Our friends in the east

Martin Callanan

The EU’s strategic relationship with Central Asia is of vital importance to our future security and prosperity. For too long, the former Soviet republics that make up the region have been estranged from the international community.

That isolation has been largely deserved: the Andijan massacre in Uzbekistan in 2005 and the megalomania of the former leader of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, rightly dissuaded the EU from seeking closer ties with the region.

However, there are signs that both the EU and Central Asian republics are beginning to realise the potential of a stronger alliance.

Kazakhstan remains ahead of the game in terms of strategic relations with the EU, leaving other countries in its wake. The country’s ties with the EU have strengthened considerably, despite concerns about political freedoms and human rights.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are perhaps the most alluring of the other countries because of their vast oil and gas reserves. European nations have long looked to the region as a way of supplanting dependence on supplies from a truculent and unreliable Russia.

However, allowing our thirst for energy to supplant concerns about human rights and political freedoms makes no sense, morally or politically. Indeed, it is precisely because Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are so well endowed with resources that the EU needs to be frank and transparent about the conditions for an improved relationship.

However, there are some small signs of change in both these countries. In the case of Uzbekistan, the council’s recent decision to lift travel sanctions on the country’s leadership is a strong signal that the EU is ready to strengthen relations on the basis of reciprocity. Personally, I do not agree with the lifting of the travel sanctions. The annoyance and inconvenience this caused to the leadership could have provided more impetus for change.

We should not forget the other countries in the region, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, neither of which are blessed with abundant resources, and are therefore vulnerable to marginalisation at the expense of their neighbours.

I am the chairman of an independent printing press in Kyrgyzstan, and I recently visited the country to mark the fifth anniversary of the project. Experience teaches us that failing to help countries to address poverty and lack of opportunity could have disastrous results.

Russia and China are both keen to keep Central Asia as close to them economically as the region is geographically. It is firmly in the interests of the EU to encourage the countries of Central Asia closer to the west.

Daniel Caspary

Central Asia is attracting growing interest due mainly to its important energy resources and its strategic geographical situation. The EU-Central Asia strategy is dedicated to establishing closer links to the countries in the region.

Individual relationships are created with each country, addressing a wide range of questions. Economic issues and political questions play an important role, but a special focus is laid on human rights.

Turkmenistan has been one of the most isolated countries in this region. The EU’s relations with Turkmenistan are still governed by a 1989 agreement on trade and cooperation in trade matters between the then European Community and the former USSR.

Due to its narrow range, only a very limited number of questions are included. This agreement neither allows the treatment of human rights issues nor provides instruments for political dialogue.

In February 2007 a change in the Turkmen government took place after the death of President Niyazov. Since then, there have been some signs of change. With the change of leadership, the country is about to create new links to the outside world.

Russia and China will definitely try to play an important role. If the EU wants to have its own role in this process, new possibilities of dialogue are necessary. This goal cannot be reached with the existing agreement.

A new interim agreement between the EU and Turkmenistan offers the possibility for better dialogue on a much broader range of issues. Despite slow progress in several areas, the situation in human rights, democracy, civil liberties and the rule of law has to be improved considerably.

An open and sustainable dialogue between the EU and the Turkmen government will be indispensable. In order to pave the way for an interim agreement, a thorough analysis of the real situation in Turkmenistan and the intentions of the Turkmen government is necessary.

The widely varying picture within the country presented by NGOs is often contradictory and does not always give a clear representation. The European parliament needs detailed information before adopting a position.

Only if there are clear signs of progress in Turkmenistan will the time come for the establishment of an interim agreement between the EU and Turkmenistan.

Janusz Wojciechowski

As a member of the EU-Central Asia delegation, I have visited Kazakhstan many times. Each time, I visit Komarovka, a small village in the north of the country. There is a special reason for my interest in this place.

In 1940, when the eastern part of Poland was occupied by the Red Army, over two million Poles were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. My mother was one of those people.

She spent six years in northern Kazakhstan, from 1940 to 1946. The NKWD, the Soviet political police, arrested and killed my grandfather because he was a Polish officer.

The rest of the family was arrested and forced to leave. The NKWD allowed them 15 minutes to take their possessions from the house. The transport by train lasted 30 days in closed wagons. Many people, especially children, died.

Conditions were very hard. There was war, there was hunger. The climate was very severe, especially in winter. But most of all, it was very hard to live under the Soviet communist regime. One of my uncles, aged 16, died in 1942 because of a lack of medical facilities.

The deportation ended in 1946, but my mother never saw her house again because the eastern part of Poland was annexed by the Soviets. The tragedy of deportation is sometimes called the Golgotha of the east. This is a story of suffering, but not only suffering. It is a story of solidarity between people, too.

In northern Kazakhstan many nations coexist – Kazakhs, Russians, Germans, Ukrainians and others. For the Poles it would have been impossible to survive in this place and at this time without help from the people living there. And this help was given. Kazakhs and Russians opened their homes to the Poles and shared their last pieces of bread with them.

We keep this help in our memory with gratitude. I visited Komarovka for the first time in 2005. It was a very emotional visit for me, to meet people who lived with my mother or their children and grandchildren.

I thanked them for their help during that terrible time. I am very glad that Kazakhstan is now developing so quickly.