On 7 October, 2020 President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov dismissed the Chairperson of Turkmenistan’s Migration Office Mergen Gurdov without any explanations. Deputy Chairperson of the Migration Office Bekmyrat Ovezov was appointed as Gurdov’s replacement.
It has been previously reported that the investigation into the case of Gurdov, who has been charged with corruption, is underway.
According to sources of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”, following Ovezov’s initiative, the public prosecutor’s office launched the investigation not only in Gurdov’s work, but in the performance of the entire agency over the past few years.
In the course of the investigation it transpired that 22 individuals who had been included in the black list of those barred from travelling overseas, managed to leave Turkmenistan.
However, it is likely that Gurdov has nothing to do with this because all these people had exited Turkmenistan before Gurdov was appointed the Deputy Chairperson of Turkmenistan’s Migration Office reporting to Meylis Nobatov.
According to TurkmenWiki, Nobatov occupied the post of the Chairperson of Turkmenistan’s Migration Office in 20015 and Gurdov was appointed in 2017.
Moreover, the list of citizens who have obtained international travel passport is being checked. Special attention is paid to those whose passports have expired. If they are abroad, the authorities try to make enquiries and ask their relatives where they are, when their have left Turkmenistan and what the purpose of their trip is.