OSI Forum: Prospects for Civil Society in Post-Niyazov Turkmenistan

Location: OSI-Washington, DC
Event Date(s): February 8, 2007

The Open Society Institute's Turkmenistan Project, a division of the Central Eurasia Project, sponsored a discussion on prospects for civil society in post-Niyazov Turkmenistan with Farid Tuhbatullin, director of the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights. Erika Dailey, director of the Turkmenistan Project, served as discussant.

Farid Tuhbatullin is a former political prisoner and currently the Director of the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, based in Vienna. An environmentalist and civic leader from Dashoguz, he was arrested in December 2002 on politically motivated charges and sentenced in an unfair trial to 3 years of imprisonment in Turkmenistan's notorious gulag, but was amnestied under international pressure in 2003. He is now a political refugee in Austria, where he has become one of the leading voices for human rights in Turkmenistan.

The Open Forum speaker series aims to enhance policy debate on key issues facing Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and the Middle East, and to raise public awareness of important developments in these regions. Monthly Open Forum events are held in New York and Washington, DC, and are attended by leading policymakers, scholars, NGO staff, and journalists. All events are free of charge.