VZCZCXRO8541
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #0754/01 1650955
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 130955Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0990
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 3904
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1721
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1588
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 2157
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 2601
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000754 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, EUR/ACE, DRL 
AID/W FOR EE/EA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM EAID KDEM TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN REGISTERS FIRST NGO SINCE 2005 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (U) SUMMARY:  On June 3, 2008, Turkmenistan's Ministry of 
Justice registered the Ak-Bugday Gardeners' Association as a public 
association.  Post believes this is the first non-governmental 
organization (NGO) registered by the Ministry since 2005, and is the 
first community-based NGO registered in the country.  The 
organization's mission is to defend the rights of gardeners residing 
in Saglyk Village, located on the outskirts of Ashgabat.  The 
community members have actively participated in USAID's Civic 
Society Support Initiative and Turkmen Community Empowerment 
Programs since 2005. 
 
UNCLEAR LEGAL STATUS PROMPTED RESIDENTS TO UNITE 
 
¶3.  (U) Saglyk Village was initially started as a community of 
dachas (summer homes) in 1986. As a result, the administrative 
status of the village remained unclear, which created problems for 
community citizens to resolve social and economic issues with the 
local authorities.  To address the situation, community members 
decided to elect a community board to advocate for the interests of 
community members.  In 2005, the village board, together with 
community activists, first applied for registration as an NGO so it 
would have improved legal status to undertake advocacy campaigns. 
Its efforts to register were not successful.  Although approximately 
90 NGOs were re-registered under the 2003 NGO law that required 
existing NGOs to be reregistered, the Ministry of Justice had 
stopped registering new organizations by 2005. 
 
USAID'S COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAM TRAINED ACTIVISTS 
 
¶4.  (U) The Saglyk community's inhabitants, the majority of whom 
make a living by raising fruit and vegetables, actively participated 
in USAID/ Counterpart International's Civic Society Support 
Initiative, which provided training and a community action grant to 
help residents solve the village's most important problem -- 
building a new irrigation system.  The improved irrigation helped 
village inhabitants increase fruit and vegetable yields, which 
considerably increased their incomes. 
 
¶5.  (U) After carrying out the irrigation system improvement project 
with USAID's grant funding, the community's strong fundraising and 
advocacy skills allowed the members to carry out additional 
infrastructure projects on their own.  For example, one community 
activist initiated a self-financed project to repair and pave one of 
the village's roads, fix streetlamps, and organize waste removal. 
Working in conjunction with local authorities, another activist 
secured the installation of new telephone communication lines. 
Local authorities supported their initiative by providing machinery 
and specialists, and by arranging the delivery of equipment. 
 
 
VILLAGE NOW SERVES AS POSITIVE EXAMPLE FOR NEIGHBORS 
 
¶6.  (U) Recognizing the benefits from collective actions, 
neighboring villages viewed Saglyk's residents as a positive example 
of self-governance, participatory decision-making, and social 
partnership.  Activists from neighboring villages have traveled to 
Saglyk to hear their experiences and continue learn from their 
experiences.  (NOTE: On June 26, 2007, Deputy Assistant Secretary of 
State for South and Central Asian Affairs Evan Feigenbaum visited 
Saglyk community and met with the community activists and local 
government representatives.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶7.  (U) COMMENT:  Post believes this is the first non-governmental 
organization (NGO) registered by the Ministry since 2005.  If so, 
this represents a very positive change in official attitudes toward 
the role of NGOs in a civil society, since the group's mission is to 
advocate for its members' interests. 
 
¶8.  (U) COMMENT CONTINUED:  The Ak-Bugday Gardeners' Association is 
also, to Post's knowledge, the first community-based NGO registered 
in the country.  In response to the 2003 law on NGO registration and 
 
ASHGABAT 00000754  002 OF 002 
 
 
the limited pool of registered NGOs, USAID and Counterpart changed 
the focus of their civil society development program to work more 
closely with communities.  As a result, the faces of USAID's civil 
society development program partners shifted along with its 
objectives.  Instead of supporting the "usual suspects" of 
old-school, largely ethnic Russian civic activists, Counterpart 
provided 140 grants of less than $5,000 each between 2004-2006 that 
helped predominantly rural, ethnic Turkmen communities to improve 
their lives through greater access to potable water, gas, 
electricity, and other social infrastructure.  While some of these 
groups came together to carry out discrete projects, others have 
remained cohesive and continue to work together to address issues of 
collective importance.  That the residents of Saglyk community 
persisted in their efforts to register while continuing to engage 
constructively with local officials demonstrates the positive 
effects of the grass-roots approach to civil society development in 
Turkmenistan.  END COMMENT. 
 
HOAGLAND