can be found at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&religion=all&country=32>.
A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=806>, and of religious
intolerance in Central Asia is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=815>.
A printer-friendly map of Turkmenistan is available at
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=turkme>.
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