Human Rights Watch Testimony before the U.S. Council on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Every year since 1993, the U.S. State Department's Annual Report on Human Rights has began with the same sentence: " Turkmenistan, a one-party state dominated by its president and his closest advisers, made little progress in moving from a Soviet-era authoritarian style of government to a democratic system." Yet, despite the U.S. government's yearly acknowledgement of the Niyazov government's dismal human rights record, the U.S. continues to support the dictatorship in order to secure its participation in a Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. Indeed, this hearing comes at time when Turkmenistan has been in the news, not for its devolution into a North Korea-style dictatorship-for-life, but because it has challenged the terms of its participation in the gas pipeline. This singular pursuit of a pipeline has led to the unfortunate situation in which U.S. policy towards Turkmenistan since its independence has been driven energy interests to the detriment of all other goals, including the promotion of human rights and democracy. Yet anyone who follows developments in the country might easily have predicted that the government's utter disrespect for the rule of law has implications for international involvement in its energy sector, as well as for its political fate.
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Human Rights Watch Coverage of Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan Silences a Last Voice of Opposition
HRW Release January 7, 2000

2000 HRW World Report Chapter

1999 HRW World Report Chapter

1998 HRW World Report Chapter