He That Mischief Hatches, Mischief Catches. (From the Memories of the Former Employee of the National Security Committee Allakuliev. A)

Yulia Serebryannik

The news on the website “Chronicle of Turkmenistan”, of the death of the former KNB operative Allakuliyeva. A, the servant of the dictator Niyazov, might have induced sympathy and compassion to many ill-informed people. However, personally, I am prepared to say what kind of a person he was and under what circumstances I happened to see him.

It was 2002 when Geldy was arrested. The day after his arrest, at 7 am, my sister and I were standing in the corridor of the KNB, fighting our way through and attempting to find out what was happening to my husband from the staff. After my next indignation, I was escorted by a soldier down the corridor to a room; there I saw Geldy at the table. Geldy was giving his statement to Allakuliev. The soldiers were extremely afraid of Allakuliev. They stood with attention, looking at him with fear in their eyes. The moment I stepped into the room Allakulievs conversation interrupted. Allakuliev looked at Geldy and told me to bring him 53 million manats ($2,000 USD based on exchange at that time). I immediately asked him “Why on earth would I bring you money, and where am I supposed to get it from?”.

Allakuliev yet again quickly glanced at Geldy and I with hate in his eyes and said: “Yulia, you should bring the money”. I asked him again why he needs the money and what are we paying for. At this point Allakuliev jumped from his chair and yelled at me, saying “You were told to bring money, so go and bring it without questions”. I answered him: “Who gave you the right to talk to me like this, and on what basis are you ordering me? I have no money and I will not bring you anything. And if you talk to me like that, I’ll find a way to bring justice to you”.

You should have seen this man, it was as if he was possessed by the devil. He kneeled over and with his whole appearance, it looked like he was about to beat me up and show us that we were nobody. Yet, he was stunned by the sheer fact that I did not give in to his psychological pressure. He truly saw that I was not afraid of him. At this moment I told him: “Why are you looking at my husband this way? What do you think you’re doing here? You have detained a person, and are trying to force him to plead guilty to something he has not done? Who are you? Are you a human being? I know that the truth will triumph and that you will get what you deserve. I know that this will not go unseen and that you will have to answer for what you are doing”.

I realized that this was no longer a person. It was a monster not only externally, but also internally. When I left the office, I stopped and read the sign, on it was written Allakuliev A. along with the indication of his position.

Based on the photo published on the website Chronicles of Turkmenistan this week, you see a cheerful face looking at you, which truly does not reflect the essence of this person. He was a servant of evil and all that he did brought him great pleasure. He lived by killing and mocking people. He destroyed not only those people who were brought to him but their families. It was from the hands of such careerists in uniforms as Allakuliyev that many people were killed and convicted.

He did not scare me for a gram, no matter how hard he tried though. On February 1, 2002, I brought the money to A. Allakuliev, giving it personally in his hands. I already knew that they made Geldy slander himself. At the same time, a group of KNB officers was interrogating all employees of the state association “Turkmen Atlary” – the head enterprise.

Also questioned were workers of state stables in Dashaguz, Mary, and Ashgabat, employees of the State Hippodrome and the laboratory. In addition to KNB employees, employees of the tax service, employees of the Ministry of Finance and employees of the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the customs service and the management of the border patrol of Turkmenistan were assigned to the work.

They were all instructed to search for traces of theft and smuggling of horses from Turkmenistan. It was clear to all these employees that if Geldy slandered himself and said that he had stolen horses, and I had to bring money, then this crime was incriminated by the dictator Niyazov himself. This meant that all the services were given the command to the Geldy and present facts in order to wind his sentence for at least 25 years.

Employees of the KNB walked around our stables in the village of Shor Karadamak and counted all our horses. They truly thought that they would be able to carry this act out and the people would believe that Kyarizov had actually stolen the horses. However, I along with my sisters immediately began to declare that Geldy Kyarizov did not steal any horses, and that there is a state breeding book where you can see the movement and registration of all horses.

