RFE/RL's Turkmen Service is the only international Turkmen-language media reporting independently on political, economic, cultural, and security issues from inside one of the the world’s most reclusive countries.
A 24-year-old gay man in Ashgabat spoke to RFE/RL about his struggles living in a country where homosexuality is a criminal offense and widely condemned by society.
Turkemnistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has a penchant for dramatic television events. On October 1, he fired his interior minister in a humiliating spectacle.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has fired Interior Minister Isgender Mulikov amid allegations of abuse of power and corruption.
Turkmenistan is facing a new wave of food shortages with customers registering for weeks in advance to receive subsidized flour and bread from state stores.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who has pledged political reforms, says the country's single-chamber parliament, the Mejlis, will merge with the People's Council and become a two-chamber institution.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has pardoned 868 prisoners as part of the country's Independence Day celebrations.
Turkmenistan's security services are busy recruiting informal spies among students and tasking them to report back about classmates who criticize the government or show interest in political debates.
In a country rife with corruption and often bizarre official events, the televised confession by Turkmenistan's trade minister did not seem out of place. He was one of several alleged criminals who offered a mea culpa in an apparent show of force by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
Turkmenistan's minister of trade and foreign economic ties, Amandurdy Ishanov, has been sentenced to an unspecified prison term on corruption charges just days after being dismissed from his post.
Police in Turkmenistan's eastern region of Lebap are detaining people who are standing in long lines at ATMs, desperately to try to get money amid cash shortages.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has given the opening speech at the Caspian Economic Forum in Turkmenistan -- his first public appearance since July 5 amid rumors that he had died or had slipped into a coma during hospital treatment.
As speculation swirls on about Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov's health, influencers in the tightly controlled country take to social media to urge people not to believe "false information."
Turkmenistan's state media portrays President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov as an animal lover. But stray dogs and cats in Ashgabat are being brutally killed by municipal workers.
Turkmen authorities have ordered state workers to spend their summer vacations in Avaza, a luxurious resort town along the Caspian coast where hotels remain largely empty due to exorbitant prices for rooms.
Turkmenistan has opened a major new gasoline refinery as the natural-gas-rich country struggles with major deficits of gasoline that have angered drivers for months.
Turkmenistan’s authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has appointed his son as governor of the south-central region of Ahal, state media report.
Sources close to the Turkmen government claim that nearly 1.9 million people have left the authoritarian country in the past decade amid increasing financial hardship and a lack of personal freedoms.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has pardoned 764 inmates on the occasion of a religious holiday, according to state media reports.
Turkmenistan's state-directed religious leaders are giving some less than holy advice to their followers.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov says that his country has become a wheat-exporting nation, according to state media, amid reports that the local population is facing severe food shortages.
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!["When the latest figures were presented to [President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov], he was hysterical," a source tells RFE/RL.](https://gdb.rferl.org/766cce12-c82a-41c4-af07-c2718e06def9_cx0_cy68_cw0_w100_r1.jpg)
!["When the latest figures were presented to [President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov], he was hysterical," a source tells RFE/RL.](https://gdb.rferl.org/766cce12-c82a-41c4-af07-c2718e06def9_cx0_cy68_cw0_w66_r1.jpg)
