On 23 April a two-day official visit of the Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to Uzbekistan kicked off.
The news agency “Fergana” reports that the local authorities urged thousands of students holding the flags of both countries to line up along the protocol streets where the Presidential motorcade was expected to drive past.
According to the news agency, the reports about students of Tashkent universities being involved in arranging a red-carpet welcome for the Turkmen President were posted in social networks last weekend.
In particular, students shared in their Facebook accounts that they need to appear at various places along “the Presidential motorway” wearing festive outlets and clean-shaven and that the attendance will be recorded.
The authorities threatened that “the most severe measures, up to expulsion” would be applied to those who have failed to turn up.
Many Internet users, who left comments to these reports, were outraged by another fact of students’ mobilization in the community service as viewed by the authorities since earlier this month President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister Abdullah Aripov had promised to totally eradicate this practice.
The users of social networks recommended Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to wait until he returns to his home country where a “proper” meet-and-greet will be arranged by his fellow countrymen.