Turkmenistan is ostensibly a secular state, but clearly it has a strong Islamic character. A former Soviet Republic, Turkmenistan has retained much of its previous totalitarianism, now with an Islamic cast. This was a natural fit, as the two elements of the Marxist-Islamic red-green axis share a taste for terror and repression as tools of the state.
“VPNs Are Not A-OK: Turkmen Internet Users Forced To Swear On Koran They Won’t Use Them,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, August 10, 2021:
Internet users in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan say they are being forced to swear on the Koran that they will not use virtual private networks (VPNs).
Several Internet users across the extremely isolated former Soviet republic told RFE/RL that they were instructed by the authorities to swear on the holy book of Muslims that they will never use VPNs after they applied for an Internet connection in their homes.
VPNs are illegal in Turkmenistan but are widely used to circumvent government restrictions on the Internet.
“I waited for a year and a half after I filled all necessary documents and signed application forms asking to install WiFi in my home. Now they say I must swear on the Koran that I will not use a VPN, but nothing is accessible without VPNs. I do not know what to do,” an Internet user who introduced herself as Ainur told RFE/RL on August 9.
A local RFE/RL correspondent reported that an officer of the Ministry of National Security was demanding that every Internet user swear on the Koran that they would not use VPNs.
For years, the authorities in Turkmenistan have blocked numerous websites — including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, as well as sites offering VPN services — and have arrested people who installed such services on their mobile phones.
Turkmenistan is one of the world’s worst countries in terms of Internet censorship….
Infidel says
So Turkmenistan is no longer committed to Türkmenbaşy (ex president Niyazov) and the Ruhnama? Well, that was fun while it lasted
They might as well join Erdogan’s Turkic council, and stop pretending to be neutral
mortimer says
Turkmenistan is both Red and Green at the same time! TWO totalitarianisms in one ! A losing, dysfunctional combination. It would be safe to call this ‘Islamo-social-fascism’.
– Freedom House gives Turkmenistan a rating of 2 out of 100 points for freedom, calling it ‘Not Free’. Quote: “Turkmenistan is a repressive authoritarian state where political rights and civil liberties are almost completely denied in practice. Elections are tightly controlled, ensuring nearly unanimous victories for the president and his supporters. The economy is dominated by the state, corruption is systemic, religious groups are persecuted, and political dissent is not tolerated.”
-The Heritage Foundation’s 2019 Index of Economic Freedom ranked Turkmenistan 164th among 186 countries, making its economy one of the most repressed
-The Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index ranks Turkmenistan 180 out of 180 worldwide; ranking the country as the worst in the world for media freedom.
Infidel says
Turkmenistan in the years b/w independence and the death of its first president Niyazov very much resembled Turkey in the years following the end of the Ottoman empire. Just like Turkey was remade around the cult of Kemal, who got the name ‘Ataturk’ – leader of the Turks, similarly Turkmenistan was remade around the cult of NIyazov, who got the name ‘Türkmenbaşy’ or ‘head of the Turkmens’. Everything was reinvented around him, and the cult of Türkmenbaşy pretty much ran parallel to islam, and his book the ‘Ruhnama’ was required reading in schools and was required to be placed in mosques at an equal status w/ the quran
I just wonder how long will it be before Turkmenistan reverts to its Khwarezmid/Seljuq past, the way Turkey is headed to its Ottoman past? It’s the one Turkic country that has so far declined to join the Turkey-led Turkic council, claiming to be neutral. I wonder how long that will stand?
gravenimage says
Turkmenistan has been re-Islamizing ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, going into an orgy of Mosque-building The tenor of Islam is still controlled by the government, but this may not be much of a brake.
Malcolm (South Afric) says
Turkmenistan has run out of money, cannot afford a security apparatus to spy on its citizens.
Who spied on President Trump, His children, His friends?
How come the Baden Family are free from investigation for known crimes. What a shambles.
Malcolm (South Afric) says
Biden
mortimer says
‘Bribed-man’
Infidel says
Oh no, Turkmenistan is one of the 2 oil rich -stans, the other being Kazakhstan. Remember the pipeline that Biden agreed to fund for Turkmenistan, while shutting down Keystone? Issue here is that if one uses a VPN, one’s internet traffic is invisible to online censors
PMK says
“Issue here is that if one uses a VPN, one’s internet traffic is invisible to online censors”
It might be invisible to censors but can the VPN connection itself be detected by government monitors? Your data might be private but it still has to reach its destination.
