The Turkmen Interior Ministry keeps detailed statistics on suicide attempts among teenagers.The data are compiled by inspectors from the Sixth Department of the Criminal Investigation Directorate in Ashgabat and the provinces, who submit monthly reports to the ministry’s central office.
Turkmen.news has obtained data for January-April 2021 and 2022.The information indicates that Turkmenistan’s teen suicide rate exceeds that of its neighbors, with Lebap and Balkan provinces leading the statistics.
Specific cases and causes of suicide are detailed in the first report by turkmen.news, based on a large volume of data provided by a source in one of the country’s law enforcement agencies.
A Hidden Deadly EpidemicIn the first four months of 2021, 44 attempted teen suicides were registered in Turkmenistan.During the same period in 2022, the number rose to 56.Lebap province led in early 2021 with 14 cases.
It was followed by Akhal, Dashoguz and Mary provinces, with nine cases each.Three attempts were registered in Balkan province.In 2022, the highest number was recorded in Balkan province — 19 cases.
It was followed by Dashoguz (15), Lebap (9), Mary (8), Akhal (4) and the city of Ashgabat (1).The statistics also include a gender breakdown.In the first four months of 2022, 32 girls and 24 boys attempted suicide.
In the same period of 2021, the pattern was reversed — 16 girls and 28 boys.The Interior Ministry also records methods of suicide.In the first four months of 2022, 36 people attempted hanging (39 in the same period of 2021), 17 consumed vinegar (four in 2021), and two — in Mary and Ashgabat — jumped from heights (one in 2021).
Not all attempts were fatal, but the proportion of fatal cases is high — between 67% and 90%.Although the ministry’s statistics are detailed, their accuracy is unclear.For example, turkmen.news previously reported on an April case in Ashgabat in which a 10th-grade student at School №37 died after falling from a height following an argument with his father.
In March of the same year, a similar incident occurred in the capital.Sources said a seventh-grade student at elite school №7 had been bullied by classmates.
That case was included in the Interior Ministry’s statistics for March but does not appear in the April data.There are also inconsistencies in the tables: for certain periods, the number of specific methods of suicide is either higher or lower than the total number of cases indicated.If the Interior Ministry’s data for the first four months are extrapolated to the full year, Turkmenistan may have recorded about 132 attempted teen suicides in 2021 and about 168 in 2022.For comparison, Kyrgyzstan’s Interior Ministry counted 88 such attempts in 2021 — one and a half times fewer.
Both countries conducted censuses in 2022 and recorded populations of about seven million each.Uzbekistan has no available data for 2021-22, but in 2020 — a comparable pandemic year — 526 suicide attempts among minors were registered in a population of 38 million.
Per capita, the rate is close to that of Kyrgyzstan.In Tajikistan, with a population of 10 million, the Interior Ministry does not publish such statistics.The office of the children’s ombudsman reports a relatively low level of teen suicides: 69 deaths were registered in 2022.Overall, suicide statistics are considered underreported worldwide.
Because of the stigma surrounding the issue, suicides may be recorded as accidents, and attempts may go unreported.An increase in suicides in Balkan province or among girls compared with boys does not necessarily indicate a real rise in prevalence — monitoring may simply have become more thorough.Why Do Teenagers in Turkmenistan Take Their Own Lives?After each such case, officers from the Sixth Department of the Criminal Investigation Directorate work to determine the causes of suicide.
A detailed profile of the teenager is compiled, including a photograph.Investigators check whether the child was registered with police or under psychiatric supervision, question school staff, and interview classmates and parents.In some cases — such as that of a ninth-grade student at a school in Ashgabat, identified as D.A. — the reasons are clear, and the circumstances are later investigated by prosecutors.In the spring of 2025, the then-15-year-old girl was hospitalized with severe burns to her digestive organs.
She had drunk vinegar but, fortunately, was saved.Police determined that the desperate act was prompted by sexual harassment from the 49-year-old owner of the house where the girl and her mother were renting a room.
The husband and father had been working abroad for years, and his wife and daughter had moved to the capital from one of the provinces.The case was forwarded to prosecutors, but its outcome is unknown.In other cases, the causes are less clear.
In early December 2022, 13-year-old M.G.died by suicide in Ashgabat.Her parents said their daughter had recently been “haunted by a black shadow” and felt emotionally distressed.In April 2025, 17-year-old O.T., a resident of one of the districts of Akhal province, also died by suicide.
Police reached no specific conclusions about the cause.In their report, they noted only that the father was unemployed and the mother and older sister held low-level positions in state institutions.When the causes of suicide are established, they are included in official reports.
For early 2022, the listed reasons included lack of parental affection (three cases), low family income (two cases), and distress in an unhappy family (one case).The reporting form also provides for such causes as pregnancy, disability, serious physical illness and mental illness, but no cases attributed to those factors were recorded.Very often, the family of a deceased teenager is effectively incomplete: the father has been working abroad for a long time, has died, or the parents are divorced.
