On Tuesday several AUCA students were again barred from boarding the plane departing to Alma-Ata in Ashgabat airport. The students were stopped at the passport control on the grounds that   they were restricted to travel. The border personnel warned the students to not make any attempts to exit the country as their personal data are stored everywhere and they will not manage to cross the border!

Objections, arguments, tears and intimidation did not work– they were not allowed to leave the country. Several young people tried to use other types of visa than student visas to leave the country, but neither the dual Russian-Turkmen citizenship, nor tourist visas and private invitations were of any help. According to a support staff member from the airport, the atmosphere in the international departure lounge on that day was worse than in the provincial bazaar.

According to one of the students, a student holding dual Russian-Turkmen citizenship, tried to renounce his Turkmen citizenship 2 weeks prior departure, which would allow him to leave the country unhampered. He was told that then his relatives would also have to renounce their Turkmen citizenship. Otherwise he would not be allowed to travel alone.

Another student of Azerbaijan ethnicity was prevented from boarding a ferry departing from Krasnovodsk to Baku.

According to an AUCA student, they were repeatedly summoned to the velayat departments of the Interior Ministry and received numerous calls from the house administration, the velayat offices of the Education Board or police departments.   

“We are summoned to the office of the National Security Ministry several times a day, - he says, - we are requested to provide information about the University, what subjects we are studying, who we communicate with in Bishkek. They want to know our residence addresses, where our parents work, their job titles and their work telephone numbers”.

“We are stuck here for a long time, if not forever», - said one of the students and also added that they are no longer expecting the assistance of the American government, under the auspices of which AUCA operates or international organizations such as UN, OSCE or others.

“What have we done against our home country if it is treating us as traitors of the motherland?!, ask the young girls and boys, - Indeed, the criminals and traitors to the motherland  usually make blacklists of those restricted from travelling abroad. We are simply studying outside our country”.

An observer from the US, who is keeping a close watch on the current situation in Turkmenistan, fully supports our students.

“The authorities of Turkmenistan have got rid of the most promising and best children. This demonstrates a thoughtless approach it is a huge loss for the country and its people”, - he said.