TURKMENISTAN: Literature import controls lifted for Orthodox – but not for others

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has noted that Turkmen government controls on importing religious material for use in their parishes in Turkmenistan have been lifted, yet confiscation of religious literature from residents returning to the country continues, members of a variety of faiths told Forum 18 News Service. Although isolated instances of confiscations of such literature on leaving Turkmenistan have also occurred earlier, this has stepped up in recent months. Patriarch Kirill also said discussions with the Foreign Ministry are underway over building a new Orthodox cathedral in Ashgabad. Planned in the 1990s, it was never built and the site was later used for another building. Bayram Samuradov, chief architect of Ashgabad, told Forum 18 that a provisional new site has been earmarked for the cathedral. “It is more beautiful and appropriate than the old site, and is located in an area with a large European population,” he told Forum 18. He refused to discuss why other faiths cannot build places of worship in Ashgabad. “That’s not a question for me.”

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has noted that Turkmen government controls on importing religious material for use in the dozen Russian Orthodox parishes in Turkmenistan have been lifted. “Until recently, a major problem was the import into the country of church articles and religious literature,” he told the Archbishops’ Council in Moscow on 2 February in a speech published in full on the Patriarchate website. “However, with the help of the Lord, this problem has at present been resolved positively.” Members of many other religious communities have complained to Forum 18 News Service of continuing confiscations of religious literature both inside the country and from travellers entering or leaving Turkmenistan.

Religious literature is still routinely confiscated at the border. Tight control of the country’s borders includes frequent, often thorough searches for religious literature (see F18 religious freedom survey of Turkmenistan http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1512).

Any traveller with more than a handful of books is almost certain to have them confiscated, religious believers from Turkmenistan of a variety of faiths have told Forum 18 in early 2011. No more then one copy of any one title is likely to be allowed through, as officials believe any extra copies are for distribution, which is illegal.

Nearly a dozen people Forum 18 has spoken to between November 2010 and the end of February 2011 who passed through Ashgabad [Ashgabat] airport – both Turkmen residents and foreign visitors, even those invited by the Turkmen government – have said that almost the first question customs officers ask is whether they have religious literature with them.

Searches and confiscations are conducted by border guards, customs officers and officers of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) secret police. “It’s difficult to say which officer is from which agency,” one individual who has had religious literature confiscated told Forum 18.

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