The Darvaza crater is believed to have been the consequence of a natural gas drilling operation accident, where the ground collapsed into a void under the Karakum desert. 

Despite having an isolated dictatorship hostile to outsiders ruling the country, Turkmenistan has a history of marketing the country’s bizarre spectacle to tourists, like a 246 foot tower in the capital Ashgabat dedicated to geopolitical neutrality. Or a gigantic, rotating golden statue of the country’s former dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov. And a newer, 16-foot statue of the current president’s favorite dog breed (The Alabay, a Turkmen variety of the Central Asian shepherd dog).

Putting tourism aside, last week President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered the Gates of Hell to be extinguished. He had abruptly given the same command in 2010, without stating any clear reasons, but it was never completed.

Berdymukhamedov is known for puzzling initiatives like fumigating public spaces with smoke from an indigenous grass to protect against Covid. He has said that he wanted the pit extinguished because it’s a waste of profitable resources and it adversely affects the health of people living nearby and damages the environment.

But closing the Darvaza crater would have negligible mitigation for Turkmenistan's emissions problem. Rich in oil and gas resources, the country is one of the top emitters of methane, the largest component of natural gas and is significantly more detrimental to the environment than carbon dioxide. Methane leaks can be reduced with the help of regulations and infrastructure, and over a hundred countries made cut-down pledges at COP26, the climate conference last year in Glasgow. Turkmenistan’s had only made vague promises at COP26. 

In the past couple years, Turkmenistan has been on the radar of energy data analytics organizations like Kayrros or International Energy Agency, as methane footprint awareness evolved to become a top climate concern. But the contribution of the Gates of Hell to the problem does not rank among the chief causes of the country’s methane crisis.

“It's actually a tourist attraction. I don't think it can be considered the main cause of Turkmenistan's emissions. If you want to reduce methane emissions in Turkmenistan, it's probably not the place you want to start,” said Antoine Halff, chief analyst at Kayrros. “I think there's a lot of scrutiny over emissions from Turkmenistan and this looks like an attempt by the government to be proactive about emissions.”

Darvaza crater, in fact, draws many adventurers' interest.

“If you'd never seen this place before and were asked to draw a picture of a hole in the ground as a doorway to hell, this is exactly what it would look like,” said George Kourounis, a professional explorer and the only man known to ever go down in the pit. “I've described it as being in a coliseum of fire.”

If the reasons why the president of Turkmenistan wants to extinguish the fiery pit right now is open to speculation, so is how it became a burning hole in the ground in the first place. The most widely circulated theory is that in 1971 geologists ignited the hole, hoping to burn off seeping dangerous methane over a few days. 

But Kourounis says the Turkmen geologists that accompanied his expedition had a slightly different memory. 

“They tell me that the crater bubbled with mud and gas for years and that the mud actually overflowed the top of the crater and spilled into the surrounding desert and didn't catch fire until the 1980s.” 

Kourounis says nobody in the country knows what happened either. “I tried to get any kind of official reports, something on paper, but you know, it was the Soviet era, it was either classified or destroyed, or maybe no good records were taken. So I don't have any proof other than what we witnessed ourselves and the testimony from two geologists on the scene.”

Extinguishing the burning hole won’t be a straightforward task, according to Giuseppe Etiope, a geologist and researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy and the author of book called Natural Gas Seepage: The Earth’s Hydrocarbon Degassing.

Etiope said the accident seems to have exposed an accumulation of gas, or a gas pocket, below the surface, opening a Pandora’s Box. Closing it would require a comprehensive geological and geophysical study of not only the crater but the whole area.

“The Pandora’s Box is not only the shallower gas pocket, but is all the sequence of the pockets below that are probably connected,” he told me.

Long-term burning craters are not a new phenomenon tied to the petroleum industry. These “eternal fires” relegated as tourist attractions have had a special role in ancient cultures, driving mythological legends, religious traditions, and contributing to human civilization. Like the burning Baba Gurgur in Iraq, or eternal fires in Iran and Azerbaijan, like the Yanardag, worshiped by Zoroastrians.

