TURKMENISTAN: SAUDI AMBASSADOR SAYS OVER 1,000

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 000651 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL/IRF E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/20/2018 TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF TU SA TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: SAUDI AMBASSADOR SAYS OVER 1,000 TURKMEN PERFORMED HAJJ REF: ASHGABAT 0171 Classified By: CDA RICHARD E. HOAGLAND: 1.4 (B),(D). ¶1. (C) On May 19, Saudi Arabian Ambassador Abdel Aziz Al-Ghadeer told Charge that in 2007 1,100 Turkmen had received special Saudi hajj visas, in addition to the planeload of 188 pilgrims officially sponsored and funded by Turkmenistan's government (reftel). The ambassador somewhat reluctantly confirmed these numbers, and requested that Post not make this information public. ¶2. (C) Ambassador Al-Ghadeer said a Turkish travel agency had helped the visa recipients, who paid for their own pilgrimage travel, to arrange flights through Istanbul to Jedda, then on to Mecca. He implied his embassy had coordinated this effort, but he declined to elaborate the details. He did note, however, that he expects Turkmenistan's government to fund three planeloads of pilgrims for the next hajj. ¶3. (C) COMMENT: Post reported reftel that some Turkish businessmen resident in Turkmenistan had facilitated self-financed hajj trips of Turkmen Muslims in the past. We suspect the Saudis collaborated with the Turks to achieve the substantially larger number of Turkmen pilgrims who performed the most recent hajj. Because Turkmen do not need visas to travel to Turkey, a number of the Turkmen pilgrims might have receivd their Saudi visas in Istanbul. We suspect the Saudi Ambassador has been deploying "quiet diplomacy" to help the Turmen authorities feel more comfortable with the large numbers of Turkmen travelling to Mecca to perform the hajj. END COMMENT. HOAGLAND