TURKMENISTAN: IS STATE REGISTRATION DISGUISED PERSECUTION?

(Forum 18) As well as continuing to harshly persecute religious believers, Turkmenistan is also refusing to allow religious communities to see requirements the authorities insist communities must follow to be registered. Forum 18 News Service has found that amongst harsh new requirements to be imposed will be: a requirement that any worship service or other event has the prior permission of the Gangeshi (the state body controlling religion); a requirement that the full names of any financial donors be given to the Gangeshi; and a requirement that all non-Muslim religious communities pay 20 per cent of their income to the Gangeshi. Many religious communities are too frightened to lodge applications for state registration. “The last time we applied for registration was five years ago, and they went round persecuting all the people who had signed the registration application,” one believer told Forum 18. “We are not prepared to go through this again.”