Serdar Annayev was in charge of this whole operation. I knew him and saw him at the Turkmen embassy in Moscow, when Geldy and I were there. I saw him as a diligent and prompt worker, who knew that Geldy had good relations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. Moreover, I also saw him at Boris Orazovich Shikhmuradovs house. It was true to my assumption that he is an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. But now I had a scumbag and an executioner in front of my face, who did not care about the fate of a man whom he personally knew. The curator of the KNB, attached to the “Turkmen Atlary” Arslan Ovezov, cooperated with him.

In the presence of all the staff at the hippodrome, I immediately started declaring that all of it was untrue. It enraged and demoralized all the auditors and KNB officials to the extent that Arslan Ovezov rushed at me grabbing me by the lapel of my coat and began to shake it. I asked: “Do you want to beat me? Well, beat me!” To which, he answered me: “I do not want to beat you, I want to kill you.” The people around us intervened and he let me go

The most important thing that we did with my sister Elena – was that we did not allow them to crush the descent part of the employees at “Turkmen Atlary”. I screamed asking people to not be afraid to tell the truth, that no one will be able to hurt them for the truth. I told them: “just say how it is, tell them how it really was.” But Arslan Ovezov beat employees in our presence in order to intimidate everyone else.

My sister Elena, a Candidate of Medical Sciences, at Geldys request, headed the Immuno Genetic Laboratory of “Turkmen Atlary”, in order to exclude fraud and falsification in which the employees of the association were mired. She worked there until 2001. Everybody knew her and she enjoyed great respect and authority among the workers of the laboratory, the hippodrome and the whole “Turkmen Atlary” association.

People saw us and felt that it was necessary to remain humane, and not sell the soul to the devil, like this whole group of “vultures” directed by Niyazov towards Geldy.

And most importantly – thanks to Elena, it was proved that the theft, incriminating Geldy in the amount of 53 million manat, (alleged stoled items: household plates, flags, irons and electronic scales) was non existent. All the things claimed to have been stolen, were found. The warehouse of the laboratory was located in the building of the Ministry of Agriculture, in the basement. There were 2 offices, one of which KNB staff opened and it was empty. However, in the presence of witnesses and workers of the ministry, KNB did not want to open the 2nd office.

Elena demanded that they also open the 2nd office, because she herself accounted for these valuables when she left the job and knew where and what was located. Yet the intelligence officers, in the presence of members of the commission, plainly refused to open the door, stating that there was no key and the door was sealed.

In response to this, Elena grabbed a stool, which stood in the corridor, and began to beat back the lock. At this moment I shouted from the top of my voice: “People look what’s going on! What are they doing!”. Elena beat the door so hard that she almost broke the lock. The KNB officers tried to drag her away, but she resisted and continued to hit the lock.

I began to push away the KNB officers from Elena and continued to shout that they do not have the right to use force against women. This type of resistance the KNB officers did not expect at all. Employees of “Turkmen Atlary” began to exclaim to the KNB officers not to beat the women, as well asking the question of why don’t they open the door, if Elena claims that she herself saw the scales there. The crucial fact was that out of these 53 million manat claimed to have been embezzled, the main amount – 42 million manats, accounted for the cost of these electronic scales.

Serdar Annayev went into the corridor and phoned someone, after which Arslan Ovezov took the key out of his pocket and opened the door. Elena ran and showed all the “stolen” materials. However, the KNB officers did not even go into the room and said: “Do you see anything? We do not see anything”, looking at all the present witnesses, and indicating to them what to answer.

The people were in a trance. I continued to shout at the top of my voice, while the people passing by looked at me in horror due to my calls. I screamed: “People look what’s going on! That’s what the secret service is doing! Look, Kyarizov did not steal anything, everything is here, on the spot, but the secret service officers are not officiating it! They don’t want to write it down! “.

This was our first victory. The officiation was signed by commission members and witnesses. One of the members of the commission was Elena, as the former head of the laboratory.

In the history of the KNB there was no precedent when they would return the confiscated property and money, but in our case, they had to. It was due to our desperate resistance that we turned the tide.

