Turkmen opposition claims that the authorities did not give permission to arrive in Ashgabat

Representatives of the Turkmen opposition, who are hoping to return to the country in connection with the death of President Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov, has not yet succeeded. This was announced on Friday by Batyr Mukhamedshin, who called himself a representative of the United Turkmen opposition and the Minister of Justice of the "shadow cabinet".

“The main question is the return of the opposition,” he said, noting that the Turkmen authorities are hindering this. Many leaders of the Turkmen opposition live in Western Europe and Scandinavia.

“The new authorities blocked the borders,” Mukhamedshin said, noting that the aircraft services of the Ashgabat airport did not give the good to the arrival of the charter aircraft with representatives of the opposition, which was supposed to follow the flight of the Sweden-Russia-Turgia.

"The airline, the organizer of the charter flight, was negotiating with the airport aviation services in Ashgabat. But it was said that a ban on the movement of aircraft and that the violators would be shot down," the representative of the Turkmen opposition told Interfax.

According to him, opposition leaders should meet in one of the countries of Europe and count on the help of the international community. “An alternative to the opposition’s default in Turkmenistan is a continuation of the Niyazov course,” Mukhamedshin said. He also said that he did not believe in the natural death of Niyazov. The day before, Mukhamedshin said that in one of the European countries a meeting of all opposition leaders will be held in the near future. There they will accept a plan for joint actions after the death of President Turkmenistan. According to him, a statement on behalf of the entire opposition is now being prepared.

Niyazov’s opponents are sure that significant changes should occur in Turkmenistan. “The flywheel of the changes will be spinning. This is inevitable,” this “shadow minister of justice” formulated this.

Meanwhile, the international organization "Reporters without borders" appealed to the new leadership of Turkmenistan to free the journalists under arrest.

“We demand to free all journalists and human rights activists who are contained in Turkmen prisons in unbearable conditions,” the representative said. “Many of them have been convicted that we cooperated with foreign media.”

In particular, according to the organization, we are talking about Annakarban Amanclichev and Sapardurd Khazhev, about which there are no news for several months. “Reporters without borders” also note that during an amnesty on October 16 of the current year, 10 thousand prisoners were released in Turkmenistan, but there were not a single journalist among them.