All the equipment was imported into the country temporarily and should have been exported on completion of the construction work. It’s almost two years since the plant came into operation, but Turkmenistan is not allowing the Belarusians to take out their equipment, saying that Belgorhimprom has not met its contractual obligations.

“I repent of my actions, and swear that if I am released I will never break the law again.” All the prisoners in AH-K/6 strict regime camp in the southern city of Tejen have been told to write pretty much carbon copies of this letter.

Sources in the western cities of Balkanabat and Turkmenbashi told Alternative Turkmenistan News that police officers on security duty at the banks charge five manats to withdraw cash using a customer’s own card outside bank working hours.

Alternative Turkmenistan News (ATN)   Turkmenistan: Where has all the flour gone? Alternative Turkmenistan News, 13 February 2019 The regions of Turkmenistan are in the grip of yet another shortage of bread and flour. Although flour supplies to state shops are slightly higher than at the end of last year, the lines are just as long.…

A kilo of bran costs 1.8 to 2 manats, which makes 90 to 100 manats for a 50-kilo sack – twice as expensive as a sack of flour in the state shops. In these circumstances some opportunistic people have started using the cheaper flour from the shops as an additive to their feed.

According to the live flight tracker on the website Flightradar24, the Turkmenistan Airlines flight to Birmingham scheduled for 4 February has been cancelled. The airline provided competitively priced flights via Ashgabat to Delhi, Amritsar, Bangkok and Beijing.

Beyond the goods sold in their marketplaces, Walmart and Amazon should sign the Turkmen Cotton Pledge and investigate the supply chains of their own private label goods, which have been linked to cases of forced labor, human trafficking, and other forms of modern slavery.

This report looks in detail at the 2018 cotton harvest in Turkmenistan and sums up suggestions from farmers on how to end the problem of forced labor once and for all.

A rural development program has been in effect in Turkmenistan since 2007, receiving state investments worth $14 billion. But has the program really reached the villages? Our report from a village in the heart of rural Turkmenistan.