Besides attempting to turn the Gates to Hell into a tourist attraction, Berdymukhamedov also gained attention for the site when, after months of rumors that he was dead, he appeared on a state-owned TV channel in a video, driving around the fire pit doing doughnuts.

Since November, the government has banned Turkmen from visiting the pit without special permission. And although the ban has not applied to foreign tourists, it appears Berdymukhamedov hasn’t welcomed them to visit the pit either.

It’s doubtful that the plan to close the Gates of Hell will succeed, according to Stefan Green, a microbiologist that accompanied Kourounis on his Darvaza expedition and gathered soil samples from the crater. 

The president “is certainly right that the crater is pretty bad for the environment. But it is better off burning than as an uncontrolled methane release. Methane is a terrible greenhouse gas, much worse than CO2. Better to burn it than to let it go into the atmosphere as methane,” he said. 

According to Green, the right solution would not be inexpensive: “You could put out the fire easily but that would create an explosion hazard. It needs careful engineering. My guess is that they decide it isn't worth the effort.”

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A Moscow-based human rights group, Memorial, has highlighted the case of a Turkmen man known for his public criticism of the Turkmen government who is currently being held in Russia. Memorial said Rozgeldy Choliev, 27 was held on March 2 by Russian border officials at a Moscow airport after arriving from Istanbul. 

Choliev, who published a series of videos criticizing Turkmenistan's regime on Facebook in 2020, was a student at Karachay-Cherkessia university in Russia — he said he was expelled last September because of his activism and claimed he was visited by officials of the FSB, Russia’s main domestic intelligence service. 

Despite the fact that Choliev was in possession of a valid Russian visa, border officials told him that he could not enter the country due to Covid-19 restrictions and would be sent back to Turkey. They stopped when Choliev said he was seeking political asylum and that human rights organizations were aware of his situation. 

While Choliev is not officially wanted in either Russia or Turkmenistan, Russian authorities told him they would invite officials from the Turkmen Consulate to “decide your situation.” According to Memorial, Russian authorities have yet to give him access to migration officials to apply for asylum. Back in Turkmenistan, his family has also been intimidated and threatened.

In an email interview, Vitaly Ponomarev, the director of Memorial's Central Asian program, said that Turkmen opposition activists often face threats from president Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov’s government. Last October, Dursultan Taganova, a 29-year-old Turkmen migrant worker and activist living in Turkey, made headlines when she spent some three months in a deportation facility after being detained at a protest outside of the Turkmen Consulate in Istanbul. Taganova was released on October 12 after a group of human rights groups called on Turkey not to send her back to Turkmenistan. 

Ponomarev told me that the Turkmen authorities are concerned that migrants activists could create political instability within Turkmenistan. “The authorities fear that the ‘virus of dissent’ among migrants could create political problems within the country. Especially against the background of a serious crisis in the local economy,” he wrote.

Turkmenistan scored 2/100 in a new report by Freedom House, an organization that ranks political freedoms around the world.

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At a Cabinet meeting on December 25, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov spoke about the abundant medicinal properties of the plant and pointed to one of its main compounds as a possible cure. “Today, scientists note that the glycyrrhizic acid contained in this plant prevents the development of a new coronavirus, which the whole world is fighting against. Moreover, even a small concentration of an aqueous extract of licorice root has a neutralizing effect,” he said, according to the state news agency TDH.

Licorice root, which contains plant compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, is widely used as a herbal remedy for respiratory infections, sore throats and ulcers. 

Berdymukhamedov’s comments appeared to follow the publishing of a preprint paper by scientists at University Hospital Essen in Germany which suggested that glycyrrhizin might be effective against the virus. While the scientists noted that their findings should be further investigated, officials at Turkmenistan's health ministry seized the opportunity to hold an online meeting on January 19 with one of the authors of the study.

Coda Story has previously reported on the dangers of publishing open-access preprints during the coronavirus pandemic.

State-controlled media outlets in Turkmenistan have jumped on the licorice bandwagon. 

