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PP RUEHAG RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHPW RUEHROV
DE RUEHAH #1398/01 3611217
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 271217Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 001398 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EEB, INR/B 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PINR ECON SOCI TK TX
SUBJECT:  TURKMENISTAN:  CHALIK RECONCILED BUT DRAWS DOWN; 
BERDIMUHAMEDOV DESCRIBED AS AN ILL-SERVED REFORMER 
 
REF: A. ASHGABAT 1345 
     ¶B. ASHGABAT 1126 
     ¶C. ASHGABAT 1014 
 
ASHGABAT 00001398  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: CHARGE RICHARD E. HOAGLAND FOR REASONS 1.2 (B), (D) 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY:  During Turkish President Gul's recent visit 
to Turkmenistan, President Berdimuhamedov and Turkish 
businessman Ahmet Chalik reconciled, and Chalik will finance 
and build a major mosque near Dashoguz.  Chalik will maintain 
his energy interests in Turkmenistan but is mostly 
withdrawing from the construction business.  Chalik's senior 
representative in Turkmenistan described President 
Berdimuhamedov, whom he has know for 10 years, as a reformer 
at heart who is ill-served by inexperienced officials who are 
still mostly trapped in the mindset of the Niyazov era.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (C) Charge met December 27 with Aziz Chengal (protect 
throughout), senior representative of Chalik Group in 
Turkmenistan.  A front-page photograph in the December 26 
"Neutral Turkmenistan" featured President Gurbanguly 
Berdimuhamedov meeting with Ahmet Chalik, Chairman of the 
Chalik Group, once a long-time favorite of former President 
Saparmurat Niyazov but more recently nearly persona non grata 
in Turkmenistan.  Under Niyazov, Chalik had established 
Chalik Textiles, Chalik Energy, and Chalik Construction/GAP 
Insaat.  Chalik was a close confidante of Niyazov who at one 
time named him Deputy Minister of Textiles and conferred 
Turkmenistani citizenship on him.  However, under 
Berdimuhamedov Chalik lost insider status and his business 
affairs became turbulent (refs B, C). 
 
RECONCILLIATION AND THE GIFT OF A MOSQUE 
 
¶3.  (C) During Turkish President Gul's December 6-8 visit to 
Turkmenistan (ref A), Berdimuhamedov and Chalik reconciled. 
Chalik is personally and politically close to both President 
Gul and Prime Minister Erdogan.  Chalik accompanied Gul and 
Berdimuhamedov to the northern city of Dashoguz, where Gul 
asked Berdimuhamedov to pray with him at the nearby Najmeddin 
Kubra Mausoleum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is visited 
by Muslim pilgrims from throughout the greater region seeking 
miracles.  Gul announced Turkey would build a grand new 
mosque at the site, designed by famed Turkish architect Hilmi 
Senalp, that will accommodate 1,000 inside and 3,000 in the 
courtyard.  The new complex will also include a conference 
center and guesthouse for scholars and a pavilion to seat 
1,000 for religious meals.  Chalik will build the complex, 
and will personally fund the construction of the mosque "as 
an act of piety," according to Chengal. 
 
BUT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH 
 
¶4.  (C) Despite the Berdimuhamedov-Chalik reconciliation that 
Gul reportedly facilitated, Chengal said Chalik has decided 
it's time to move on, primarily because it is impossible to 
do business according to international standards in 
Turkmenistan.  Chengal said the Chalik Group will continue 
stay as involved as possible in energy in Turkmenistan, will 
maintain but not grow its textile interests, but will mostly 
phase out its construction business.  It will no longer bid 
on construction tenders but will "respond only when invited." 
 According to Chengal, Chalik is turning his business 
attention more and more to Turkey, where he just bought a 
share of a major media group for $1.1 billion, and to the 
Gulf, where Chengal will open a new Chalik Group Corporate 
Headquarters in Abu Dhabi in January, hoping to get in on Abu 
Dhabi's $10 billion infrastructure spurt.  Chalik is also 
 
ASHGABAT 00001398  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
increasingly looking for investment opportunities in Israel. 
 
¶5.  (C) During a long dinner in Istanbul September 19, Chalik 
told Charge he believed Russia was largely responsible for 
trying to force him out of Turkmenistan in favor of Russian 
companies.  In fact, Chengal said, the problem was with other 
Turkish companies that wanted to increase their share in 
Turkmenistan's market that Chalik had dominated under Niyazov 
and started a whispering campaign against Chalik.  Chengal 
said he and a team of 20 Turkish and Turkmen lawyers worked 
three months -- mainly with the Ministry of Construction and 
the State Customs Service and finally with Deputy Prime 
Minister Nazarguly Shaguliyev, drawing on the company's 
documentary archives, to restore the Chalik Group's 
reputation. 
 
BERDIMUHAMEDOV:  AN ILL-SERVED REFORMER 
 
¶6.  (C) Chengal praised Berdimuhamedov, whom he has known for 
10 years, as "someone who can change his mind."  He described 
Berdimuhamedov as a reformer at heart, extremely 
detail-oriented, a perfectionist with a quick temper, but who 
doesn't hold a grudge after minor flare-ups. 
 
¶7.  (C) Chengal lamented that Berdimuhamedov is not well 
served.  Chengal recounted he was recently in a meeting with 
the president when he contradicted one of the president's 
comments.  One of Berdimuhamedov's advisers reportedly barked 
at him to leave the room, but the president said, "He can 
stay.  I make comments, but I want expert advice.  You should 
be more like him."  Chengal added, "This is Berdimuhamedov's 
greatest problem.  Hardly anyone here is qualified to give 
him sound advice because their mindset is still where it was 
15 years ago."  That's why, Chengal said, Deputy Prime 
Minister/Foreign Minister Rashit Meredov has now become one 
of Berdimuhamedov's closest advisers:  "At least he has a 
degree of international experience and isn't afraid to grab 
his opportunity." 
 
¶8.  (C) Chengal said Berdimuhamedov wants highly detailed 
proposals that will lead to concrete quick results.  "He 
thinks there are probably 10 steps to get to the goal when, 
in fact, there are probably 100."  He glances at proposals 
submitted to him, but then turns them back to his 
presidential staff and to appropriate ministries for detailed 
analysis and final recommendation.  "But the system is 
log-jammed," Chengal said, "because almost no one has the 
appropriate analytical skills, and, even more important, 
because almost everyone is still afraid, remembering the 
Niyazov era, to make decisions for fear they will be wrong 
decisions that will lead to personal disaster."  (NOTE:  We 
would also add that the cultural tradition of telling the 
boss only what he wants to hear is powerfully strong here. 
END NOTE.) 
 
¶9.  (C) COMMENT:  We have little doubt Chengal painted the 
most positive picture of Chalik's travails in Turkmenistan, 
but it's clear there has been a Berdimuhamedov-Chalik 
reconciliation.  Chengal's description of Berdimuhamedov and 
how his government operates -- or doesn't -- rings true to 
us.  END COMMENT. 
HOAGLAND