When the Turkmenistan government announced new streamlined visa regulations in April, those familiar with travel to Central Asian countries were not sure what to do with it.
There are not many such experts. Along with North Korea and Eritrea, Turkmenistan has long been considered one of the world’s most isolated countries. This has been considered a legacy dating back to the 1990s, when the country left the Soviet Union, turned inward and settled into a sealed, independent authoritarianism.
But for certain travelers, the inexplicability of Turkmenistan gives it a fascinating mystique, especially for those attracted to conflict zones and geopolitical oddities. There’s only one problem. It’s about going in.
Scoring a tourist visa is a long-term, involved process in which you must obtain a referral letter (LOI) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after booking a visit with a government-approved tour operator. Review – The government decides whether you should be allowed to enter or not – it can sometimes take several months.
The words the administration intended to make something more user-friendly for travelers more user-friendly was amazing, says Dylan Lupin, whose UK-based Lupin trip offers small group tours of Turkmenistan.
“We’re still in the dark because there have been no updates since then, and so are our local partners in Turkmenistan.” “No new visa regulations have been in place yet, and there is no news of when this will happen.”
Once the new process begins, visitors will be able to apply online, and authorities pledge that it will be much faster and there will be fewer refusals. The LOI requirement is reportedly going away, but visitors still need a “sponsor” in Turkmenistan. This means that you will most likely sign up for a guided tour.
“Once it’s in place, I think it’ll push the number of visitors up hard,” adds Lupin.
CNN contacted Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comments.
For decades, even before independence from the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan’s main attraction was the Darbazagas Crater. Located in the Karakham Desert, a roughly four-hour drive from the capital Ashgabat, the giant fiery pit is an artificial phenomenon created during the Soviet era when natural gas exploration rigs collapsed into sinkholes.
After traveling across the desert in a 4×4 caravan, visitors check in to the yurt camp and head to the edge of the edge around the “Gate of Hell” after darkness to feel the heat and hear the heat of the flames from the bottom.
But Darbaza is literally running out of gas. The flames have been receding significantly in recent years, with forecasts that the crater could be completely burned in the coming years.
But that doesn’t mean there’s no other reason to visit. The ancient Silk Road city with historic mosques and minarets offers a dramatic contrast to the Ashgabat. Ashgabat features spectacular modern architecture and magnificent monuments that feature everything from post-communist leaders and medieval poets to golden horses, national dogs and the enormous bulls that balance the world in their heads.
The Turkish people are warmly welcoming given the fact that they rarely encountered foreign visitors. If the arid landscape is yours, about 80% of Turkmenistan is in the desert. And there is the novelty of exploring places that most others have visited in the present day.
“Turkmenistan is different from the country I visited,” says Norwegian author and anthropologist Erika Fatland, author of “Sovietistan” and author of other books on Central Asia and the former Soviet Union.
“The sparkling white marble capital with empty lanes is one of the strangest capitals I have ever visited.”
Spangled with golden statues and white marble, the ashgabutt is an architectural wonder and an Instagram icon. Many of the structures are shaped like government functions. This is like a ministry of oil and gas buildings that resemble a giant lighter. Others were created to win the Guinness World Records, including the world’s largest indoor Ferris wheel and the giant horse head floating above the national stadium.
At the city’s indoor Russian bazaar, the vendor offers samples of caviar harvested from slices in the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan, as the author discovered during a recent visit. The mixed Persian and Central Asian influences, the culinary scene is surprisingly good. The nightlife is fairly limited, but you can get some cold beer at Clever’s Irish Pub or Florida British Pub.
Arrived in strategic locations along the Silk Road trading route between Asia and Europe, the country has several UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the Parthian fortress of Nisa near Ashgabat and the vast ruins of Melbour in eastern Turkmenistan. Even more impressive are the richly decorated grand mosques, graves and towering minarets in Kunya Urgench in the far north.
“My most beautiful experience in Turkmenistan was in the desert countryside where I met The friendly and kindest people I have ever met say,” says Fatland. Chareffectively national drinks, they continued to serve me with generous amounts. Let’s say it’s an acquired taste. ”
Ironically, Turkmenistan has made it easier to visit Soviet travel, which promoted Soviet days in the Soviet Union. Created in 1929 by authoritarian leader Joseph Stalin, the state travel agency was tasked with acquiring foreign exchange through tourism and making sure that almost all of the visitors had seen the best aspects of the Soviet Union on closely supervised guided tours.
With offices in London, New York and other foreign cities, Intoolists have invited travelers with impressive posters and newspaper ads. Among the tours they offered in the 1930s was a 16-day trip to ancient Torkestan, including a stop at the “prosperous Ashkabad.”
Tourism grew slowly at first. However, the thawing of the Cold War in the 1980s led the Soviet Union to attract around 4 million tourists a year. The unraveling of the Soviet Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall provided an opportunity to increase visits even more. However, Turkmenistan did not jump on the bandwagon.
When Moscow provided the independence of 14 socialist republics in 1991, Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov initially balked this concept.
“That really goes to Niyazov,” says Lupin. “Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, his actions showed negativity towards perestroika and glasnost. He brought his own way after independence, but they were heavily influenced by the Soviet model.”
Rather old The Soviet model limited the overall number of tourists and held it in a tight rope with a guided tour that included only the sides of Turkmenistan, where Niyazov wanted to show the outside world.
Meanwhile, the country’s huge gas reserves meant that Turkmenistan could remain independent and neutral during the post-Soviet era, eliminating the need for external international influence. Even after Niyazov’s death in 2006, the new leadership continued to strictly restrain foreign visits.
But there are hints that changes may be right there.
According to the latest Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) report on Turkmenistan, the country has been plagued by economic problems for nearly a decade. The government hopes to attract more foreign investment and increase employment, and has recently called for economic cooperation with other countries, including a natural gas sharing arrangement created with Turkey and Iran.
Some observers believe that a move to simplify the visa approval process and increase tourism is part of this overall strategy. This is another way to boost your forex reserves. Tourism is booming in two of its Central Asian neighbours, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
“When Uzbekistan simplifies visa procedures after Karimov’s death (Islamic President), tourism will increase diversity and perhaps they want similar impacts in Turkmenistan,” says Fatland.
“All other ‘stans’ have opened for visa-free entries for many nationalities, so Turkmen may have felt the need to relax a bit. ”
