In a move that defies logic, EU foreign ministers this week scrapped the EU's one remaining sanction against Uzbekistan – a purely symbolic embargo on arms sales – despite Tashkent's defiance of the human-rights criteria the EU had set for its lifting.
Too often, the nightmare in the central Asian state of Turkmenistan is treated as though it were comedy. The antics of the country's autocratic leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, are certainly bizarre: he changed the names of the months in honour of members of his own family, and he had a gold statue of himself put on top of a building in his capital - a statue that revolves so it always faces the sun.
For years, it has been pretty hard to find anyone with anything nice to say about Turkmenistan's leadership. A widespread consensus developed that the country's leader, president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov - who styles himself 'Turkmenbashi', or father of all Turkmen - is an autocratic ruler, wrecking his country and oppressing his people.
In a move that defies logic, EU foreign ministers this week scrapped the EU's one remaining sanction against Uzbekistan – a purely symbolic embargo on arms sales – despite Tashkent's defiance of the human-rights criteria the EU had set for its lifting.
The EU has just sent a clear message to Turkmenistan: human rights do not feature in our relationship.
Too often, the nightmare in the central Asian state of Turkmenistan is treated as though it were comedy. The antics of the country's autocratic leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, are certainly bizarre: he changed the names of the months in honour of members of his own family, and he had a gold statue of himself put on top of a building in his capital - a statue that revolves so it always faces the sun.
For years, it has been pretty hard to find anyone with anything nice to say about Turkmenistan's leadership. A widespread consensus developed that the country's leader, president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov - who styles himself 'Turkmenbashi', or father of all Turkmen - is an autocratic ruler, wrecking his country and oppressing his people.