Qishloq Ovozi (Archive)

The Tajik government's current dilemma is the most recent proof of the ancient adage that you reap what you sow, but the message doesn't appear to be getting through.

The Tajik government has a substantial problem, and it has been getting plenty of international attention. Dushanbe could use some friends to address it, but instead it seems intent on harassing a group that could serve as one of its best allies at the moment: the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (HNIT).

The problem is the defection of elite security-force commander Gulmurod Halimov to the Islamic State (IS) militant group. Or more specifically, the problem is the 12-minute IS recruitment video in which the former Tajik OMON commander alternately chastises and threatens his former employer and others. The video is designed to project the grievances of a state servant but also a pious Muslim against the clumsy attempts of a corrupt government to control the practice of Islam, and unfortunately such claims cannot be wholly dismissed.

The Tajik government has undeniably been trying to control the course of Islam in the country by, among other things, regulating the age at which males may start attending mosque, forbidding women from attending mosque, ordering clerics to wear state-approved uniforms in which to preach, and providing a list of approved topics for sermons and in some cases simply supplying texts to be read at prayers. Halimov mentioned a few of these regulations.

There are more examples. But to sum it up quickly, it is ultimately the state that approves clerics, and they serve in state-approved mosques and teach at state-approved madrasahs and often include Tajikistan's president in their Friday Prayers.

One of the interesting aspects (to me, at least) of Halimov's enlistment in the IS and subsequent criticism of the Tajik government is that he is from the only Central Asian country where there is a legally registered Islamic political party: the HNIT (sometimes known as the IRPT).

Tajik authorities could use some strong statements from the HNIT both condemning Halimov's comments and endorsing the Tajik government, but that is extremely unlikely to happen.

Official Islam, Or Else

It must be mentioned that the HNIT leadership has spoken out against IS many times.

But that has not stopped the Tajik government from working to marginalize the HNIT -- some now say with the aim of eventually removing the party from the scene in Tajikistan.

The HNIT and the government led by President Emomali Rahmon were opponents during the 1992-97 Tajik civil war but agreed to a one-of-a-kind peace deal that ended hostilities and gave the HNIT 30 percent of the positions in the government, from local to ministerial.

The HNIT's share in the government was eroded over the course of the years until last March the party was finally locked out of the government entirely following dubious parliamentary elections that saw Rahmon's People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan win an outright majority, with the rest of the seats going to parties supporting the president.

Many people, and I'll name David Trilling (@dtrilling) and Edward Lemon (@EdwardLemon3) among them, noted how short-sighted this move by the government was to prevent the HNIT, the largest opposition party in Tajikistan, from winning even the token two or three seats it had held in parliament for a decade.

There have been many times in the past when the HNIT and Rahmon's government were able to cooperate to achieve common goals. The HNIT has supported government efforts as recently as 2011 to track down, and often eliminate, rogue HNIT commanders from the civil-war days. During the shaky first few years after the civil war, the HNIT even offered military help to government forces crushing the last of the pro-government paramilitary forces, once useful but inconvenient after peace was reached.

In view of the new propaganda video from former OMON commander Halimov, this might be a good time to renew the cooperation of years past.

Instead, HNIT deputy leaders Saidamar Husayni and Mahmadali Hayit met with Supreme Court Chairman Shermuhammad Shohiyon on May 30 to complain about the Interior Ministry's harassment of HNIT members and their families, as well as "cases of forcing party members to quit the party." The two leaders handed over a 189-page complaint to the court.

Reaping What They Sow

It was only the latest in a series of incidents over many years involving the HNIT, usually the release of compromising material or videos but also including the deaths and beatings of party members in not-fully-explained circumstances.

Similar, though not quite as severe, techniques have been used to sideline influential moderate clerics who would not strictly follow the government line.

The HNIT probably cannot help convince Tajik nationals who have already gone to join IS to forsake the militant group and return home. Tajiks in IS would probably view the HNIT as heretics for cooperating with a secular government.

But the HNIT is influential among the faithful in Tajikistan. Those considering whether to leave and go to Syria or Iraq will not be dissuaded by the sermons of state clerics condemning the IS in one sentence then in the next breath praising officials whom the majority of the population considers corrupt.

They might however, listen to former government opponents with much cleaner Islamic credentials when they condemn the IS.

-- Bruce Pannier, with Salimjon Aioubov and Mirzo Salimov of RFE/RL's Tajik Service

It rests on a 15-meter-high slab of white marble, but it's really built on the crushed spirits of the Turkmen people.

I am referring, of course, to Turkmenistan's latest monument to vanity -- a 6-meter-high, gold-covered sculpture of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov riding a horse and holding a dove.

The statue made international news when it was unveiled to much fanfare on May 25, but it must have been a hollow celebration for the average citizen, who could have benefited greatly from the money wasted.

