Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ASHGABAT507
2008-04-23 12:47:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ashgabat
Cable title:  

TURKMENISTAN: RFE REPORTER GYLYCHDURDIYEV'S

Tags:  PGOV PHUM TX 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000507 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN; DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/23/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: RFE REPORTER GYLYCHDURDIYEV'S
TEN-YEAR OLD BEEF WITH GOVERNMENT PROBABLE CAUSE OF
HARASSMENT

REF: ASHGABAT 0501

Classified By: Charge Sylvia R. Curran for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000507

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN; DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/23/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: RFE REPORTER GYLYCHDURDIYEV'S
TEN-YEAR OLD BEEF WITH GOVERNMENT PROBABLE CAUSE OF
HARASSMENT

REF: ASHGABAT 0501

Classified By: Charge Sylvia R. Curran for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Although Halmurat Gylychdurdiyev is a
longtime reporter for RFE/RL, he also has a more than ten
year-old bone to pick with Turkmenistan's government. His
ongoing fight over a financial dispute in the 1990s is a
contributing factor why authorities put pressure on him and
his family (reftel). At a time when the authorities are
warily viewing signs of popular discontent to new economic
reforms, their long history with Gylychdurdiyev and his
deliberate defiance stand as red flags. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) RFE/RL reporter Halmurat Gylychdurdiyev recently
shared with PolOff his personal reasons for wanting to
challenge the Turkmen government through his critical
reporting that has long been a staple on Radio Azatlyk, the
Turkmen-language broadcast that RFE transmits into the
region. Gylychdurdiyev, now in his late 60's, was born and
raised here and was a respected director of documentary films
during the Soviet period. In the late 1990s, he had finished
shooting material for a new documentary on Turkmenistan, and
needed to send the film to Moscow to be developed.
Turkmenistan had no film development laboratory of its own.

AN UNCOMPLETED TRANSACTION LEADS TO FORECLOSURE


3. (C) Gylychdurdiyev needed to send the film to Moscow
quickly, along with payment worth about $6,500 for the work,
and turned to a local bank to assist with conversion of this
money to rubles that would be wired to a bank in Moscow.
Somehow, the payment was never made, and the Turkmen bank was
unable to return Gylychdurdiyev's money to him. The loss of
the money invested in the documentary led to the closure of
the small filmmaking enterprise he and some partners had
established after Turkmenistan's independence. When he could
get no satisfaction from bank officials regarding the
whereabouts of his money, he sent letters to the Procurator
General's office. Officials there said they would send his
case to the Supreme Court for review, but later the court
told Gylychdurdiyev it had no information on his case and
could not address it. Representatives of the Supreme Court
and of the Procurator General's office were unsympathetic to
his persistent requests for assistance, and told him he would
need to spend 20 million manat in order to pursue his
complaint. The case has never been addressed in court.


4. (C) His film, which remained in Ashgabat, went
undeveloped for too long, and was permanently ruined. Even
today, Gylychdurdiyev continues to harbor a desire to sue the
Cabinet of Ministers for the role they played in causing the
bureaucratic tangle that led to the loss of his film and his
money.

...AND TO A PERMANENT GRUDGE


5. (C) Gylychdurdiyev said this experience demonstrated to
him that this is not an honorable or functional government
that would ever serve its people. He felt that it would only
do things that would directly benefit those who served within
it. Citing as an example of what he opposes, Gylychdurdiyev
noted that in April 2007, just two months after entering
office, President Berdimuhamedov bestowed on himself the
"Watan" medal. The award comes with a $20,000 check and
confers the title of "Doctor of Sciences" upon the recipient.
Gylychdurdiyev questioned why the president would confer the
national award on himself, denying it to some more deserving
recipient who could use the money. This, he said, was an
example of a leader taking care of himself first.

...WHICH BECOMES A LONG-RUNNING "WAR"


6. (C) Gylychdurdiyev told us that it was not long after

ASHGABAT 00000507 002 OF 002


his financial loss that he turned to reporting for RFE/RL as
a way to put the heat on a government he neither trusts nor
respects. Over the years, both he and the authorities who
harass him and his family have become entrenched in what he
calls a war, and his critical economic reporting provides
constant fuel for the fire. Both sides appear to be bent on
making life difficult for the other.


7. (C) COMMENT: Government authorities do not harass
Gylychdurdiyev simply because he is an independent reporter.
They harass him because he has a history of challenging
authority, and they view him as a constant irritant. At a
time when the authorities are warily viewing signs of popular
discontent to new economic reforms, their long history with
Gylychdurdiyev and his deliberate defiance stand as red
flags. END COMMENT.
CURRAN