All women returning from Turkey to Turkmenistan are interrogated and searched upon arrival at Ashgabat airport. Women who hold Turkish residence permits and those wearing hijabs are given special attention.
“At passport control, the immigration officer asked me to provide all documents that proved my right to live in Turkey,” a Turkmen woman told ATN on January 24. “I gave him my Turkmen passport, which expires in 2022, and the ikamet (Turkish residence permit). He immediately asked if I was married to a Turk, what was his occupation, why I wear a hijab, how often I pray, if I go to mosque, if my husband visits it often, and for how long had I been religious.”
She and other women from the same flight and with similar stories were kept until the morning in a separate room, although the plane had landed in Ashgabat at night.
Other sources confirmed that all women from flights originating from Turkey, especially women in hijabs, were asked to wait until being called, one by one, to a separate room for an interrogation.
“If you were holding a phone in your hands, they would take it and check its contents. They check photos, videos and the social media profiles on each phone. People usually save their passwords for social media apps, so it is not hard for the secret service to check one’s activity on Odnoklassniki or Facebook,” the source said.
A female university student from Turkmenistan studying in Ankara noted that those carrying out the checks were secret service officers, not the usual customs or immigration officers. She recognized one of them at the airport who was her friend.
This strict protocol was imposed for female students, women married to Turkish citizens, even if they had no problems with the Turkish authorities and all their documents and permits were in order. Passengers who possessed work permits in Turkey and were returning home for a visit also experienced similar checks.
“It was humiliating. We were treated like criminals. Eventually, they stamped my passport and let me through, but I had lost the desire to stay longer in Turkmenistan and returned to my husband and children already after a week,” the source said.
The women who went through these checks advised those flying into Ashgabat to be ready for strict controls. Importantly, they advised to remove all photos and videos from their phones and log out of any social media app. Once at the checks, one could say she forgot the password. Alternatively, one may simply put the phone in the luggage.
Turkmen women use closed social media groups to find out about the country’s entry and exit regulations, as well as the controls that people have to undergo, and questions regarding the amounts of money one can bring into Turkmenistan or take outside. Those who have experienced strict controls and interrogations question if it is worth traveling to Turkmenistan.
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