“Licorice breaks the popularity record,” read a headline in one state-controlled newspaper, Neutral Turkmenistan, which extolled the benefits of the plant and its production in the country. 

According to the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries, an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkmenistan is an emerging supplier of licorice extract to Europe.

Another piece in Neutral Turkmenistan singled out Berdymukhamedov for praise. “The wisdom and foresight of the head of state, who identified the experience of ancestors and modern technologies as a priority in the development of the domestic medical industry, is confirmed by the research results of not only Turkmen, but also foreign scientists.”

The impact of the president’s recommendation can already be seen in schools across the country. Radio Free Europe’s Turkmen service reported that children have been ordered to include licorice syrup in their mandatory first aid kits, along with masks, disinfectants and rubber gloves, when attending school. 

While authorities in Turkmenistan have yet to officially acknowledge the existence of Covid-19 this month, local media reported the government has purchased “small amounts'' of Pfizer and Sputnik V vaccines. Although a number of social distancing restrictions have been introduced in schools, mosques and on public transport, doctors have continued to report spikes in Covid-19 cases and deaths anonymously.

This is not the first time Berdymukhamedov, a former dentist, has advocated the use of unproven herbal remedies as a cure for Covid-19. Last March, he ordered all public spaces to be fumigated with smoke from an indigenous grass known as harmala.

“The situation is disastrous,” said Diana Serebryannik, who runs an activist group that consults medics and ordinary people in Turkmenistan on how to treat Covid-19.

Serebryannik said the government is unable to treat Covid-19 patients. “They still don't have enough medicine, they still don't know how to deal with the symptoms that appear after the disease.”

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A state-owned communications company Turkmentelekom has developed software for national e-mail, according to a November 12 report by the government’s news agency TDH. The report added that President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov was informed during a cabinet meeting that the email service was being tested ahead of its rollout. 

At the same time, the majority state-owned Altyn Asyr, Turkmenistan’s sole mobile telecoms provider, has created a mobile app for a national messenger service.

“With the help of the Internet, this mobile software allows you to instantly exchange text messages, participate in group conversations, talk using video calls, and send and receive various types of electronic files,” the state news agency wrote. 

Why it matters:

The launch of a state-backed email and messaging app could tighten the government’s authoritarian hold over its six million citizens. Turkmentelekom and Altyn Asyr are the only telecoms providers in the country and all communications are closely surveilled by the government, according to civil and human rights organizations. Turkmenistan scored 2 out of 100 in a 2020 report by Freedom House, an organization that ranks political freedoms around the world.

“If the government suspects someone is working for independent press or human rights organization, they can not only wiretap their phone calls or text messages, they can also control all of their online activities,” Ruslan Myatiev, a director at Turkmen.News one of the very few opposition media operating from abroad, told me over a phone call.

The government’s surveillance and control of the internet also includes blocking popular social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Telegram are all banned and websites like YouTube are inaccessible. The only messenger currently available in Turkmenistan without a virtual private network is IMO.

The government's control is such that an engineering and technology university had to use a VPN to hold an international scientific conference online in April. 

Myatiev says the authorities have a maximalist approach to policing digital spaces. “They block everything, it’s a continuous process. If tomorrow a new popular messenger comes out, Turkmen people start using it and if the government is not able to control that communication, they will block it,” Myatiev said. 

The bigger picture:

While the internet is expensive and very slow in Turkmenistan — often forcing neighbors to split costs and share wireless networks — Berdymukhamedov, according to state agency reports, is always pushing for the digitization of systems and services. This modernizing agenda rarely corresponds with daily realities in a country where plane or train tickets must be bought in person because online purchases are practically impossible.

The government has yet to announce a launch date for the messenger and email service.
Authorities have squeezed the flow of information during the pandemic. The government still denies the existence of Covid-19 in the country, despite multiple reports that large numbers of people have been infected.

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Under legislation introduced on September 7, the people of Turkmenistan — one of the world’s most isolated and repressive regimes — now face jail terms of two to five years if they escape hospitals or avoid treatment for conditions "recognized as dangerous infectious diseases of an epidemic or pandemic nature.“ 

This amendment to the country’s criminal code was signed by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, but Turkmenistan has yet to confirm a single coronavirus case within its borders. 