This corresponds with observations by the World Health Organization, which notes that severe loss increases the risk of suicidal behavior.The risk is higher among those who have experienced armed conflict, disasters or violence, as well as among young people from vulnerable groups, such as LGBT youth.At the same time, income level is not directly linked to suicide rates.
In its 2019 global report, the World Health Organization noted that although most cases are recorded in low-income countries, the per capita rate is higher in wealthier nations.
It is also typically lower in regions with higher levels of religiosity.Income and religiosity can influence not only personal motives and an individual’s propensity toward suicide, but also how families and officials address the issue — including whether suicide is recorded as the cause of death.To Intimidate or to EducateThere is no evidence that schools in Turkmenistan have programs aimed at preventing depression and suicide.
Deputy principals, representatives of various state agencies and the Interior Ministry regularly hold “preventive talks” with students on moral conduct and delinquency.However, discussions about students’ mental health are generally absent.Although schools employ staff psychologists, their level of education and professional training often falls short.
For example, it is not unusual in Turkmenistan for a school psychologist to share the contents of a confidential conversation with a student during tea with other teachers.For children, school psychologists are authority figures with teacher status, which can make students wary and reluctant to open up.Prohibitive measures and stern lectures often have the opposite effect.
Teenagers lose interest in their studies; for weeks or even months they stop attending school and frequently become involved in precisely the activities they were warned about.An anti-record for absenteeism was set by 11th-grader S.G.
and seventh-grader C.B., who live in a suburb of Ashgabat.During the 2024-2025 academic year, neither attended a single class.Both cited a lack of desire to study.
S.G.’s mother died when the girl was still a child; her father has a disability.C.B., by contrast, has no father, and her mother is unemployed.
At the same time, the juvenile affairs inspector noted in his report that both families’ financial situations were normal.A 12th-grade student at a school in Ashgabat, identified as M.T., also did not attend school, but in his case there was a reason: he worked during school hours because of his family’s financial difficulties.
His father has a criminal record and is unemployed.His mother holds a low-paid technical position at a state institution.Several more examples:On a school day in the spring of 2023, police in one of Turkmenistan’s major cities detained several 11th-graders in a park.
The teenagers had a pack of Baralgin — a painkiller that in the country is often used to alter consciousness.That is how the students explained why they had it.A 10th-grader, A.A., from Akhal province regularly skipped school.
Teachers also complained about her behavior, prompting a conversation with the local juvenile affairs inspector.Some time later, she was summoned again — this time to determine who had impregnated her at such a young age.In the spring of 2023, 16-year-old G.N.
and 15-year-old O.R.were placed under police supervision for engaging in prostitution.Their case was reported to the head of the Interior Ministry’s Public Security Directorate, emphasizing that their “activities” contradicted the state’s efforts to promote moral upbringing among youth.In Turkmenistan, “sexual intercourse with a person known to be under 16 years of age” is a criminal offense, yet this was not mentioned in the memo to superiors, nor was there information about any pursuit of the girls’ clients.
It is also unclear whether police examined the circumstances that pushed the schoolgirls into such dangerous and socially stigmatized work.Hundreds of Turkmen girls ages 15-17 have left school for family life with their partners, often with parental consent.
In some regions, two to three dozen such cases are registered annually, both in the capital and in the provinces.Grooms are usually older than the brides, though in some cases they are minors themselves.
Sex education in Turkmen schools is limited to a message of total abstinence until marriage, leaving teenagers to explore the subject on their own, often with only a vague understanding of contraception and marriage.Among teenagers flagged by police were those whose behavior changed sharply after the death of a close relative.
Many were cited merely for using foul language or spending time outside.It is possible that if psychologists — rather than police officers — had been the first to respond in such cases, fewer teenagers would become disillusioned with life, and fewer would bully peers to the point of suicidal thoughts.Teen and youth suicides are both a distinct problem and part of a broader suicide epidemic.
In the aforementioned 2019 report by the World Health Organization, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan appeared to fare better than Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in the number of suicides per 100,000 people across all age groups.
But does this reflect reality?The WHO rates the quality of data from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as high, from Turkmenistan as medium, and from Tajikistan as low.In the first two countries, suicide statistics are regularly made public, and prevention measures are discussed by media and civil society groups.In Turkmenistan, since 2022, officials have proclaimed the “Revival of the New Era of the Powerful State,” which replaced the previous “Era of Might and Happiness.” Grand slogans bear little relation to living standards but suppress uncomfortable discussions.
It is unlikely that any official would publicly acknowledge that people in a “mighty state” are voluntarily taking their own lives, or that instead of happiness, many may be experiencing depression.Meanwhile, methods proven to reduce suicide rates in other countries include not only transparent reporting but also screening to identify those at risk, training for medical personnel and teachers, educational campaigns for young people, and accessible psychological support programs.
In Turkmenistan, however, suicide remains another issue where, for officials, publicity is considered worse than death.