TURKMENISTAN: REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE ON BULGARIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 001079 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EUR/PPD E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/27/2019 TAGS: PREL SCUL SOCI TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE ON BULGARIAN VISA ISSUE REF: A. ASHGABAT 1070 ¶B. ASHGABAT 1049 ¶C. ASHGABAT 0938 Classified By: Charge Richard Miles for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) Action request. Please see para 5. ¶2. (C) Post has been working with the Department, ACCELS, American University in Central Asia (AUCA),and American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) to transfer the AUCA scholarship students, who have been blocked by the Turkmenistan government from studying at AUCA in Kyrgyzstan, to AUBG (reftels). We have the approval of EUR/ACE and SCA/PPD to get the students enrolled at AUBG this fall. Twice, Turkmenistan Ministry of Education officials have told us that they have no objection if the students transfer to AUBG. ¶3. (SBU) On Monday, August 31, AUBG plans on submitting information to the Bulgarian Ministry of Education. The Bulgarian Ministry of Education will need to approve the documents for all 58 students and produce enrollment certificates. Once the certificates are produced, they should be sent back here to the Embassy and used by ACCELS to get visas at the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow. ¶4. (SBU) The people at AUBG and ACCELS are experienced with the process, but we need Embassy Sofia's support to expedite the process with the Bulgarian Ministry of Education. According to AUBG, it can take as many as 30 days for the Bulgarian Ministry of Education to approve student documents and produce enrollment certificates. AUBG can only accept the Turkmen students for this semester, if they can start on September 7. Therefore, 30 days is too long. ¶5. (SBU) ACTION REQUESTED: We ask the Department to request Embassy Sofia's support with the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and other appropriate agencies of the Bulgarian government to expedite the visa process as described above. MILES