{"id":5162,"date":"2022-01-19T15:04:57","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T22:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=5162"},"modified":"2022-01-19T15:09:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T22:09:55","slug":"turning-up-in-turkmenistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=5162","title":{"rendered":"Turning Up In T\u00fcrkmenistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
My visa from the T\u00fcrkmeniustan consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif. I had to deny being a journalist to qualify for this. As I was shooting photos for the International Rescue Committee toward the end of my Afghan journey, a friend from Mazar suggested we make a letter stating that I was an aid worker to be allowed to cross the border from northwestern Afghanistan to southeastern T\u00fcrkmenistan. \u00a92022 Derek Henry Flood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

New York-<\/strong>Some twenty years ago I wound up in one of our world’s most hermetically-sealed nation-states, Saparmurat Niyazov’s T\u00fcrkmenistan. It was a place I never intended to visit nor was it part of a global bucket list to visit every country registered at the United Nations or some other quixotic reason people visit the place. I went to central Asia in the wake of the 9\/11 attacks here to cover the war in northern Afghanistan and the subsequent fall of the Taliban regime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though I entered Afghanistan via Tajikistan as nearly all journalists had, my Tajik visa had since expired as I chased the shifting war dynamics across Afghanistan’s magnificent, battered geography. Thinking ahead to have a backup plan for such a situation, I had gotten an Uzbekistan tourist visa before leaving New York shortly after 9\/11. But when I got to the Uzbek border at Hairaton, it turned out the only people being allowed in were journalists whose trips had originated in Tashkent. Having begun in Dushanbe this was a total nonstarter for grumpy Uzbek border guards despite me having a totally valid visa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when returning to Tajikistan was not an option and my Uzbekistan plan was foiled, the only other option was T\u00fcrkmenistan. [Crossing into either Iran or Pakistan wasn’t feasible for obvious reasons at the time] Entering the barren dictatorship was perhaps the strangest travel experience I’d ever encountered. It was a geopolitical void whose mad leader was entirely unbothered with the concepts of individual freedoms or an open society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click for link to listen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t dare shoot a single image the entire time I was there. Such a paranoid place it was that I needn’t draw attention to myself. All I have to prove I was this expired visa above about about a dozen manat notes, the country’s forlorn currency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was able to write up and recount some of these observations from this odd journey in the terror wars earliest days for this week’s Noiser Podcasts<\/a> episode narrated by Paul McGann<\/a>. Also featuring Hugh Pope<\/a>, Adrienne Edgar<\/a>, and Luca Anceschi<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York-Some twenty years ago I wound up in one of our world’s most hermetically-sealed nation-states, Saparmurat Niyazov’s T\u00fcrkmenistan. It was a place I never intended to visit nor was it part of a global bucket list to visit every…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[1346,1349],"class_list":["post-5162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-asia","tag-noiser","tag-podcast"],"yoast_head":"\nTurning Up In T\u00fcrkmenistan - The War Diaries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=5162\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turning Up In T\u00fcrkmenistan - The War Diaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New York-Some twenty years ago I wound up in one of our world’s most hermetically-sealed nation-states, Saparmurat Niyazov’s T\u00fcrkmenistan. 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