TURKMENISTAN: TURKMENABAT CHRISTIAN CHURCH FACES

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