TURKMENISTAN'S MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS ASKS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 000950

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN (PERRY)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/08/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN'S MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS ASKS
FOR "UNDERSTANDING" ON JACKSON-VANIK

REF: A. ASHGABAT 947


B. ASHGABAT 884

C. ASHGABAT 942

D. ASHGABAT 912

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Jennifer L. Brush for reasons 1.
4 (B) and (D).

Summary
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1. (C) After almost a month's wait, Turkmenistan's Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Rashit Meredov, met with Charge and told
her there was no such thing as a "black list" of citizens not
allowed to travel out of the country. Instead, he said,
there were a number of people "temporarily prevented" from
leaving, based on sound legal cause. Meredov called the
three specific cases Charge raised "artificial." Charge said
she doubted any of these arguments would be well-received in
Washington and that the government needed to do more to
address transparency of the "list" or "temporary prevention"
cases or whatever Meredov wanted to call it. In response to
Meredov's saying he probably would go to New York for the
UNGA and that he would agree to meet with SCA Assistant
Secretary Boucher, Charge said we needed to know Meredov's

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plans ASAP in order to request the meeting. Charge urged
Meredov to be more forthcoming both on transparency and
resolution of individual cases, and said that Assistant
Secretary Boucher likely would raise Jackson-Vanik with the

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minister in New York. Meredov absolutely refused to discuss
the Maral Yklymova case and scolded Charge for raising it,
saying "You know how sensitive that case is and you know we
will never change our position." As Charge was leaving the
office, Meredov said, "Not extending the Jackson-Vanik waiver
would be a very serious blow to our relations; we need to
find a solution." Charge agreed. End Summary.

Is It Too Cold in Here?
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2. (C) As outlined Ref A, Charge pulled aside Foreign
Minister Meredov at the Tajikistan National Day celebration
on September 7, to say she had recommended to the Department
to consider not extending the Jackson-Vanik waiver because
the government had failed to address making criteria for
inclusion and removal of one's name from the travel-abroad
"black list" more transparent, had made no progress on
resolving individual cases and even had refused to engage
with the USG on this issue, beginning with the minister's
refusal to meet with visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary Mann
(Ref B) during the latter's August 14-15 visit to Ashgabat.
Meredov ticked off all the various delegations that had
visited Ashgabat during August and September, and then agreed
to meet Charge the next morning.


3. (C) Greeting Charge in his office on September 8, Meredov
squinted at the air conditioner, saying "Is it too cold in
here for you?" Charge responded that she certainly had been
feeling a chill in the bilateral relations, and said she
found it incomprehensible that the minister had not met with
Mann, that he had not responded to three weeks of requests
for a meeting, and that he even had failed to meet with the
P-3 (United States, UK and France) to receive the Central
Asian Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone demarche (Ref C). Meredov
added the host of Ruhnama anniversary occasions he had to
attend to the list of visiting delegations and noted he had
not seen the Charge at the openings for the Armenian or Hindi
translations of Ruhnamas I and II (the French and Malay
translations are being launched September 8-9). After
listening to almost 30 minutes of Meredov trying to convince
her of the Ruhnama's claims that both sheep and ceramics had
originated in pre-historic Turkmenistan (in addition to dogs,
horses and wheat),Charge said that, though Turkmenistan's
history truly was fascinating, as an American, she was more
oriented toward the future, and that a continued lack of
freedom of movement in modern Turkmenistan currently was
under review in Washington.

Respect Our Laws
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4. (C) In response to Charge's comment that the MFA's
diplomatic note claiming there was no "black list" preventing
people from traveling from Turkmenistan only made matters
worse, Meredov launched a legal defense of the claim, saying
there was no "list," but there were people who according to

Turkmenistan law were "temporarily prevented" from leaving
the country. Meredov insisted similar procedures existed all
over the world, and said he was "offended" by USG insistence
that a list existed. "Look what just happened in London,"
Meredov said, "you don't think the police should have
prevented those terrorists from boarding the flight?" Charge
replied that she had seen the list with her own eyes and that
the individual cases embassy had raised -- a local civil
society representative going to Moscow for training, an
embassy local employee going to a State Department course in
Vienna, and a university student returning to her studies in
China -- had no intention of blowing up a plane. Meredov
insisted these three cases were "artificial" and said that
Charge did not have the whole story; all of these people were
denied travel for good reason.


5. (C) When Charge asked about procedures for getting one's
name removed from the list or for clearing one's name,
Meredov said he did not know. After Charge asked if there
was any place for an average citizen to go find out whether
his/her name was on the list, Meredov said, "don't be
ridiculous; everyone can travel if he/she is innocent; of
course there is no place to check."

Meeting at UNGA?
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6. (C) After the third iteration of the "legal basis" for
"temporary prevention," Charge told Meredov this simply was
not a convincing enough argument for the Department to extend
the waiver. She said that Meredov could have an opportunity
to explain Turkmenistan's position in New York if Meredov was
attending the UN General Assembly, and said that the embassy
had recommended that Assistant Secretary Boucher meet with
him there. Meredov said he "probably" would attend, but that
the decision was not final. Charge urged Meredov to provide
his travel details early next week, as Assistant Secretary
Boucher's schedule already was quite full.

Yklymova
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7. (C) Charge suggested that letting a high-profile case
like Maral Yklymova (Ref D) go would be useful for
Turkmenistan, and that keeping her indefinitely under house
arrest achieved no purpose. Visibly angry, Meredov scolded
Charge, saying "You know how sensitive that case is; we will
never change our position on that."

Serious Blow
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8. (C) As Charge was leaving, Meredov said, "You know, if
you don't extend the waiver, this would be a serious blow to
our relations." Charge agreed, saying this would be
unfortunate, but that Meredov's legal defense was not enough
to justify extension of the waiver. She urged him both to
consider addressing the transparency of the criteria and
procedures for entry to/removal from the list, and resolution
of individual cases. Meredov said that both sides needed to
think hard about Jackson-Vanik and "solve it."

Comment
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9. (C) This meeting was a disappointment. Still, given the
risk to all of our programs here should we decide not to
extend the waiver, embassy recommends giving Meredov a couple
more weeks to address transparency and reconsider the
individual cases the embassy has raised. End Comment.
BRUSH