On April 10, 2023, we reported that a 73-year-old citizen of Turkmenistan, Yakutjan Babajanova, was not allowed to leave Turkmenistan as part of a group of pilgrims to perform the small Umra Hajj.

Then the Turkmen authorities promised to send her on April 23.

“Representatives of the travel agency warned my mother to be ready by April 22. As it turned out, they twice applied to the migration service for permission to leave. But the second time they were told: “If you come again on her question, we will destroy you,” Babajanova's daughter, Hamida, told the human rights activists.

The travel agency returned part of the money to her mother, subtracting the amounts spent on the trip to Ashgabat, hotel expenses, etc.

Recall that earlier Hamida expressed fears that her mother was denied freedom of movement because of her critical statements, as she has been speaking on various Internet platforms for several years expressing her own opinion about the regime of the first President S. Niyazov and the Berdimuhamedovs regime.

Turkmenistan continues the practice of persecution of citizens on the basis of kinship. The persecution of those citizens whose relatives have the courage to express an opinion different from those of the authorities was widely practiced by S. Niyazov, G. Berdimuhamedov continued.

As we can see, the current President Serdar Berdimuhamedov is not going to leave this path.

Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights