Taliban Holds Talks With Turkmen Officials In Ashgabat Amid Deteriorating Afghan Security rferl.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rferl.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
April 16, 2021
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The world is not short of European countries espousing commitments to ethical foreign policy and moral conscience. But many of these same countries’ engagement with Turkmenistan reveals such statements to be little more than a performative farce.
Unfortunately, governments escape accountability because of a general lack of interest among Western publics in the often-grim realities of life in Turkmenistan and because institutions like the mass media, which would normally demand answers, are failing to do so. This leaves the people of Turkmenistan doubly forgotten.
Across non-specialist Western media outlets, Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov is often characterized as a “wacky” dictator with a talent for staging bizarre photo-ops. Since 2016, the Turkmenistan section on The Guardian’s website has been littered with videos of the “gun-toting” president performing rap songs with his grandson, erecting golden statues of h