Actually, Turkmenistan has freedom of religion, but it's really just a few words on a government document. The reality of the situation is quite different, although 9% of the country is Christian. The Central Asian country has a few churches belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church, but they are under strict control. Almost all of the Christians and the few church buildings belong to the Russian minority, who have some religious freedom. This is because they are seen as an alien element in the country and are not true Turkmen. For many Turkmen, Jesus is the Russian God and every true Turkmen is a Muslim. But even the Russian Orthodox find it difficult to build or register new churches, and inviting Turkmen to church, taking a Bible across the border or evangelizing is not allowed.
For the few thousand ethnic Turkmen Christians, the situation is even more difficult. They cannot have a Bible in Turkmen or meet in public or in private homes without risking arrest and being sent to a labor camp.
"If you have a lot of people visiting your apartment, you can count on the police coming by during the day because you've been reported. If you have a good explanation for what all the people are doing in your apartment, it's okay. But the underground churches are always looking for good explanations for being able to meet and worship together," says one of the Danish European Mission's partners who has worked with the country's Christians for many years.
The father of the country, the president, the dictators
When Turkmenistan gained independence in 1991, shortly before the final collapse of the Soviet Union, Saparmurat Niyazov had been in power since 1985 and remained in power after independence until his unexpected death in 2006.
During that time, he ruled the country with a heavy hand and built a cult of personality reminiscent of the Juche ideology in North Kora. Turkmen citizens had to obey and worship Niyazov and every morning all school children said a prayer to him. Niyazov, who took the nickname Turkmenbashi (the leader of all Turkmen), rallied the country around him and his own customized form of Islam.
"In the mosque, the imams and the mullah teach a mixture of Islam and what they are told by the president. Niyazov wrote his own religious book, Ruhnama, which is placed higher than the Koran in the mosque, and quotes from the Koran and Niyazov's book are placed side by side around the mosques. If the Muslims don't want to follow it, they risk being arrested. Imagine what it's like to be a Christian? The whole population is oppressed and if you don't worship the president, you're in big trouble. A Turkmen tries to stay under the radar and avoid attracting attention. These are the conditions for all people in the country, but for Christians it's even harder."
Christians are seen as traitors
In several of the Central Asian countries where the Danish European Mission works, identity as a Kazakh, Uzbek or Kyrgyz is inextricably linked to Islam. It is the same in Turkmenistan. A Turkmen is a Muslim, and therefore becoming a Christian is not just a new faith for a Turkmen.
"When a Turkmen becomes a Christian, they are accused of turning their back on family and homeland. By becoming a Christian, you are saying to your neighbors, family, friends and the government that you don't want to be a Turkmen anymore. In a country where people are told they live in paradise on earth and are richly blessed by Allah, this is a crazy thought. A Christian Turkmen is a wrong Turkmen and it affects everything in your life. The problem is less in the big cities because it's easier to be anonymous and avoid attracting attention. But if you live in a village and come to faith, everyone knows you are a Christian. Often your family will ostracize you for fear that they themselves will be ostracized by the village community. If they let the Christian stay in the family, they risk that the only baker in town won't sell them bread, the mechanic won't fix their car, or the electrician will overcharge for fixing the electricity. Many families don't want to take that risk and ostracize the Christian, who then has to flee and find a new community. But the neighboring village has probably already heard about the Christian, so they often have to flee to the big cities and try to make a life there.
It's hard when it's harder to get a job because you're a Christian. In a country with no social safety net, unemployment and no family means you are in imminent danger of starving to death. If you survive the ostracization and get a life going, the police harass you with interrogations and arrests," he explains, adding that he hasn't heard of Christians being killed for their faith in many years.
Niyazov's insane decree
President Niyazov held the country in an iron grip during his 15 years as president. He introduced a large number of strange decrees. Among other things, he banned gold teeth because no one could appear richer than him. He introduced a national holiday in honor of melons and named the month of January after himself and April after his mother. Some of these things may seem laughable and many of the laws are not enforced on a daily basis. Instead, they were put in place to target specific people who messed with the wrong people. But between the strange laws, Niyazov banned the internet and the import of foreign newspapers, controlled all national media, video-monitored all public places and decreed that when the news ended, the announcers had to raise their hands and proclaim: "May my hand be cut off if I harm my country, and may my tongue wither if I slander the country, the flag or the president".
The organization Reporters Without Borders works to promote press freedom and annually publishes a list of the world's countries and the press freedom they have. North Korea is the country with the least press freedom, but Turkmenistan is a close second in an unwinnable competition. This is the iron grip that the president has on the country, which has not loosened significantly since his death. The new president has banned the use of face masks in the country during the Corona crisis, while he has also banned the word "Corona", because they don't have that in Turkmenistan. During the Corona crisis, the country's soccer league has had a three-week break, but otherwise played with spectators in the stands, and the country officially has not had a single case of Coronavirus. The government controls the media in the country and they use it to control the flow of news and the population. They also use the media to suppress Christians.
"The government suspects Christians through propaganda and associates them with terrorism, among other things. They warn that Muslim children play with Christians and try to influence public opinion against Christians in a negative way. With success, unfortunately. The government is afraid of Christians because they suspect that they have contact with people outside Turkmenistan and have information and beliefs that do not match the uniformity that the government is trying to maintain. The government is Muslim and a Christian is in opposition to it. There is no real opposition with power in Turkmenistan and therefore any opposition is a threat, and thus Christians are also a threat to be fought."
Still driving the mission
Although Christians are few and hard-pressed in Turkmenistan, they still do mission. Not in public or in a large organized cooperation, because that is almost impossible in such a closed country. Instead, the gospel is shared one-on-one at great risk to the Christian. They risk imprisonment, labor camps and even harsher persecution, but still share the gospel with their Muslim compatriots.
"When you follow Jesus, you also share the gospel, and so do the Turkmen Christians. For many it's hard enough just to survive, but I try to encourage them to share and there are people coming to faith in Turkmenistan. They come into the small house churches and learn about the faith there. But it is risky. One Christian had shared the gospel with a few people around him, but he was reported and sent to a labor camp to serve his sentence. Although Christian teaching, evangelism and missions are forbidden, Turkmen Christians share the gospel with neighbors, friends and family members. They do it cautiously, but the word of God is getting through."
For security reasons, we can't describe the work Danish European Mission's donors support in the country, but the help makes a big difference to the struggling church. Thank you for your support!
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