Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ASHGABAT421
2008-04-03 12:41:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Ashgabat
Cable title:  

TURKMENISTAN: TURKMENABAT CHRISTIAN CHURCH FACES

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KIRF TX 
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ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 031241Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0548
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000421 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL/IRF

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: TURKMENABAT CHRISTIAN CHURCH FACES
CULTURAL BIASES AFTER REGISTRATION

REF: 07 ASHGABAT 1040

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000421

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL/IRF

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: TURKMENABAT CHRISTIAN CHURCH FACES
CULTURAL BIASES AFTER REGISTRATION

REF: 07 ASHGABAT 1040


1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public internet.


2. (SBU) SUMMARY: Registration in 2007 appears to have
given a small minority Christian church in Turkmenabat some
taste of normalcy, but it appears that members of this church
will still face an uphill battle with cultural biases and
opposition from Muslim and Russian Orthodox elements.
Nonetheless, the congregation is growing, and its pastor is
prepared to fight to ensure the church's continued survival.
END SUMMARY.


3. (SBU) Poloff met with Source of Life Christian Church
Pastor Jabar Aliyev at his home in Turkmenabat March 31, to
see how conditions have changed since the church was
registered in September 2007 (reftel). Aliyev reported that
all things considered, his church is doing well, and
registration has given it some legitimacy in the eyes of
local officials. Although the church's registration
officially identifies only 10 members, roughly 200 people
regularly attend Sunday services. He said that number was
not surprising, since the church has been holding services
for about 10 years and has a good reputation among
non-Turkmen and ethnic Turkmen residents alike.


4. (SBU) Aliyev noted that his congregation continues to
expand with new members from a wide variety of ethnic
backgrounds, including Turkmen. By his description, the most
significant issues the church is coping with relate to
cultural biases that consider faiths other than Islam and
Russian Orthodoxy as unwelcome additions. Many Turkmen
consider these two faiths as legitimate based on their long
historical presence in Turkmenistan. By comparison, Turkmen
government officials at all levels are especially critical of
newly-introduced religions, particularly Christian ones, that
seek to convert historically Muslim ethnic Turkmen citizens,
and they use the levers of government to create barriers for
groups like Aliyev's.


5. (SBU) Aliyev provided some examples of this phenomenon.
The church has regular Sunday services at one regular
location, and for the most part, local officials do not
interfere because activities are easily monitored.
Additional prayer gatherings, however, occur on Wednesdays in

members' homes, particularly those of the sickor disabled,
who cannot attend on Sunday. Because the gatherings are in
different homes each week, local officials find it more
difficult to monitor the group's activities and interrupt
such gatherings when they learn of their locations.


6. (SBU) Members of Pastor Aliyev's church were ministering
to the elderly in a local rest home this past winter, as a
way to reach out to the community. When an Orthodox priest,
who also ministered to residents, discovered that Source of
Life church members were there, he warned the residents that
the church members were from a "crackpot sect" and should be
avoided. He may have also notified the religious affairs
department in the city mayor's office, who sent officials to
the church to tell them they could no longer assist at the
rest home. Aliyev noted also that when he subtly suggested
to department officials that his church was interested in
possibly ministering to local drug addicts, he was dissuaded
from doing so. He said, however, that his church will
continue to seek opportunities to help local addicts.


7. (SBU) Aliyev, a seemingly well-educated and well-spoken
young man, has been constructing a historically-sound
response to opponents of his church who claim that only Islam
and Russian Orthodoxy are true, "native" religions. He
pointed to a cemetery in the Balkan region that contains the
graves of Christian believers from the 10th and 11th

ASHGABAT 00000421 002 OF 002


centuries. He noted the existence of a wide variety of
historical data that confirms a significant Christian
presence in ancient Silk Road cities like Margiana, Merv, and
Nissa beginning in the 3rd century A.D. and indicated that
even Saint Thomas preached in some of these cities in his
travels eastward.


8. (SBU) The church would like to establish a more
permanent location that is large enough to handle the
congregation's growing size and is seeking to sign a
long-term rental contract with a theater in the city that has
been unoccupied for years. Local officials, particularly in
the religious affairs department of the city mayor's office,
are refusing to allow the church to rent the theater, and
have told the church it should continue to use cafs and
restaurants. Aliyev said it is difficult to get permission
to do anything from this department, because all the
personnel that occupy it are Muslim, and it is headed by a
"so-called imam." (NOTE: It is uncertain whether "imam" is
merely an unofficial title for the department head, or if he
is a trained Muslim imam. END NOTE.)


9. (SBU) Likewise, this department is preventing Aliyev's
church from acquiring any religious literature, books or
bibles from abroad. He indicated that if given the choice,
he'd much rather be able to acquire published materials than
print or disseminate anything locally, but the current law on
religion forbids the importation of religious material,
including bibles. He said he was envious that in Dushanbe,
Tajikistan, there is a store where anyone can buy bibles or
other Christian literature, and wondered aloud why the same
was not possible in Turkmenistan.


10. (SBU) COMMENT: Aliyev's church seems to be generally
prospering, in spite of continuing minor official
interference. The deep-seated cultural biases that persist
in this part of the world, however, may be a bigger challenge
to overcome in the longer term than government restrictions.
Given that the restrictions on the church's activities are
nourished by these biases, it will be a long road. But it is
a milestone on that road the church has officially been
registered. END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND