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FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8593
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 0242
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0264
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 1941
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0738
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RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 1741
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0488

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000345 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN (PERRY) 
INFO SCA/PPD (VAN DE VATE), IIP/G/NEA-SA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO PREL TX US
 
SUBJECT: BLACK HISTORY MONTH SPEAKER RANSOM ELECTRIFIES 
TURKMENISTAN 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (U) At a watershed moment in Turkmenistan's modern history, 
Black History Month Speaker Dr. Elbert Ransom energized and inspired 
audiences in Ashgabat, Mary and Dashoguz during his visit to 
Turkmenistan from March 8-16.  Dr. Ransom's bold oratory style, 
unusually warm personality and gripping retelling of key events of 
the U.S. Civil Rights Movement had its greatest impact with large 
student groups at universities in Ashgabat and Mary and with U.S. 
Government alumni and civic activists.  A meeting with members of a 
government Trade Union provided a stark contrast -- revealing local 
government officials' lack of confidence in, or basic understanding 
of the role of unions, schools and civic groups in a democracy.  But 
as one professor of History at Turkmen State University whispered to 
an embassy officer, "He has opened my eyes."  Post is eager to 
follow up with further programming to capitalize on this positive 
reaction, at a time when the local government and public of 
Turkmenistan is facing an uncertain transition to greater openness 
and may not fully grasp the potential -- both positive and negative 
-- of social change.  Post is grateful for the support of IIP for 
Dr. Ransom's visit.  End Summary. 
 
FILM FESTIVAL IN CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2.  (U) As part of Dr. Ransom's program, post, in cooperation with 
Turkmenistan's Ministry of Culture and Television and Radio 
Broadcasting, hosted a Black History Month Film Festival at 
Ashgabat's Magtymguly State Music and Drama Theater on March 9-12. 
The films --"Mighty Times: The Story of Rosa Parks," "The Color 
Purple," "Ray" and "Malcolm X" were in English, while the concluding 
film, "Amistad" was in English with Russian subtitles.  State media 
turned out full coverage of the March 9 opening event and the 
festival (septel).  Each screening drew 70-130 people, many from 
Ashgabat's universities, where Dr. Ransom and concurrent U.S. 
Speaker Dr. James Gregory Payne had recently given presentations. 
Because of restrictions on advertising publicly, post handed out 
flyers on the film festival to students and teachers at each event. 
(Note:  Public Affairs staff also "talk up" events and embassy 
resources in taxi cabs and other chance venues as a standard 
practice, because post is prohibited from posting flyers in public 
spaces without coordinating this formally with the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs.  End Note.) 
 
¶3.  (U) Dr. Ransom introduced the first film, the IIP documentary, 
"Mighty Times," with personal on-stage remarks about Rosa Parks and 
segregation in the southern United States; the film depicted how the 
mild but deliberate action of Rosa Parks -- refusing to give up her 
bus seat to a white man in contravention of local segregation laws 
-- sparked the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.  Diplomats and students 
at the event clamored to meet Dr. Ransom after the screening, and 
Turkmen State Television took interviews with Dr. Ransom, PAO, and 
speaker Dr. Payne. 
 
YOUNG AUDIENCES OPEN, WELCOMING AND EXPRESSIVE 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶4.  (U) Dr. Ransom was universally well received by young audiences 
at Turkmen State University (where he spoke twice, to students of 
the English and history faculties), Turkmen-Turkish University, the 
Azadi World Languages Institute and the Mary Power-Engineering 
Institute (in Mary City), Turkmen-Turkish High School (for boys, in 
Ashgabat) as well as at the Mary and Dashoguz American Corners, 
Counterpart Civil Society Resource Center in Ashgabat, and the 
Ashgabat International School.  Probably the greatest visible 
reaction to Dr. Ransom's and Dr. Payne's (septel) programs was at 
the International Turkmen-Turkish University, where an audience of 
200 engaged with Dr. Ransom in a lively question-and-answer session 
that showed student interest in both the personal and political 
aspects of the Civil Rights Movement. 
 
¶5.  (U) In these meetings Dr. Ransom recounted how he came to become 
a friend of and work as an aide to Dr. Martin Luther King when he 
was a 17 year-old college student in Montgomery, Alabama, and how 
Dr. Ransom participated in and helped organize events, such as the 
 
ASHGABAT 00000345  002 OF 003 
 
 
Montgomery bus boycott, that eventually ended with the U.S. Supreme 
Court overturning segregation laws.  These descriptions supported 
Dr. Ransom's message that the Civil Rights Movement was born of many 
forces, including the arrest of Rosa Parks, concerted efforts to 
educate the black community about its rights, and Dr. King's 
nonviolent leadership in a time of emotional upheaval and violence 
against the black community.  Dr. Ransom discussed the role of law 
enforcement and passive resistance to unjust laws at post's third 
annual Fulbright Conference on Interdisciplinary Study of the United 
States, which focused this year on Rule of Law - in education, 
international relations, legal reform and international and local 
communications policy. 
 
A DIFFICULT MESSAGE, DELIVERED BY A FRIEND 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶6.  (U) Being a black man in Turkmenistan itself made Dr. Ransom an 
object of curiosity and positive interest during his time in 
Turkmenistan.  Members of several audiences asked whether Dr. Ransom 
believed in mixed marriages, to which he could describe his own 
experience in a mixed marriage -- a story which helped reinforce his 
point that both black and white people supported and took part in 
the Civil Rights Movement.  His background as a vocalist and 
preacher was also fair game: audiences at Turkmen State University, 
Azadi Institute, the Power-Engineering Institute and the American 
Corners asked him to sing -- and he did, to loud applause.  In this 
heavily relationship-based society, audiences reacted immediately to 
Dr. Ransom's warmth and self-deprecating humor, which also helped 
soften -- but did not distract from -- Dr. Ransom's very bold 
message: that abused or repressed individuals must eventually rise 
up to gain freedom; and that such action must be bold and nonviolent 
in order to affect lasting social change. 
 
CIVIC ACTIVISTS SEE THEMSELVES IN THE RIGHTS MOVEMENT 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶7.  (U) Ransom struck a chord with like-minded activists in a 
discussion of the Civil Rights Movement on March 13 at the Mary 
American Corner.  After a shy start with ten local activists, who 
are used to working in the shadows, the meeting quickly became 
collegial as Dr. Ransom demonstrated the similarities between the 
barriers he personally experienced and those facing civil society 
representatives in Turkmenistan.  The local activists expressed 
shock at the violence and overt discrimination of the 1950's and 
1960's, and wished for intense but peaceful change in Turkmenistan. 
 
 
¶8.  (U) Speaking of the social and practical support that the black 
community renders to its members, Ransom highlighted one of the 
greatest disadvantages to local civic activists -- a dearth of 
adequate community centers and networking.  An alumna of the Cochran 
Fellowship program, who is also a leader of the Ilkinjiler farmer's 
resource center, noted that Turkmenistan's farmers are only just 
beginning to find their voice.  An activist who works with disabled 
children noted that, under the Soviet system, such social action was 
mandated and prescribed.  It was only now that, thanks to increased 
Internet access and direct interaction with foreign embassies and 
speakers, individuals and government institutions were starting to 
learn about the developmental benefits of and need for grassroots 
social action. 
 
¶9.  (U) The participants picked up on Dr. Ransom's musical 
background and by the end of the meeting he was leading a group 
rendition of "We Shall Overcome"; this provided a stark contrast to 
the doubt and insecurity that often plagues civic activists in this 
politically repressive environment.  Through a warm and deeply 
personal appeal, Dr. Ransom both motivated and gently challenged 
those present to continue pressing ahead for greater social freedoms 
and political change. 
 
PUZZLED RECEPTION AT LABOR UNIONS 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶10.  (U) In contrast with his warm reception at educational 
institutes, the reaction of labor unions to Ransom's ideas was 
cautious and bemused, though positive.  (Note: Local labor unions 
 
ASHGABAT 00000345  003 OF 003 
 
 
are purely government-run organizations whose leadership is 
appointed by the Government of Turkmenistan).  In the meeting at the 
national Labor Union headquarters in Ashgabat, Dr. Ransom described 
again how Rosa Parks' act of nonviolent civil disobedience sparked 
the Civil Rights Movement, and how the Movement was incubated in and 
supported by the churches and other community centers of 
Montgomery's black community.  By contrast, Turkmenistan's labor 
unions -- really one state organization with regional and local 
branches throughout Turkmenistan -- are strangers to such grassroots 
activism. 
 
¶11.  (U) The participants of the Ashgabat meeting -- members of the 
Ashgabat City and Ahal Welayat unions -- sat quietly in the meeting, 
to which they had clearly been called by their supervisors with 
little or no background on the impending content.  One participant 
in the Ashgabat meeting, an alumna of an International Visitor 
Leadership Program, nodded and smiled at Ransom's suggestion that 
labor unions could have an important role to play in promoting civic 
education and civic responsibility.  But Ransom was unable to elicit 
substantive comments or discussion from this cautious group. 
 
¶12.  (U) Dr. Ransom's meeting with members of the regional and city 
labor union in Dashoguz City was more clearly positive, though 
participants did not venture beyond  questions about Dr. Ransom's 
family. 
 
¶13.  (U) Throughout the day trip to Dashoguz, the head of the 
regional Labor Union accompanied Dr. Ransom, and spoke openly about 
his desire for reform in the education sector, among other issues. 
"I didn't know Americans were so friendly" he told a PD FSN at one 
point, and was eager to know Dr. Ransom's views on current U.S. 
foreign policy; he eventually posed the question, despite the local 
taboo of asking direct political questions of guests. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶14.  (U) Dr. Bert Ransom had a more immediate and dramatic impact 
than any of post's previous speakers.  He was careful to learn what 
he could about local conditions and his interlocutors and made a 
great effort to tailor his message appropriately.  Dr. Ransom 
managed to strike exactly the right tone:  hoping for future change, 
and stressing the power of community action and individuals, but 
without causing too much host government discomfort.  Post would 
highly recommend Dr. Ransom for other speaker programs and would 
welcome him for a return visit. 
 
¶15.  (U) In contrast to the events of the U.S. Civil Rights 
Movement, the political transition taking place in Turkmenistan 
began incidentally -- with the sudden death in December 2006 of 
President Saparmyrat Niyazov -- and the current government and 
population are united in their desire for continued stability and 
peace in Turkmenistan.  In this context Dr. Ransom encouraged local 
audiences to reflect on their own desires and potential and make the 
hard decision to push for progress, but recognized local fears of 
violence or upheaval.  End Comment. 
 
¶16.  Dushanbe minimize considered. 
 
HOAGLAND