Reclusive Turkmenistan shows signs of cautiously opening up

Highlights:

• Turkmenistan is one of the world's least visited countries
• Capital city has been rebuilt in white marble off gas revenues
• New president took over in 2022, hints at political reform
• Society is changing as some internal controls are relaxed

From a brightly lit, open-plan office, Azat Seyitmuhammedov runs an e-commerce start-up, Wabrum, that he founded almost a decade ago.

In Berlin or San Francisco, this would be an everyday scene, but here in the capital of Turkmenistan, which is widely seen as one of the world's most isolated and secretive countries, his business appears pretty ground-breaking.

"This may sound normal in Europe or the United States, but for Turkmenistan this is new," said the 38-year-old father of six. "E-commerce here is still in its very early stages, and we consider ourselves pioneers."

His company is part of a flowering of savvy, well-connected private businesses in Turkmenistan, a largely desert country in Central Asia bordering Iran and Afghanistan.

From an on-site warehouse, Seyitmuhammedov's couriers fan out to customers across the former Soviet republic, delivering mostly Turkish-made clothes and shoes.

Granted rare access to Turkmenistan, Reuters was recently able to travel unescorted and to report freely on a country where technological innovations such as e-commerce are increasingly being embraced. In politics, meanwhile, President Serdar Berdymukhamedov and his circle keep tight control.

Independence and isolation

After independence from Moscow in 1991, President Saparmurat Niyazov - "Turkmenbashi" or head of the Turkmen - declared Turkmenistan "permanently neutral" and shut its doors to most visitors, adopting one of the world's strictest visa regimes. It remains largely in place two decades after Niyazov's death.

Turkmen officials frame their country's isolation as a response to its challenging geography, citing the need to protect it from Islamist militants and drug smuggling from neighbouring Afghanistan.

Under Niyazov, an elaborate cult of personality grew around the president, while the capital city, Ashgabat, was rebuilt as a marble showcase, funded by Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves, the world's fourth-largest. Under subsequent presidents, the system has largely remained unchanged.

But since 2022, when President Serdar Berdymukhamedov took over from his father, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, there have been signs of a modest thaw.

Turkmenistan, which state statistics say has about 7.7 million people, has said it wants to simplify its visa regime, join the World Trade Organization, and diversify the largely state-run economy.

The new president has strengthened Turkmenistan's diplomatic ties, travelling abroad more often than his predecessors did.

Some foreign diplomats in Ashgabat told Reuters there is a sense of change, albeit slow, driven by generational change inside the ruling elite.

One Western diplomat based in Turkmenistan said parts of the elite were interested in reforming the country, and that personal freedoms had modestly increased in recent years.

Even so, Turkmenistan remains difficult for foreign investors. It maintains both official and unofficial exchange rates for the dollar, while its politics remains opaque.

The international firms that do operate here are mostly Turkish. Linguistic affinity and a large diaspora in Turkey also mean that Turkish is widely spoken by younger Turkmens.

A changing society

But away from politics, Turkmen society is changing, nowhere faster than online, though the country has a relatively low rate of internet usage.

The internet in Turkmenistan is slow and heavily censored, which officials say is necessary to counteract militant Islamist ideas that have spread online in other Central Asian countries.

However, social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok, still blocked but accessible via VPNs, have gained popularity in recent years.

In Ashgabat's high-end shopping malls, teenagers record dance routines on their smartphones for TikTok, cheered on by friends in the red folk-inspired uniforms that female university students are required to wear.

Social media influencer Enejan Velmuradova took up Instagram in 2020 to promote her travel agency, arranging holidays for wealthier Turkmens in Europe and Southeast Asia.

In her spacious city-centre office, decorated with social media certificates and fridge magnets from across the world, Velmuradova said she was glad that her country was opening up.

"As a resident of Turkmenistan, I am also very happy that stereotypes are finally being broken, (the idea) that Turkmenistan is closed," she said.

At an Ashgabat sports school, Muhammet Bayramgulyyev teaches breakdancing to teenagers in his spare time.

Bayramgulyyev told Reuters that the street dance style, which emerged in New York, was a largely underground phenomenon in Turkmenistan in his youth.

"It was around the year 2000. Back then, we didn't have breakdancers. We only watched it on cassette tapes, on television — we saw how it was done and wanted to do it ourselves."

Now, he said, the classes he gives in a brand-new studio are oversubscribed and breakdancing has gone mainstream.

"We want our guys, our Turkmen athletes, to compete — for example, at Asian championships, world championships. And in the future, God willing, at the Olympics too," he said.