News Article - The International Report EXCLUSIVE - 05JUL2022

[1LT (Ret) Mallory]

The International Report
July 5th, 2022

FEATURED EXCLUSIVE - Inside The Turkmen War Chest: The Murtazayev Regime's Vast Arsenal


The uptick in tensions among city-villages across Turkmenistan since the snap election of Stepan Murtazayev last month has ignited flashpoints of violent riots and clashes between Turkmen communities and the Murtazayev regime, with fatalities on the rise due to clashes between mobs of angry protesters. Armed assailants disguised as demonstrators were responsible for the death of former Turkmen President Usmon Murtazayev in late May in Turkmenbashi, who seemed to have deliberately targeted the former ruler. 

As a result, local police and military forces alike have been called to pacify mobs of protestors and even riots across villages in areas of the capital, as well as the cities of Mary, Dashoguz, and Turkmenbashi. Experts familiar with the region, despite heavy restrictions on foreign press coverage, contrary to the state-run Turkmen News Network (TNN)'s reporting, speculate that the intensity of some riots and protests, such as the one in Turkmenbashi which resulted in the death of former Turkmen President Usmon Murtazayev, are strong indicators of massive civil retaliation and even possible revolutionary action against the son Stepan's inherited regime.

Despite Turkmenistan's historically neutral position in the world & regional geopolitical affairs since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkmenistan has maintained substantial arms capabilities to backstop its reserve military manning. The nation of Turkmenistan maintains around 30,000 active-duty military personnel as of 2019, but with a reserve army backed by a mandated two years of service by all able-bodied men, the nation has nearly 250,000 trained personnel able to be called up to defend the nation or provide aid as directed by the president. Additionally, military reserves account for only the Turkmen Armed Forces component, and not the Ministry of Public Safety's Internal Troops, which account for an additional 20,000 uniformed personnel.

In early 2001, arms sales to outfit the modern armed forces and state security apparatus of Turkmenistan were made official with the European Union (EU). However, following 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror, EU nations previously set to export small arms and light military vehicles to Turkeminstan dramatically scaled back their initial invoice, from an estimated $1.2 billion USD every quarter for the following ten years, or around $50 billion USD in arms sales over the decade, to less than $100 million US annually, of which ultimately terminated after the United Nations Security Council began imposing arms trade and diversion restrictions in countries neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, the Turkmen regime had to look elsewhere to fill its intended inventory and ultimately turned to nearby nations, particularly those within the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Beginning with Georgia in 2002, Ukraine in 2005, and Russia from 2006 to 2014, Turkmenistan has been stockpiling weapons from the ashes of the former Soviet Union in some shape or form as early as the hailed EU arms deal fell apart. However, Georgia ceased arms exportation to CIS member states as part of their standoff and subsequent invasion by the Russian Federation in 2008, while Ukraine did much of the same with the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2013. Following the annexation of Crimea, the Russian government also pushed to see Turkmenistan formally adopt full membership status within the CIS, despite witnessing sovereignty violations of two member states in the previous decade. Turkmenistan declined, and in 2014, opted not to renew the import agreement of Russian military hardware. However, beginning in 2016, the Turkmen government opened a new source of military arms imports and repurposed on the backend of conflicts in neighboring Middle Eastern countries, courtesy of the United States.


Mary: New Name, Same Game (Sorta.)

Originally, the ancient city of Merv was an oasis city on the Silk Road, though later destroyed and its population annihilated in the 13th century by the Mongols. Because of its location on the Silk Road, it revived over time only to be largely destroyed again in the 19th century by nomadic Teke raiders. It was then occupied by Imperial Russia in 1884, triggering the Panjdeh incident between Afghanistan, British forces, and the Imperial Russian Army. The modern settlement was founded later that year as a Russian military and administrative post. With the rise of the Soviet Union, the area surrounding Mary was developed as a center for cotton production through the use of extensive irrigation. In 1968, huge reserves of natural gas were discovered 20 kilometers west of the city in the Shatlyk Gas Field. Mary became the center of Mary Province on 18 May 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Turkmen proclamation of independence.

Mary's centralized location amid the vast Garagum Desert as an oasis city remains as important as ever to this day, with irrigation and water diversion from the Murghab River constructed throughout the surrounding villages to upkeep crops and life alike

Formerly Merv under Soviet rule, Mary has always been a historical waystation of ideas, culture, and goods between the far east and western worlds. However, the contemporary portfolio of exchange that this cultural center of Turkmenistan has added another trade to its list: arms trafficking.


An Age-Old Network: The Modern-Day Silk Road's Role in International Black Market Arms Trade

The Silk Road was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and West. First coined in the late 19th century, the name "Silk Road" has fallen into disuse among some modern historians in favor of Silk Routes, which more accurately describes the intricate web of land and sea routes connecting East and Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, the Middle East, East Africa, and Europe. While the historical impact of the Silk Routes was unquestionable in connecting and broadening the horizons of the world before the time of trains, airplanes, and high-speed internet, it was also not a perpetual means of nation trading, as the Silk Road abruptly ended with the rise of the Ottoman Empire in 1453, which almost immediately severed trade between East and West. However, the influence and impact of its legacy have ensured its place in world history as a symbol of pre-Ottoman trade between the empires of ancient China and Europe.

