A group of young Turkmen returning home after graduating from Russian universities were met at the airport by law enforcement officers who immediately enlisted them into the army. The grads were not even allowed to greet their parents waiting at the airport, families said.
Thousands of Turkmen migrants have left Turkey or been deported in recent weeks amid Ankara’s renewed crackdown on foreign workers. The returnees return to widespread poverty and a lack of freedom, civil rights, and economic opportunities that caused them to leave Turkmenistan in the first place.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and five Central Asian nations' leaders have discussed cooperation and ties as Berlin looks to gain influence in the region that has been traditionally a sphere of dominance for Russia.
U.S. President Joe Biden emphasized the "territorial integrity" of five Central Asian nations Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan after meeting with the countries' leaders in New York late on September 19 amid the United Nations General Assembly