The OSI Turkmenistan News Brief features a digest of the week's news from a spectrum of sources, with an analysis of recent developments. It is distributed free of charge every Friday in English and Russian. Subscribe or unsubscribe to the Turkmenistan News Brief using the email entry box located on the left of this page.

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Analysis

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s trip to Turkey and summit with Turkish President Abdullah Gul signaled improved relations with a long-time regional investor. A flurry of bilateral agreements were signed on construction, education, communications and other economic issues, and the president’s ceremonial greeting of 650 Turkmen students studying in Turkey and his presentation to each of them of a free mobile phone was meant to symbolize a future of greater communication and commerce.

Yet the two leaders’ joint press conference did not yield any definitive answer about Turkmenistan’s position on the Nabucco pipeline, a project devised by Turkey and the West to diversify energy corridors to European markets. Although before the meetings in Ankara, a Turkmen government official said the topic would be on the agenda, it was never referenced publicly, Turkish Daily News reported. ITAR-TASS went further, citing Cumhuriyet, the Turkish daily, claiming that the regional summit represented “a blow to the Nabucco and trans-Caspian pipelines, EU-backed projects that seek to circumvent Russia,” and also raised the question of whether Turkmenistan really has enough gas to supply to all its customers in the region as well as Russia and China.

Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe reported that analysts see a larger context for such regional meetings, as Turkmenistan attempts to “play at all tables,” stay cordially cooperative with major players, and resolve its differences with immediate neighbors to present a united front for larger, competing energy powers.

An international conference and exhibition that the Turkmen government admitted was not in the planned schedule opened in Ashgabat this week to enable Turkmenistan’s major state oil and gas concerns to meet with over 50 foreign petroleum companies and 15 government delegations to talk about Turkmenistan’s energy prospects. The exhibit appeared to rival Turkmenistan’s major annual international oil and gas conference usually held in the fall. While President Berdymukhamedov did not speak at the conference or hold high-profile meetings around it, he did send greetings indicating that he expected those attending to lay the groundwork for future cooperation “on mutually profitable conditions” and that some foreign involvement in exploiting Turkmenistan’s hydrocarbon resources was anticipated, although the exact forms were not specified and no deals were announced.

The conference was part of an overall plan to keep all options open as long as possible and assess opportunities advantageous to Ashgabat, even as Turkmenistan appears to chose only China, Russia, and Iran as its main energy partners. Next week, President Berdymukhamedov will travel to Bucharest to attend the NATO summit, the first Turkmen leader to seek contact with the West’s security organization, a move which will be watched closely by Russia.

Turkmenistan has also ended a seven-year freeze on diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan, and appointed an envoy to Baku, however the question of Caspian Sea demarcation along their mutual border remains. In presenting his foreign policy priorities in a meeting with the diplomatic corps this week, the Turkmen leader stressed cooperation with international organizations such as the UN and OSCE along with deepening bilateral contacts; he also reshuffled or dismissed diplomats to the strategically important nations of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.

Although the conference this week and the president's foreign trips show that Turkmenistan is attracting much major investment in the energy sector, evidently, it is not yet trickling down to public works. The Turkmen Institute for Human Rights discovered news of a January explosion in Ashgabat that killed four children playing with firecrackers who inadvertently set off an explosion due to a leaky underground gas pipe. The tragedy led to the dismissal and prosecution in March of the city gas company head and a district supervisor who were sentenced to three years of forced labor, a punishment relatives and colleagues believed excessive, given the larger problem of Turkmenistan’s fraying municipal infrastructure which they say has not been upgraded in 40 years.

Digest

1. International Relations
a. Turkish, Turkmen Presidents Pledge to Increase Economic Cooperation
b. President Berdymukhamedov Meets Turkmen Students in Turkey
c. Russia, China, Vie for Turkmen Energy Resources
d. Nabucco Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline in Jeopardy: Russian, Turkish Press
e. Turkmen President Sets Out Foreign Policy Priorities
f. Berdymukhamedov Shuffles Ambassadors
g. Turkmenistan Appoints Ambassador to Baku to Improve Energy Ties
h. Turkmen President to Attend NATO Summit
i. U.S., Turkmenistan Mark World Tuberculosis Day

2. Domestic Developments
a. Officials Prosecuted for Gas Pipe Explosion in Ashgabat Killing 4 Children

3. Economic News
a. International Gas Exhibit Opens in Ashgabat