Leaked Warrant List Reveals How Turkmenistan Targets Critics Abroad

Even as he bounced between Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands seeking political asylum, Nurmuhammet Annayev kept pressure on the authoritarian regime in his home country of Turkmenistan.

Annayev runs a YouTube channel that has brought him popularity among fellow critics of the Turkmenistan government. But his activism has also kept him firmly in the regime’s sights.

“Turns out they can even take people from abroad,” he said. “These guys are ready to eliminate — to disappear — the person standing in front of them to achieve their goals.”

Annayev, whose exact location OCCRP is not disclosing due to security reasons, is right to believe he is a target of Turkmenistan’s sprawling security and legal apparatus. 

OCCRP’s member center, Turkmen.news, has obtained an arrest warrant list from the Ministry of Internal Affairs showing that Annayev was wanted in his home country for political reasons. He was accused of “calls for an armed seizure of power or change of the constitutional order,” as well as “open calls for extremist activities.”

The warrant list contains the names of 613 Turkmenistan citizens abroad who were wanted as of November 2022. Of that total, 93 faced political charges including “terrorism,” “conspiracy to seize power,” and “organizing an illegal armed group.” At least 26 of them faced the same charges as Annayev.

Reporters verified the authenticity of the leaked warrant list by cross referencing the names and charges against publicly known cases. The allegations against a handful of people on the warrant list have been made public before. At least three people on the 2022 list were later brought back to Turkmenistan where they were convicted.

Human Rights Watch calls the regime “one of the most oppressive and authoritarian governments in the world.”

“The government routinely subjects activists and independent correspondents, including in exile, to intimidation, harassment, physical attacks and imprisonment on bogus, politically motivated charges,” the rights group says.

The leaked warrant list shows how the regime has weaponized the law to target dissidents abroad and stifle freedom of expression.

Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

Politically Charged

In addition to overtly political charges, the warrant list includes accusations involving religion. Of the 93 people facing political charges, 39 were accused of “inciting social, national, or religious hatred.”

Half of those 39 individuals were additionally accused of “conspiracy to seize power.” Twenty were also alleged to be involved in organized crime, while 13 were accused of attempted theft of weapons or ammunition.

Constitutionally, Turkmenistan is secular and freedom of religion is insured in the Muslim-majority country. However, religiously-motivated charges have been used against Muslims who have organized groups — even if they are not political in nature. 

In 2013, security personnel detained members of a group formed to study Islamic texts. At least three of them died in custody, according to information from the government that was published in a 2020 report by the United Nations Human Rights Committee. All three prisoners died of “chronic illness,” according to the government.

The members of that study group were not mentioned in the warrant list, as they were inside the country and the list targets citizens abroad. 

The warrant list from 2022 did include Saddam Gulamov, who was accused of “calls for an armed seizure of power or change of the constitutional order” as well as “open calls for extremist activities.” 

Gulamov was living in Russia when he began posting criticism of Turkmenistan’s then-president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his son, Serdar, who took over the presidency in 2022. Gulamov was deported from Russia in 2024 and sentenced in Turkmenistan to five years in a penal colony. 

Another person on the warrant list was Enejan Salyhova who was accused of “calls for an armed seizure of power or change of the constitutional order.” 

Salyhova was living in Turkey when she began criticizing the Turkmenistan government publicly. She was detained at least once in Turkey, and has since fled to Sweden. 

Also on the list was Dursoltan Taganova, an activist who was accused of fraud. She was also active in Turkey and targeted by security forces after she began advocating for the rights of migrants like herself who could not obtain proper documents to stay in the country, but were also unable to go home.

“Of course, I was afraid. I knew what they could do to me. But at some point, I realized I couldn't live like this any longer,” she said in a 2021 interview in Chronicles of Turkmenistan, a media outlet operating in exile.

In 2025, she was granted asylum in Canada.

From Entrepreneur to Activist

In 2010s, Annayev was an entrepreneur in Turkmenistan, but he said “lawlessness” finally convinced him to seek his fortune elsewhere. He travelled to Dubai in 2020, and the following year moved to Turkey, home to the world’s largest Turkmen diaspora. 

He arrived in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and protests broke out amongst the Turkmen community. Annayev became part of the opposition.

Turkmenistan’s government had closed its border due to the pandemic, which aggravated a situation that had been going on for years: diplomats routinely telling people to return to Turkmenistan to renew their passports instead of submitting applications at consulates. 

Members of the diaspora were left in a precarious situation as their documents expired, but they were unable to travel to home. Many feared deportation from Turkey as they might be persecuted in Turkmenistan.

Besides street demonstrations, live video streams gained popularity. Annayev saw it as a way to reach fellow citizens of Turkmenistan, where media outlets are strictly controlled. Annayev began setting up livestreams that allowed those in the diaspora — and people using a VPN inside Turkmenistan — to join and tell their stories.

“The main goal was to do something to break through Turkmenistan's television and media, and to deliver what is happening in the country to the people,” he said. “And for that, the most convenient tool appeared to us to be a YouTube channel and, at that time, TikTok.” 

But Annayev and other activists soon discovered they were not safe in Turkey where authorities began detaining people who did not have valid documentation to stay in the country.

As Annayev documented dissent online, so did Farhat Meymankulyyev, a fellow Turkey-based YouTuber.

In August 2021, Meymankulyyev was lured into a car by men presumed to be working for Turkmenistan security services. He ended up inside the consulate building, where he was beaten before being released.

Then, in May 2023, Meymankulyyev was arrested at a friend’s house by Turkish police and immediately deported. Witnesses saw him later at the airport in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat. He was sentenced to 18 to 22 years in prison on unknown charges, and has not been seen or heard from since.

The list obtained by reporters shows that Turkmenistan’s Ministry for National Security issued arrest warrants for both Meymankulyyev and Annayev in 2022. 

The previous year, Annayev had been beaten up on the streets of Istanbul. It was just days before he was scheduled to travel to Warsaw and speak at an event organized by the human rights office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He said he was convinced the attackers were working for the Turkmenistan security services. 

“I returned to Istanbul after the conference. I started to receive various phone calls, SMS messages, and death threats,” he told Turkmen.news in 2022. 

He then attended another OSCE event, and decided to seek asylum in Poland. His claim failed there, and he has tried also in Sweden and the Netherlands. 

Annayev was the victim of a knife attack a year ago in Amsterdam, which left him lightly injured. The assailants are unknown, but Annayev is suspicious they may have been working for Turkmenistan’s security services.

So far unsuccessful in his bid for political asylum, Annayev continues his bureaucratic battles in Europe, all the while unleashing a torrent of YouTube videos criticizing the Turkmenistan regime.

Turkmenistan prevents internet users inside the country from accessing platforms like YouTube and TikTok, although some people use VPN technology to get around the ban. 

But the government has come up with new tactics to block his broadcasts, Annayev alleges. He says bots are being used to file complaints to TikTok and YouTube about his account, or content. 

Given enough complaints, TikTok may automatically remove an account or content. YouTube may remove content upon receiving a complaint about it displaying a person’s image. As the platform’s guidelines state, third-party complaints are accepted when “the individual whose privacy is being violated does not have access to a computer or the internet.”  

Neither TikTok nor YouTube responded to requests for comment.

Annayev said the Turkmenistan regime wants to stop diaspora activists like him from getting their messages to people inside the country.

“They are afraid, and our livestreams are very important in Turkmenistan. Why? Because there is no one else who can do that like us,” he said.