In March 2023, Yilmaz Ozkan saw his wife, Maysa, off at the airport in Istanbul as she made a trip to her homeland, Turkmenistan, to renew her international passport.
But Maysa has not been able to return to their home in Turkey since then, despite Turkey's embassy in Ashgabat issuing her a family visa.
And the couple has now learned that she may not be able to leave Turkmenistan until 2028 at the earliest, thanks to a five-year travel ban slapped on her by Turkmen authorities without any explanation.
With few other avenues of recourse, Yilmaz last year penned an appeal to the strongly authoritarian country's president, Serdar Berdymukhammedov.
"You are the leader of a great country like Turkmenistan. We are ordinary citizens. You need to unite those who love each other. I ask the president of Turkmenistan to let my wife return to me," read the appeal, which he says has received no official response.
He is not alone.
Yilmaz, who spoke to RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, is one of nearly 60 members of a WhatsApp group consisting of Turkish men with Turkmen spouses who have been effectively trapped after making visits to the Central Asian country.
Gas-rich Turkmenistan appears embarrassed by the mass exodus of its citizens to Turkey, a trend that has highlighted a lack of opportunities in a badly mismanaged economy while contributing to what officials have privately admitted is a rapidly falling in-country population.
In 2022, Ankara revoked visa-free travel for Turkmen citizens at the Ashgabat's request, and delays on Turkmen passport renewals have become systemic in recent years.
Turkmenistan's diplomatic missions have also ceased to renew expired passports or replace lost ones for its citizens living abroad, with temporary travel documents phased out at the end of last year.
The treatment of Turkmen women married to foreigners is the latest example of how far it seems Ashgabat will go to keep citizens grounded in their home country.
Last year, Turkmen.News, a Europe-based dissident-run outlet covering Turkmenistan, reported that authorities were "removing passengers from flights en masse," in an apparent response to Turkey relaxing some of its migration rules.
According to data released by Turkey's Migration Service in December 2024, there are 205,369 Turkmen citizens officially residing in Turkey, although the real number may be higher.
Turkish Husbands 'Fall Into A Void'
Rustem Arslan, another member of the WhatsApp group, has also launched appeals to the Turkish and Turkmen governments in order to be reunited with his wife, Dilfuza.
Turkey initially deported Dilfuza in 2023 over migration violations and banned her from reentering the country until 2026.
Yet Turkish officials have since told Rustem that she will be able to return to the country so long as Turkmen authorities allowed her to leave.
That hasn't happened, and Turkey's Foreign Ministry now says that it considers Dilfuza's case "an internal matter of Turkmenistan," Rustem told RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, noting that staff at Turkmenistan's consulate in Istanbul did not even allow him inside the building.
"When a person is separated from their loved one, they fall into a void. You wake up in the morning and have no appetite for breakfast. You can't eat dinner. On top of that, I have a business to run. Even when I feel sick, when I'm in pain, I have to get up and open my shop because I'm alone," Rustem said of the wife he only recently married.
'Arbitrary Interference' With Freedom Of Movement
Turkmen were strongly critical of the inactivity of their country's diplomatic mission and lack of consular services in Turkey during the pandemic period, with a small group of nationals staging regular protests outside the Turkmen consulate in Istanbul.
The passports issue was one of the many reasons for the protests.
In a November report, the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (THF) and Human Rights Watch said that "Turkmen authorities' refusal to renew passports of their citizens interfered with migrants' ability to obtain legal status in host countries," and represented "an arbitrary interference with their right to freedom of movement."
The protests faded after demonstrators were attacked on the grounds of the consulate, with the victims of the attack identifying one of the attackers as a consulate employee.
The demonstrations seemed to spook authorities in Turkmenistan, where civil society barely exists and information is tightly controlled.
A number of the activists were later detained and threatened with deportation by Turkish law enforcement, moves that they told RFE/RL were likely requested by Ashgabat.
In 2023, Turkmenistan announced that its population had risen above 7 million. But dropping birthrates and a more than decadelong economic crisis have called that claim into question.
Speaking to RFE/RL anonymously in 2021 after a preliminary survey of the population, Turkmen officials suggested that the number of people permanently residing in the country amounted to around 2.8 million.
