Food is currently in short supply in Turkmenistan. Now the biggest protests of recent years are taking place – not far from the President’s Hotel.
Ashgabat – What are believed to be the largest protests in recent history have taken place in Turkmenistan. On Monday (August 7), in the western city of Turkmenbashi, mostly women protested against the country’s food shortages, according to the Eastern European broadcaster Radio Free Europe (RFE) reported.
According to the unconfirmed information, several hundred people are said to have taken to the streets. Large-scale protests rarely occur in the authoritarian country. The country’s government is one of the “most repressive and secretive in the world,” according to Human Rights Watch. Conversely, protests are almost impossible.
Summer vacation: protest in Turkmenistan just 15 kilometers from the President’s hotel
The city’s mayor, A Mangeldy Isaev, only responded to the protest when the protesters threatened to march to the Avaza resort. The President, Serdar Berdimuhamedow, is currently on vacation in the hotel complex, about 15 kilometers away RFE reported. Isaev appeared at the protest and promised the crowd that there would be replenishments of food in the coming weeks.
As early as June there was said to have been an attack on a state-run grocery store in the city. The trigger is said to have been a lack of flour delivery, which should have been delivered in February RFE. The shortage of subsidized food in Turkmenistan has been increasing since 2016, as Human Rights Watch writes.
Turkmenistan suffers: Subsidized food has been in short supply for some time
A two-tier food supply system exists in the country. Government-subsidized groceries can be purchased at government-run stores for a fraction of actual market value. There are also private shops where groceries are sold at market prices, such as Human Rigths Watch reported.
However, the subsidized food has long been in short supply. A sufferer from south-eastern Mary province tells Opposite RFEthat the residents of the village have had to do without their 5-kilogram monthly rations of subsidized flour since spring.
The government of the authoritarian state has so far not commented on the allegations or the existence of the food shortage. (Lucas Maier)
Last guessed Turkmenistan on charges of forced labor in cotton fields in the headlines.
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