Fast forward to 2007- the United States military is hardly over the first hurdle of the Global War on Terror, with intense fighting throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. An investigation conducted as a result of eco-terrorism attacks in remote Alaska, including an offshore oil drilling platform in the Beaufort Sea in late 2006 revealed connections between emergent Russian arms smugglers turned eco-terrorists, known as the Iron Brotherhood, and the Zemiy, a major nexus of military arms and equipment trafficking. The targeting of assets held by several shell companies associated with or utilized by the Zemiy via the SWIFT banking network all but ensured the financial disembowelment of the organization. Later, the arrest of several key figures within the Zemiy led to the discovery of what equated to be a modern-day parallel of the ancient Silk Routes, utilized as a part of a vast network of black-market arms and contraband trafficking throughout the Eurasian supercontinent and beyond, and connected to dozens of terrorist networks, insurgencies, and flashpoint conflicts throughout the same.

In attempting to peel back the layers of the various networks to which the Zemiy was connected, a commonality began to emerge. What little financial and transit evidence could be digitally recovered and presented in late 2009 demonstrated that in several instances over the last ten years, the largest donator of funds to at least a dozen accounts operated by the Zemiy was traced to the country of Turkmenistan. This was, of course, mostly conjecture and legally irrelevant for the longest time since no definitive proof emerged indicating what either the Turkmen government or another party acting inside Turkmen borders was actually purchasing- that is until a series of photographs taken in Turkmenistan were leaked online in early April.


An array of munitions crates held inside of a storage bunker at an undisclosed location in Central Turkmenistan. The lack of crate markings that are required by international law suggests that the ordnance, which ranges from small arms munitions and grenades to mortars, anti-tank missiles, and man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), was either shipped legitimately and then repackaged, or moved illegally & their contents concealed to avoid scrutiny and oversight from international arms import restrictions.



Military vehicles of various ages and origins are stowed in a military-controlled hanger in Central Turkmenistan. Note the US-fielded Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) light armored vehicle, as well as a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT), also of US origin. Such vehicles were likely sourced from other conflict zones across the Middle East as part of the Global War on Terror.



This bill of lading was found affixed to a shipping container of a different weapons cache in Central Turkmenistan, ostensibly described as a food and provisions supply shipment for the Turkmen armed forces. However, instead of ginger, cinnamon, and vodka, as claimed by some of the line items on the bill, hundreds of small arms, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and even a small number of recoilless rifles were found inside a bundle of several shipping containers that were a part of this cache. While the exact tonnage could not be confirmed, it is estimated that this cache contained nearly 4,000 various small arms such as AK-platformed assault rifles and SVD semiautomatic sniper rifles, at least two dozen heavy machine guns, at least eight SPG-9 recoilless rifles, and more than 100,000 rounds of assorted ammunition.


Plentiful Arms & Systemic Instability: A Recipe For War

"There are many, many of such places. More guns and bullets and missiles than we can keep track of..." the Turkmen official revealed, who had arranged the visits to these sites by our correspondent. For safety reasons of both our correspondent, who remains in Turkmenistan, as well as the Turkmen official who granted us exclusive access to this arsenal, no actual names were used as part of this coverage.

Based on the several weapons and arms storage areas which The International Report had gained secret access to, this is but a fraction of a massive arsenal of military hardware and weapons in a place that, as of most recently, has entered a de facto state of civil war. Some reports, while yet to be confirmed, suggest instead that the most recent fighting country-wide is instead the beginning of a revolutionary movement against the Murtazayev regime, and owing to a seemingly ironic tale of fate, at the end of the very weapons he and his father's regime have spent decades acquiring. As reports of violence and rumors of government overthrow continue to mount from among the little available news coming from Turkmenistan, the revelation of the military's access to a seemingly endless supply of weapons can only spell a grim end for those who may oppose them. Equally concerning, however, is the potential for a post-Gaddafi Libya parallel, in which a fragmenting military and emerging militants collide, looking to seize control amid the apparent collapse of the government. Caught in between but also just as likely to exacerbate the state of affairs are locals and community leaders alike, who may be looking to secure and protect their interests & now have unrestricted access to their own arsenal of military hardware.

It is not a question of if violence will continue in the possibly-collapsed Turkmen state, but rather of what may be left to restore. The US-backed United Nations Operation in Turkmenistan began preparations last week but has finally been given the go-ahead to proceed just this past Sunday, and with UN troops already massing at the Uzbek border, it is expected they will begin maneuvers towards the Turkmen hot zones over the next 48 hours. 


AUTHORIZED FOR DISTRIBUTION BY 1-506th S-2
Reviewed By: 1LT Jason Mallory, WO1 Juan Reynoso, SGT Neil White

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