Infidel says
From what I understand – and I’ll know more once I complete the Networking certification that I’m working on – when a VPN is established, what it does is set up a virtual connection b/w 2 networks to make it appear as one. Essentially, any traffic b/w the 2 networks is encapsulated so that external traffic monitors wouldn’t know the source and destination of those packets. In other words, the VPN doesn’t deal uniquely w/ the source and destination address: it ‘merges’ the source and destination networks into a virtual i.e. logical network so that any traffic within that network would be like traffic within a LAN, and invisible to external monitors
It would be like you having 2 computers connected to a hub, but no external router, so that nobody would know what you’re communicating b/w the 2 computers
marc says
VPNs usually use ports other than well known, which would make them stand out, also there’s the fact that you can be seen to what VPN provider you are connecting to (somevpnprovider.com or a well known vpn IP?).
But if you say setup your own vpn (openvpn https://github.com/OpenVPN) on a vps at linode or digitalocean etc, and use port 443 to connect, no one could know what you are doing, you could even put a little benign website on port 80 to throw authorities off.
@infidel your understanding is good, I did ccnp switching and routing some 25 years ago 🙂
Infidel says
Thanks, Marc… I had completely forgotten about the ports aspect to this. Although depending on the networks, ports may come at a premium, if both networks are still on IPv4 and PAT. One of my goals is to explore IPv4 to IPv6 migration opportunities, and be an enabler in that area
marc says
It’s possible to cover up VPN use, specifically by using port 443 as I mentioned. I have assisted some people in iran where there are similar restrictions already. There are other methods, google just gave me https://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/comments/2v6g00/which_vpns_can_hide_the_fact_that_youre_using_a/cof3xx7/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Fundamentally a VPN would operate the same with IPv6 or IPv4.
IP addressing is osi layer 3 and ports are layer 4. this theme is common when looking at the benefits the osi model and standards have give us.
Infidel says
Marc
Couldn’t a packet monitor look for usage of port 443 and flag that for VPN use? Or is that a port often used for plenty of things other than VPNs?
You are right that VPNs themselves would work the same be it versions 6 or 4. However, 4 right now requires the use of Port Address Translation due to IPv4 address exhaustion, and that would reduce the number of ports available if you have 2 IPv4-only networks merged into 1. With IPv6, a VPN can use IPv6’s unique local addresses fd00::/7 and not touch unassigned ports at all, leaving them free for any VPN connectivity
marc says
“Couldn’t a packet monitor look for usage of port 443 and flag that for VPN use? Or is that a port often used for plenty of things other than VPNs?”
No, you’d have no idea what was going on in that session, I’ve seen “timing inspection” demonstrated, looking at how “bursty” something was, so you could guess email, p2p or browsing, but you’d still have no idea it was in a vpn at that point.*
“and that would reduce the number of ports available if you have 2 IPv4-only networks merged into 1. With IPv6, a VPN can use IPv6’s unique local addresses fd00::/7 and not touch unassigned ports at all, leaving them free for any VPN connectivity”
I dont think thats relevant here, you might have an ISP using v4 or v6 and your vpn provider could be using v4 or v6 on public as well as client connection side, totally interchangeable. I’ve always used them in tandem. Digitalocean and Linode VPSs are what I use to setup VPN servers, and they always give you a v4 and a 16x v6 IP range but you would only need one, everything is SNI compliant these days, which ironically is freeing up a lot of IPv4 ranges.
*I think the point is mute, if the authorities in this case visited you because they suspected you were using VPN, they’d be cutting limbs off till you admitted it anyway.
Infidel says
Marc
Thanks for the explanation
Crusades Were Right says
Somewhat off topic…
… but am I the only person who thinks the Turkmenistan flag is basically a Pac-Man chasing a group of stars next to a cigar band?
lol
gravenimage says
🙂
GreekEmpress says
I saw that too, CWR—great minds think alike? ?
I’m seeing things on all these pictures tonight—
mortimer says
Whatever … they will swear on the Koran and then use a VPN anyway, and hope they aren’t caught. Lying is permissible for the purpose of jihad. Routine jihadism.
Peace says
how ironic is it swearing to something on a book of lies …
gravenimage says
Turkmenistan: Internet users forced to swear on Quran that they won’t use VPNs
……………..
You have to swear on the Qur’an that you accept censorship. Sounds about right…