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.
Several major Russian television channels have been knocked off the air in Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan after international satellite providers cut the signals to abide by international sanctions imposed against Russia over its ongoing, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Beauty salons and women’s hairdressers in Turkmenistan have taken some of their businesses underground after authorities effectively outlawed certain beauty accessories and hairstyles. Defying the ban, many beauticians now offer the forbidden services behind closed doors or even in their homes.
Turkmen officials are visiting schools in the capital to investigate complaints that parents are being forced to pay for school renovations. The probes began after RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported on the long-standing practice of extortion in schools.
Dozens of couples have been arrested in Turkmenistan for holding hands in public, with police accusing them of breaching traditional norms. The arrests come as Ashgabat tightens control over the lives of women.
Turkmenistan is enforcing new restrictions on women, banning them from wearing certain cosmetics, riding in a car with men who are not relatives, or having plastic surgery. Many women have lost their jobs or paid fines after breaking the new rules, which some believe could lead to public protests.
Rahim Esenov, one of the most well-known Turkmen writers who openly refused to follow the orders of the Central Asian nation's authoritarian leadership, has died in Ashgabat at the age of 95.
Consumers in Turkmenistan may pay a lot more than money for their daily bread after officials warned that anyone found buying more than their allotted share of the staple could be jailed.
Authorities in Turkmenistan are forcing private taxi drivers to have a portrait of recently elected President Serdar Berdymukhammedov in the windshields of their vehicles.
Serdar Berdymukhammedov, son of long-standing autocratic Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, has taken office as president.
Serdar Berdymukhammedov, the son of autocratic incumbent Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, has easily won a weekend presidential election in Turkmenistan, a result widely viewed as a formality to the transfer of political power within the family.
Turkmenistan held a snap presidential election on March 12 that is widely viewed as a formality to transfer political power from autocratic incumbent Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to his son, Serdar.
Turkmen public-sector workers and their families in a southeastern district have been ordered to participate in early presidential voting and cast their ballots for the son of the current president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
Election officials in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan have announced that the registration of candidates for an early presidential election on March 12 has ended.
Election officials in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan have registered three more presidential candidates known as being loyal to authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
Election officials in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan have registered two more presidential candidates known as being loyal to the authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
There is little enthusiasm among ordinary Turkmen about the March 12 presidential election, which is seen as a mere formality for authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to hand the presidency to his son, Serdar.
The son of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has been nominated as a presidential candidate hours after the Central Election Commission launched the first stage of the country's campaign in an early presidential election.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov told an extraordinary meeting of the upper chamber of parliament that he intends to step aside so that power can be turned over to “young leaders” amid speculation he is preparing to hand the reins of the Central Asian nation to his son.
Authorities in Turkmenistan's capital, Ashgabat, have started hiring children to help rid the city's streets of stray cats and dogs ahead of the early session of the parliament's upper chamber.
Dozens of people have blocked a major highway in the Turkmen province of Mary after police tried to dismantle a makeshift bazaar, a rare protest in the tightly-controlled Central Asian country.
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