TURKMENISTAN: GERMAN AID ORGANIZATION SUCCEEDING

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 001338 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN; DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/08/2018 TAGS: PGOV PHUM EAID KDEM TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: GERMAN AID ORGANIZATION SUCCEEDING WITH LEGAL REFORM TRAINING Classified By: Charge Sylvia Reed Curran for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The German Technical Cooperation Organization GTZ is continuing to conduct conferences and seminars on legal reform issues in Turkmenistan, but is not currently working with the government on revision of criminal and civil codes, although it had proposed that project as an area for cooperation. GTZ's seminars and other legal programs are well-attended by Turkmen government officials, even programs that are conducted elsewhere in the region. The program where GTZ sent Turkmen city and regional judges to Kazakhstan to learn about their neighbors' experience with judicial reform was a great success. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) On October 8, poloff met with GTZ administration head Svetlana Bairamova and project coordinator Alex Jumayev to learn more about the organization's work on legal reform, and in particular, the recent seminar that took a group of ten city and provincial judges to Kazakhstan. The group had the opportunity to meet with judges in Kazakhstan's Supreme Court, as well as city and regional judges, Bairamova said. The Turkmen delegation especially appreciated learning more about the problems and issues surrounding broad judicial reform from a neighboring state with a similar history. Bairamoa said that while GTZ did not select the Turkmen participants, they were all fully engaged in what she described as "an intense, packed program" of activities. GTZ has learned that the participants all gave very positive reports to senior Turkmen officials, and Bairamova was confident that their partnering entity, the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, would support a similar seminar sometime in the future. ¶3. (C) The seminar was one of a series of events that GTZ has been conducting this year since its legal and judicial reform project got underway in Turkmenistan. Jumayev noted that while Turkmen officials have not taken up GTZ's previous offer to assist in redrafting several pieces of criminal and civil legislation, they have been much more enthusiastic about the conferences and seminars on legal and judicial reform that GTZ has been organizing. Over the summer, GTZ succeeded in sending a group of lawyers from Ashgabat and Balkanabat to a "lawyer summer school" program in Tashkent, Jumayev said. Senior government officials were also pleased with an international law conference that GTZ sponsored several months ago that drew the participation of 220 Turkmen officials and several international experts. The MFA permitted some of the students currently enrolled in the MFA's international affairs academy to attend the conference, Jumayev said. ¶4. (C) COMMENT: The government of Turkmenistan appears to be enthusiastic about the conferences and training that GTZ has been organizing in the sphere of legal and judicial reform, and it is particularly noteworthy that a variety of legal and judicial professionals are attending the programs, including those held elsewhere in the region. It is no doubt useful for the Turkmen to learn from the experiences of other countries in Central Asia. END COMMENT. CURRAN