Turkmenization

Turkmenization is the set of domestic policies the Niyazov administration used in Turkmenistan from 1991 to December 2006 to force ethnic minorities to adopt Turkmen culture. Those who resisted the state-sponsored cultural transformation were often deported.

Antoine Blua of Radio Free Europe defined Turkmenization as the "policy of the Turkmen government targeting the education, employment, and religion of all of the country's non-Turkmen ethnic groups."

Shukrat Babajanov and Khurmat Babadjanov of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Uzbek Service say that since Turkmenistan gained independence, the Niyazov administration has fired most non-ethnic Turkmen civil servants. Officials must prove they have three generations of Turkmen heritage before they are hired. Informal social control is used to ensure citizens speak Turkmen and wear traditional Turkmen clothing. Uzbek women who try to marry Turkmen men are exiled to Uzbekistan with their children. Babajanov and Babadjanov say these policies have led to the emigration of Russians, Kazakhs, and Uzbeks.

In a few instances Uzbek children in Turkmen schools have been instructed to wear Turkmen clothing or be expelled from school.

Ziyoda Ruzimova, an ethnic Uzbek woman who lived in Turkmenistan, married an ethnic Turkmen in 1994 and had four children. In order to attend public school in Turkmenistan parents must register their child's birth with the government. Ruzimova did not register her marriage or her children's births at the time. When she tried to get a marriage license in February 2006, she says the government of Turkmenistan brought her and her children to the Shovat border post and turned her family over to Uzbek border guards. Ruzimova says her family had no money but the border guards gave her 1,000 soms (USD $0.85). "Then they called a taxi to take us [to my grandmother's home]." At the border the Uzbek guards kept her family on a grate where they slept. "For the children, they provided a piece of fabric; the children got a mattress, but I slept on the cement."

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Wikipedia