And no, I do not believe President Berdymukhammedov when he says the people of the country, where the average monthly wage is some $300, were calling for the construction of the statue.

The unveiling was widely reported by international media and the word "eccentric" was a frequent fixture in articles.

Me? I felt disgusted, sick, like I was watching a bad movie I'd been forced to watch a hundred times before.

There is worse to come, and soon -- a new park is about to open in Ashgabat. But before I get to that there are some things worth recalling.

Articles about the new statue noted that Berdymukhammedov's predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, started the personality cult that is now a characteristic of the country's leadership.

While I was roaming around Central Asia in 1992-93 I was in Turkmenistan often. I was there for the birth of the cult of personality in Turkmenistan and I watched it grow.

The Ashgabat I remember was a reddish-clay colored city. It was built from local materials and seemed to blend into the hills behind it.

Pictures of Ashgabat today show a white city -- white marble, actually, like the pedestal of Berdymukhammedov's new statue. This is the result of successive waves of urban-renewal projects that have simultaneously pushed residents further and further toward the edge of the city.

It began in 1994, when the ministries were ordered to each build new five-star hotels in Ashgabat. Apartment complexes were razed and hotels that have rarely, if ever, exceeded 30 percent occupancy took their place. Price tag -- $1.5 billion.

The ministries were ordered to construct new grandiose buildings for themselves and more homes were demolished and more people pushed out of the center of the city. Many of the ministry buildings were not completed until the middle of the last decade. I couldn't find an estimate for the cost of all of that construction (though I did find the Construction Ministry building cost, which was $55.2 million) but I'll mention that the four tallest buildings in Ashgabat are ministry buildings.

Then came the monuments, such as the revolving golden statue of President Niyazov that always kept its face turned toward the sun. Cost -- $12 million. Again, more old buildings razed, more people sent to Ashgabat's periphery.

It wasn't long after the monstrous revolving statue was built that RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, started hearing stories from locals that it was not only homes that were affected. Ashgabat is a relatively new city by Central Asian standards. Prior to the arrival of the Russians in the late 19th century, there wasn't much there (true also of Almaty, Bishkek, and Dushanbe).

As the city grew, and people died, land was necessarily allocated for cemeteries and the city continued to grow around these "final" resting places. But under Niyazov, cemeteries were impediments to the construction of a magnificent capital. So, the bodies were dug up and transferred to hastily built new cemeteries lying on the edge of the desert, and placed in shallow graves that were then plundered by jackals that carried the bones of people's grandparents and great-grandparents back into the desert.

Leaving Ashgabat and moving forward to the year 2004, Niyazov decided to spend $8 billion to construct an artificial lake in the middle of the Gara-Gum Desert (the original estimate in 2000 was $4.5 billion). Environmentalists warned at the time that a great amount of water drained from the lower reaches of one of Central Asia's great rivers, the Amu-Darya, would be lost in the sand and further desiccate the Aral Sea. More than a decade later work continues on the lake.

Skipping ahead a couple of years, an 11-kilometer-long artificial river was built through Ashgabat. It flows down gently sloping terrain, collects at the end of the "river," and is pumped back up to the top to flow downward again. Along either side are parks with fountains. Unfortunately, many of the trees planted in these parks died within the first few years after the river project was launched.

The reported cost of the "river"? A mere $63 million.

That all happened during the Niyazov era but Berdymukhammedov has proven equally profligate. Berdymukhammedov said in late 2009 he would spend some $12 billion on construction and then a few months later increased that figure to $23.6 billion, some of which would be spent building the Avaza Caspian resort area, including the fences surrounding the complex that are there to keep the people of Turkmenistan away.

In October 2011, the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported that some $1.4 billion had already been spent on Avaza. In July 2013, Berdymukhammedov ordered 10 new buildings constructed for the nearly deserted resort.

As for Berdymukhammedov himself, he lives in the Oghuzkhan Presidential Palace, built by Niyazov at a cost of some $250 million. Berdymukhammedov has been seen driving a Bugatti Veyron sports car with a price tag of some $2 million.

And now -- the park. Sometime before, or on, Berdymukhammedov's June 29 birthday a massive park will open in Ashgabat. Azatlyk has an artist's rendering of this new public space and it does look very impressive, and costly, though there is no official word on the amount of money spent on the project.

That it's opening so soon after a useless statue to Berdymukhammedov was unveiled (and amid the ongoing destruction of Ashgabat residents' homes, without any compensation being offered for the losses) just emphasizes how little the Turkmen authorities care about the people of Turkmenistan.

In 1992, President Niyazov said his country would become the next Kuwait and everyone would be driving a Mercedes. Instead, in Ashgabat, they're crowding into the homes of relatives where they can share intermittent supplies of water and electricity.

But at least they can gaze at elaborate statues, opulent buildings, and imagine what it might be like to spend a vacation at Avaza.

-- Bruce Pannier, with contributions from RFE/RL's Turkmen Service