VZCZCXRO3039
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #0550/01 1221157
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011157Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0715
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 2473
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1527
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1394
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 3709
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 1963

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000550 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL, EEB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SCUL SOCI KPAO TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: DISCONTENT IN DASHOGUZ PROVINCE 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: Misery is on the rise in Dashoguz, a mid-sized 
city and important cotton producing center near the Uzbek border. 
Central government policies to raise gas prices and devalue the 
dollar have led to inflation and made life harder in a city with 
more than 60 percent unemployment.  Unable to voice their concern 
with city officials, many are registering their protest the only way 
they can: by leaving the country.  END SUMMARY. 
 
HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT AND COST OF LIVING 
 
¶3. (SBU) Dashoguz suffers from high unemployment.  Over 60% of 
residents are without work.  According to one local resident, of the 
40 families living in his apartment building, only three or four 
people are working.  According to another, no one is working in her 
family household of eight (nuclear and extended), but rather are 
living off the pension of their grandfather.  There is little 
visible investment in the city.  EmbOff noticed only one 
construction project.  Dashoguz is a large cotton producing region, 
but the season is only from September to December. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  The city's large central bazaars, Bai Bazaar and Nygmat 
Bazaar, felt empty.  There were few customers when EmbOff visited. 
There were often more shop and stand assistants than customers. 
Many of the bazaar workers sat in corners playing cards or chatting. 
 Prices are rising rapidly, as one shop keeper told EmbOff.  During 
one month, a kilogram of Turkmen rice went from 15,000 manat to 
23,000 manat, or a 53% increase.  Petrol prices have risen 800% 
since January.  Some families are looking outside the city for small 
farming plots to grow their own food. 
 
DOLLAR DEVALUED 
 
¶5. (U) The government's policy to combine the commercial and 
official dollar/manat exchange rate (officially unified May 1) has 
led to a steep devaluation of the dollar.  In the course of two 
weeks, the dollar went from 19,800 manat to 14,215 manat, a 30% 
drop.  In Dashoguz, city residents are highly dependent on 
remittances from family working abroad in Russia, Turkey, UAE, the 
United States, etc. and receive their money largely from the Western 
Union offices, which operate only in U.S. dollars.  Local growers 
and farmers were paid by the government for their crops in both U.S. 
dollars and manats. 
 
¶6. (U) In Turkmenistan, there is a saying, "Save in dollars, spend 
in manats."  Almost every family kept their savings at home and in 
dollars.  Expensive items such as durable goods, motor vehicles, or 
real estate was priced in dollars.  As the government lowered the 
dollar/manat exchange rate, it also limited banks to exchanging no 
more than $100 per day per person.  Panic set in to spend the 
dollars before they lost value, and retailers and sellers switched 
their prices to manat.  Inflationary pressure also took hold. 
According to local residents, a two bedroom apartment in the center 
of Dashoguz that cost $9,000 in March now costs $18,000.  Similarly, 
they said there were long lines to buy TV sets, refrigerators, and 
carpets. 
 
GOVERNMENT BLAMED 
 
¶7. (U) If polling were legal in Turkmenistan, President 
Berdimuhamedov would have a low approval rating.  He is universally 
blamed for the financial problems afflicting the residents of 
Dashoguz.  Residents told EmbOff that times were always hard in 
Dashoguz, but living conditions are worse under Berdimuhamedov.  Few 
people care about Berdimuhamedov's initiative to remove the Ruhnama 
from the school curriculum when schools lack copy machines and 
computer printers.  Residents laugh at the President's efforts to 
bring Internet to Dashoguz.  The two Internet cafes in the city, 
they said, had unbearably slow connections and high 60,000 
manat/hour usage fees (EmbOff noticed both were empty when he 
visited).  Residents commented that the President's cultural 
reforms, such as returning opera and the circus, are meaningless for 
them when their financial situation remains poor.  As one said, 
"When the pockets are empty, the mood is bad." 
 
ASHGABAT 00000550  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶8. (U) A large percentage of people living in Dashoguz are ethnic 
Uzbek.  Ethnic Uzbek interlocutors told EmbOff that the government 
systematically, but quietly discriminates against them.  They are 
barred from government jobs and entering higher education 
institutions.  One Uzbek girl discussed her frustration.  She cannot 
go to Uzbekistan because she is treated as a Turkmen, and in 
Turkmenistan as an Uzbek.  She said that she cannot go find work in 
Ashgabat (where jobs are more plentiful), because the Ashgabat 
police routinely deport non-city residents back to their provinces. 
For many Uzbeks, she said, the answer is to work and study abroad, 
mainly in Russia.  She said her friend is working three jobs while 
studying in St. Petersburg.  She may do the same. 
 
¶9. (U) COMMENT: While residents of Ashgabat complain about economic 
stresses and inflation, many in the provinces have it worse.  The 
rising cost of living and the declining value of savings are 
creating discontent and frustration at government policies.  As life 
gets harder, many people, both young and old, are deciding to leave 
the country for opportunity elsewhere.  END COMMENT. 
 
CURRAN