The negotiations with this institution of higher education are underway. According to a source in Ashgabat, ACCELS  is set to transfer all TASP students to Bulgaria by September 21. ACCELS is discouraging students from urging the authorities to issue permits for their studies in AUCA. There are reports from Bishkek that AUCA has reportedly signed sabbatical leave for the young people.

It appears that the US Embassy in Ashgabat managed to reach an agreement with the Turkmen authorities on the transfer of the AUCA students to a Bulgarian university. It remains unclear why it is worth while bargaining one trouble for another if both universities are private and funded by the US government? It is also not clear why the authorities of Turkmenistan are preventing our young people from studying at AUCA, if pursuant to a revised Constitution it is now permitted to set up private educational institutions in Turkmenistan.

However, in a interview with a correspondent of the Turkmen Service of Radio Liberty, Kh. Klychdurdyev, the Public Affairs Officer of the US Embassy in Ashgabat William Stevens said that “in the meantime they [the Embassy] are closely working with their Turkmen colleagues on a daily basis to resolve this issue”.

W. Stevens assured that they would make everything possible to allow the students to continue their education in AUCA. According to Mr. Stevens, a total of 60 students are recipients of the US federal government scholarship.

The diplomat also said that the representatives of the Embassy were not invited to attend the meeting with the parents of AUCA students, which was arranged by the Ministry of Education.

Meanwhile, the authorities of Turkmenistan are exerting pressure on the parents of AUCA students who were staying in Kyrgyzstan for the summer holidays and now do not want to return for fear that they will be barred from exiting the country. The parents are being threatened with dismissal or criminal prosecution. The authorities demand that their children return to Turkmenistan. Regrettably, the threats are being realized – we know the names of several people who have lost their jobs because their children decided not to come back and continue their studies in AUCA.

Bishkek is awaiting our students, too. On September 3 at 12:00 a.m., in the lobby of the main building the local young people are scheduled to launch a campaign “Let’s support Turkmen students!”. The organizers are calling on all AUCA students to bring posters, billboards and put them up across the university premises.

“Let us remind our Turkmen fellow students that we miss them and anxiously wait for them to come back!” -reads the announcement posted on the door of the main university entrance.

Everybody wants the Turkmen students to come back. Moreover, students themselves would like to resume their studies. Only the authorities of Turkmenistan are against this. During the latest Cabinet session which was held on August 25, the deputy head of the government Kh. Saparlyev briefed that “in the new academic year many more Turkmen students compared to the previous years will depart to study abroad to prestigious universities”. The official did not mention though that 150 Turkmen students will not depart to study in Kyrgyzstan and that AUCA is not quite such a prestigious university...