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Pursuing Khudayberdy Allashov’s work on forced labor in the cotton fields in Turkmenistan
Journalist Khudayberdy Allashov died on August 13, 2024, aged 35, after nearly ten years of persecution by the Turkmen regime. In 2016, he dared to tell the story of forced labor in Turkmenistan’s cotton fields. Forbidden Stories has carried on his work and can reveal that this cotton, theoretically banned from the textile industry’s supply chains, continues to flood the shelves of European stores.
Employees of the state water supply company picking cotton in Dashoguz region, in October 2022 – Credit : Turkmen.News
By Edouard Perrin
January 30th, 2024
Project partners
Farruh Yusupov and Toymyrat Bugayev, Turkmen Service of RFE/RL
Forbidden Stories team
Director of publications: Laurent Richard
Editor: Edouard Perrin
Journalist: Cécile Andrzejewski
Publication coordinator: Louise Berkane
Videos: Anouk Aflalo Doré
Fact-checker: Emma Wilkie
Copy editor: Simon Guichard
Translators : Amy Thorpe, Toymyrat Bugayev
Communication: Alix Loyer, Clément Le Merlus
Web integration: Thibault François
A mere two-month career, cut short. For daring to write a few articles about one of Turkmenistan’s best-kept secrets, journalist Khudayberdy Allashov was persecuted by his country’s security forces for almost ten years. His slow ordeal was punctuated by arbitrary arrests and lengthy torture sessions, until his death on August 13, 2024, at the age of 35. He was the father of two children.
But what could he have written sensitive enough to merit such an end?
“Heating problems in certain regions, with temperatures of -15,” read the headline of one of his rare articles, published November 24, 2016. Another mentioned “people [who] queue up to do their shopping a month in advance.” Allashov was interested in the everyday worries of his fellow citizens. But it was probably his report entitled “Cotton harvest continues in Dashoguz,” published on November 23, 2016, that sealed his fate.
That’s because Allashov chose to practice journalism in his native Turkmenistan, ranked 175th out of 180 countries in the 2024 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. The Central Asian dictatorship is one of the most closed-off nations in the world. Everything that is written must praise the regime, on pain of the worst reprisals.
Allashov worked for Radio Azatlyk, the Turkmen service of the American media Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and wrote under a pseudonym. Despite this precaution, his descriptions of the conditions under which Turkmen cotton was harvested immediately drew the attention of the authorities to him.
Cotton is Turkmenistan’s white gold, one of the country’s rare resources, along with hydrocarbons. To harvest it, the regime often forcibly enlists the population, including minors. Allashov dared to write about this, and paid with years of ultimately fatal persecution.
Forbidden Stories chose to continue his work, because in the Turkmen cotton fields, eight years after Allashov’s article, forced labor has never disappeared. Despite cosmetic reforms, the regime of former and current presidents Gurbanguly and Serdar Berdimuhamedow still sends civil servants, soldiers, and children to pick the precious fiber.
Forbidden Stories teamed up with Radio Azatlyk to gather rare insider accounts. We also chose to investigate the channels through which Turkmen cotton travels. Despite timid reforms and limited sanctions, it is still massively used by the textile industry.
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