Following the incident with a cardiologist, who made his sexual orientation public, Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Healthcare and Medical Industry is now being concerned with identifying individuals with non-heterosexual sexual orientation among healthcare practitioners. Сorrespondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that meetings were held in all regional healthcare departments with “the doctor who discredited our profession with improper conduct” being the only item on the agenda.
One of the meetings was held on 28 October in the healthcare department (formerly, regional Public Health Administration) of the city of Turkmenabad.The heads of the velayat’s medical institutions were invited to attend the meeting.
Apart from the regional healthcare executives, representatives of the law enforcement authorities and deputy khyakim of the velayat (head of the administration) overseeing legal issues were chairing the meeting.
The event hosts were extremely nervous as they were at a loss for words in the Turkmen language.
It appears that the Ashgabat authorities issued the instructions to identify gays and lesbians among medical doctors. It is not known how to address this issue, yet measures need to be undertaken.
The decision was eventually made to conduct STD testing among all healthcare practitioners ranging from hospital attendants to chief physicians of the municipal public health authority. Moreover, the timetable indicating the dates of the medical checks for each medical institution was drafted.
The medical examination fee is 270 manats, which needs to be covered by healthcare practitioners themselves.
The employees of rural outpatient clinics were obliged to do medical checks among residents aged 14 to 50, who are assigned to the clinics.
The police officer who spoke at the meeting said that residents need to submit reports to the police in case they are familiar with any gays or lesbians. He warned about criminal charges for failure to report the crime. Let us recall that adult consensual same-sex conduct is a criminal offense under Turkmen law.
A similar meeting was held in the Mary velayat healthcare department. Regrettably, we have failed to find out the details of the meeting.
On 21 October, 2019 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) published a narrative by a gay man in which he came out reported the problems he faced in Turkmenistan.
His name had been changed for reasons of security, but based on the details in the article, the law enforcement officers managed to establish identity of the young man.
He is a 24 y.o.cardiologist Kasymberdy Garayev.
On 24 October Kasymberdy was summoned to the police station and has been held incommunicado since then.