“Cover-ups like this when a country is in crisis generate confusion, rumors and public distrust,” said Rachel Denber, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, via email. “The government’s response to this — creating criminal penalties for ‘maliciously evading treatment’ is wrong and counterproductive. Laws creating criminal sanctions for spreading Covid-19 are not a legitimate or proportionate response to the threat posed by the virus. Criminalization might also have negative public health consequences, including discouraging people from seeking testing and care.”

In July, a team of experts from the World Health Organization was permitted to enter Turkmenistan. While the group did not report any coronavirus cases, it recommended that state authorities act as if the disease was present in the country. 

Since then, the government has adopted measures to combat the spread of infectious diseases. However, they are inconsistent and confusing to the public. Mosques are closed, transportation is restricted and large gatherings have been banned, including recent celebrations for Eid al-Adha, one of the most important holy days in Islam. Yet some public events have been allowed to go ahead.

People are fined for not wearing masks, officially mandated to protect residents against toxic dust carried into the country by the wind. According to opposition media operating outside the country, those who cannot afford to pay the $17 penalty are punished by being made to pick cotton.

Reports also show growing numbers of people are dying after presenting symptoms similar to those of Covid-19. Reportedly, authorities in one region ordered that new graves be as flat as possible, so they are not visible to satellite imaging.

Diana Serebryannik fled Turkmenistan in 2010. She runs an activist group that now focuses on providing information on how to treat and protect against the coronavirus to medics and ordinary people in Turkmenistan. She said most of the country’s doctors do not know how to care for potential Covid-19 patients. 

“They don’t have instruments, equipment or enough knowledge. They don’t know how to deal with it,” Serebryannik explained. 

Meanwhile, Berdymukhamedov has attempted to take people’s minds off the pandemic. In July, he shared photographs of his domestic summer vacation. They showed him fishing and horse riding while wearing a mask. Upon his return in August, he unveiled his newest book, “The Spiritual World of the Turkmen.” According to the state news agency, this volume is dedicated to the “centuries-old traditions of the Turkmen people and their national foundations.” 

The government has also set out to change the constitution, with the aim of “further democratization of state and public life.” However, activists abroad believe that this really translates as Berdymukhamedov finding ways to transfer his power to his family.

Illustration by Gogi Kamushadze

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“It was almost impossible to live there,” Serebryannik said of her family’s life in Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most isolated and authoritarian countries. “They confiscated everything.”

Serebryannik fled to Moscow in 2010 and, after many attempts, Yulia and the rest of her family joined her. Even there, persecution that they believe was orchestrated by Turkmenistan continued.

“We were threatened again, they tried to kidnap my daughter twice, when she was four and six months old, so we were afraid to go outside with her, and I was attacked with a knife.” she said.

In 2016, the family were granted asylum in Europe. They do not wish to disclose where, for fear of further attacks. However, once settled, the family founded an activist group named Rights and Freedoms of Turkmen Citizens, to support those struggling within the country. The organization previously concentrated on drawing attention to human rights abuses and offering support to people struggling within the country. However, since March, it has been almost exclusively occupied with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

While other nations around the world have recorded large numbers of cases and deaths, launched testing programs and imposed strict lockdowns, the Turkmen government has yet to confirm a single case of Covid-19. Instead, for the past six months, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, Niyazov’s successor, has responded to the pandemic with denial, secrecy and disinformation.

Now scores of Turkmen are turning to human rights groups or overseas-based opposition media, desperate for information about a virus their government says does not exist.

“Right now, we are of course focused on the coronavirus inside the country, because without an exaggeration, it is a disaster,” said Diana. “People are dying.”

From a small office, RFTC’s team, which includes three doctors, works around the clock to provide advice on the prevention and treatment of the virus to Turkmen citizens starved of reliable information. According to Diana, the group is also preparing to launch a specialist hotline, in order to address the rapidly rising demand for its services.

