Lining Up at Turkmenistan’s Opening Door
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan — Adem Dogan, a Turkish-born used-car salesman from Leverkusen, Germany, never thought much about chicken farming until he got to Turkmenistan 10 years ago. Then, while visiting a customer who bought secondhand Mercedes sedans for resale in the country, he stumbled across an opportunity he couldn’t resist.
Nearly all of the eggs sold in the capital, Ashgabat, were imported from neighboring Iran. Dogan and his Turkmen host put up $1 million, and soon they were running the country’s largest, most modern chicken farm.
Their success did not escape the attention of President Saparmurat Niyazov, the former Communist Party boss who ruled Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in December 2006. Niyazov harangued ministers, asking them why it took a foreigner to run a successful chicken farm, according to transcripts of Cabinet meetings.
The authorities repeatedly demanded a 50 percent share of the profit, Dogan said. When he refused, they seized property and began dismantling his barns.
“They are systematically destroying the farm,” Dogan said. “It’s a banana republic. A contract or a minister’s signature has no meaning.”
Dogan’s experience is a cautionary tale for international investors eager to profit as Turkmenistan, the largest producer of natural gas in the former Soviet Union after Russia, begins to open its economy. Since Niyazov’s death, energy companies, including BP, Europe’s second-largest oil company, and Chevron, the second-biggest U.S. producer, have been jostling to get in the door.
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Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 11:43 pm under