The administration of the etrap named after Saparmurat Turkmenbashi (formerly, Oktyabrsky district) in Dashoguz velayat turned into business President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov’s statement on the benefits of harmala (yuzarlik) to treat viral diseases.
Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that the imam of the local mosque Ovez ordered the cemetery employees to collect harmala and send it to him. For instance, a truck comes to the Ybraýym Еdhem cemetery a few times a day to load sacks of herbs collected by the cemetery employees.
The deputy etrap khyakim Bakhargul Ovezov is in charge of the collected harmala.She oversees secondary schools, kindergartens, hospitals, pharmacies, houses of culture, over several dozens of organizations and enterprises.
According to Ovezova’s instructions, the the premises must be fumigated with uzarlik fume as a prevention measure.A bundle of harmala is sold to these organizations at the price of 10 manats.
Teaching staff from the secondary school №52 have to make money contributions to purchase harmala. Schoolchildren also had to make payments but later their parents refused to pay. Now 50 manats are deducted from a teacher’s salary every month.
Let us recall that at the Cabinet session held on 13 March, 2020 Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov called on residents of Turkmenistan to use harmala and red pepper as a medicine to prevent viral diseases.
The head of state wrote about their medicinal properties in one of his books.
Following this, harmala was burned at the conferences held in the capital whereas media outlets wrote about the benefits of the plant and the pepper noodles when treating cold and infections.
This is how the country is trying to protect the residents from the spread of coronavirus COVID-19.