Turkmenistan’s state-controlled media has done everything it can to amplify the president’s messages and ignore the pandemic. However, human rights groups and opposition media outlets based outside of the country are reporting a surge of cases within the country.

Turkmen activists I spoke to say confusion in the country is overwhelming. Up until a couple of weeks ago, people who chose to wear masks were reportedly being fined by the authorities. 

“People were fined for masks and now they are getting a totally contradictory message saying, ‘You’ll be fined for not wearing it.’ So, to ordinary people, it’s very confusing, but they are cooperating,” said Aynabat Yaylymova, of the overseas-based Turkmen-language public health initiative Saglyk.org.

“There’s even fear in the air in Turkmenistan,” explained Hanum Rasulova, an Istanbul-based activist with the rights group SES Turkmenia Unite. “People are dying because of Covid-19, but our country doesn’t say it officially.” 

Last month Rasulova, along with other Turkmen nationals living in Istanbul, began to stage street protests against the Turkmenistan government’s pandemic response. Rasulova added that the crisis has been compounded by a steadily worsening economic situation and that people have reached out to her, complaining of poverty and hunger.

Instead of addressing this pressing health crisis, Turkmen state media has published glowing reports of national celebrations, such as Horse Day in April and Carpet Day in May. In the early stages of the pandemic, the closest Berdymukhammedov came to acknowledging the existence of the coronavirus was when he called a March government meeting and ordered all public spaces to be fumigated with smoke from an indigenous grass known as harmala. Doing so, he said, would provide protection against infectious diseases. 

Since then, a handful of opposition media outlets operating outside the country have reported rocketing incidences of Covid-19 symptoms, cases of pneumonia and deaths.

In April, the World Health Organization decided to send an expert mission to Turkmenistan. However, citing logistical difficulties, the team was unable to enter the country until July 6. At the end of the visit, the WHO issued a statement, saying that Turkmenistan had registered no coronavirus cases, but advised the government to act as if the virus was present within the country. The WHO followed up by sending a plane full of personal protective equipment to Turkmenabat International Airport on July 16.

Since then, travel has been restricted across the country, mosques, markets and shopping centers have been closed, and the government has made the wearing of masks compulsory in public places. But, officially, Covid-19 still does not exist in Turkmenistan. According to the government, increased air pollution and high concentrations of dust are the reasons for mandatory face coverings. 

“There’s zero public communication, there was zero public communication in February, March, April and even a part of May,” said Yaylymova, adding that the absence of strong, science-based communication is placing the physical and mental health of citizens at risk.

Ruslan Myatiev, an editor at the Netherlands-based website Turkmen.News, told me that he is receiving rising reports of pneumonia symptoms within the country and a growing number of messages from readers asking for information about the coronavirus.

This dearth of information is not just affecting the general public. According to Diana Serebryannik, doctors and hospital staff lack the basic knowledge required to treat patients with Covid-19 symptoms.

She explained that doctors from her organization have been providing advice on medicines and patient care to doctors within the country. Many medical professionals in Turkmenistan lack personal protective equipment and few are adequately trained to use the country’s scant supply of ventilators, she explained.

“What they have are simple masks, simple gloves that they buy with their own money,” said Serebryannik. “They’re getting sick. Lots of doctors have died.”

She added that personnel from the Turkmen security services are routinely stationed in hospitals. “They have authority to come in every time, no matter what a doctor is doing. They even have authority to go into a surgery room.”

Doctors are apparently also under state pressure to not report respiratory problems or pneumonia as primary symptoms in patients. 

“That kind of pressure is completely inappropriate and completely contrary to public health,” said Rachel Denber, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division.

According to Serebryannik, the Turkmen government put on a show for the WHO’s visiting team of experts, taking them to well-resourced hospitals with no Covid-19 patients.

“If you look very carefully at the WHO statement, that statement said that they didn't find a single reported case of Covid-19, and that might be true,” said Denber. “It might be absolutely true that people have tested positive, but the cases don't get reported.”

“What we’re dealing with is a carefully constructed alternative reality — or an alternative non-reality.” 

Illustration by Gogi Kamushadze

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