TURKMENISTAN: ARCHIVES RESTRICTED TO PROTECT

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 000132 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV SCUL SOCI TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: ARCHIVES RESTRICTED TO PROTECT "OFFICIAL" HISTORY ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Turkmenistan National Archives are closed to the general public, but annual issues of the Turkmenistan Archives journal give some highlights of the stored materials. Access to the material in the Archives is reportedly denied even to professional historians. In particular, the Turkmen Government appears to forbid the disclosure materials related to the Basmachi insurgencies and the Russian conquest that might belie its version of Turkmen national identity. END SUMMARY ¶3. (SBU) The National Archives of Turkmenistan consist of three levels: the National (Central) Archives, regional Archives in each province, and Department Archives. There is a separate Presidential Archive that contains material pertaining to Turkmenistan's presidents, which is run independently from the National Archives, according to a contact who is familiar with the Archives. The National Archives keep government documents of historical value, as well as company materials. The law requires companies to save personnel and other business documents for 75 years. Recent legislation also allows private citizens who work on projects of national significance, including geologists and linguists, to store their records in the National Archives. ¶4. (U) The National Archives publishes an annual journal. The 2009 issue focused on President Berdimuhamedov's family and his native village of Yzgant as it appeared in 1891, according to the state-run newspaper "Neutral Turkmenistan." It also included articles and materials about an expedition to the Khivan Khanate in the early 1900s and color photographs of the Transcaspian region 100 years ago. To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe, special editions of the journal will contain updated lists of Heroes of Soviet Union and winners of the Glory Order. These issues will also include material about people evacuated from war- torn areas of the Soviet Union to Turkmen cities. In addition to its print activities, the National Archives will organize traveling exhibits consisting of documents, photos, war-time propaganda posters, and soldiers' letters. ¶5. (SBU) According to our contact, in 1993 former President Niyazov ordered National Archives Director Maya Mollayeva to seal materials in the Archives pertaining to the Basmachi insurgency in the 1920s and 1930s and to the Russian conquest of Turkmenistan in the 19th century. Although Turkmenistan's legislation on Archives allows anyone access to its materials, in reality even historians cannot work there. Our local contact told us about an independent researcher who had access to the Archives in the early 1990s, but was later denied access. President Berdimuhamedov has not loosened any of his predecessor's restrictions. ¶6. (SBU) COMMENT: Niyazov used material from the Archives to support his ideology, and thus maintained tight control over access. It appears that Berdimuhamedov has taken the same approach, not wanting researchers to uncover findings that would contradict the official version of Turkmenistan's past. By contrast, during the era of perestroika in the late 1980s, Turkmenistan's Archives published material from 19th century police records that showed, for example, that Ashgabat was a multi-ethnic city. Soon after independence, the Turkmen Government stopped publishing this material, probably because it did not support the government's ideas about Turkmen national identity. END COMMENT. CURRAN