The KNB had a desperate situation: they had to either kill or imprison us, which meant killing the whole family. At this point, the entire International Akhalteke horse-breeding association “jammed” the presidential apparatus of Niyazov with letters and appeals about the huge contribution that Geldy made to the preservation and distribution of the Akhal-Teke breed of horses.

In addition, they all demanded to specify which horses Kyarizov had stolen, with an indication of the oficial number in the international state pedigree book, and if they disappeared, then where did they go to? In this situation, when all the employees from different industries were incapable and were too afraid to explain to Niyazov that in fact, because of his dilettantism in horse breeding, he himself incriminated Geldy with a crime that, with all the desire in the world could not be imputed with, they could only remain silent. Therefore, against the backdrop of international attention to the situation with Geldy Kyarizov, the cautious and prudent dictator Niyazov, did not dare to give a command to destroy members of Geldys family.

KNB officials had to admit that there were no stolen horses and there was no theft.

In telling my story, I want to emphasize that such servants of evil must be fought with, they should not be feared.

Of great importance is the ability to appreciate family and desperately fight to the end. And, if your struggle takes on an international resonance and you have contact with human rights defenders, then any dictatorship will falter. Only this way can you save yourself, your family, and the future of your children.

In 2002, I did not know even know about the existence of human rights organizations. All we did was appeal to the embassies of foreign countries.

That’s how I remember Allakuliev A and all the members of the devil’s servants’ team, in that terrible year, in those most difficult times for our family. Allakuliyev and the likes of him, Nazarov and Kakayev, even during their lifetime saw the horrors of the dictatorship in Turkmenistan. After all, this system does not give any guarantees to anyone except the dictator himself until he himself is deposed.

Just like the gray cardinal Rejep Saparov, and the political “nightingale” Onjuk Mussaev, Nazarov, Kakayev, etc. ended their lives in one scenario: court, Ovadan-Depe, incommunicado imprisonment, and after a couple of decades, the relatives are given a corpse weighing 45 kg.

I can tell you a lot more: both about how I warned Hayit Kakaev, or about how I saw Nazarov’s doomed face passing us into the KNB yard when we stood with a package for Geldy.

Time comes and every person, sooner or later, will have to be responsible for murders and ill-treatment of people, regardless of their ranks and positions.

I know that our articles and videos are watched not only outside of Turkmenistan, but first of all, they are watched by employees of the special services and personally by Berdymukhamedov and Rashid Meredov.

I know that, no matter how much they hope and resist the thought of the inevitability of such a scenario towards them, the law of life cannot be repealed.

I also want to use the opportunity to present all the documents related to Geldys trial: the indictment, the verdict of the court and the documents confirming the return of the confiscated property.

Niyazov was forced to return the confiscated horses, but Berdymukhamedov, in 2010 launched a criminal case against me, out of vendetta for our victory, our frank challenge to the strength and power of the special services of the authoritarian system of Turkmenistan.

Berdymukhamedov began his reign by demolishing Geldy’s horse farm and his house, and starting a criminal case against me and confiscating the horses yet again.

He publicly dealt with our dissent because we were not only the keepers and holders of the national symbol of Turkmenistan – the Akhal-Teke horse, saving Geldy and our family, we were in the epicenter of the struggle and resistance to Niyazov’s dictatorship regime within the country.

The whole world of horse breeders, both inside and outside of the country, knew that our horses were returned to us and that Geldy had survived the Oval-Depe concentration camp and got out. In the heat of the struggle for life and freedom, we are an example of the reality of a victory in the struggle against dictatorship. Such an example to the young President Berdymukhamedov who already knew for sure that his choice was tyranny and monarchical succession to the throne, was not needed.

He demonstrated to the whole of Turkmenistan that the dictator Niyazov’s way would live, and as an example, he showed what the dictatorship’s revenge is for the pursuit of freedom and dissent. Telling my story of the struggle with the dictatorship in Turkmenistan, I once again want to appeal to all the Turkmen people.

Do not be afraid and fight! Dictatorship is not immortal!