Turkmenistan's ambassador to Armenia has been sacked, an official at the mission in Yerevan said on Wednesday, but an opposition Web site said he had become the fourth high profile ambassador to defect. The official gave no reason for the dismissal of Toily Kurbanov, 32, but opposition Web site www.gundogar.org said he had refused to return to Ashgabat when summoned by the foreign ministry, and his whereabouts were unknown. The foreign ministry in Ashgabat would not comment to Reuters on Monday. A number of diplomats have fled recently rather than return to Turkmenistan, where President Saparmurat Niyazov, who styles himself Turkmenbashi the Great – "father of the Turkmen" – is President-for-Life, Prime Minister, Commander in Chief and five times Hero of Turkmenistan.
| And, lest we forget, a nut... |
Turkmenistan's ambassador to Britain, Chary Babayev, defected earlier this year, the Web site reported, also after being summoned back to Ashgabat. Last year the Turkmen ambassador to Turkey fled when recalled, and in late 2000 Boris Shikhmuradov, a former foreign minister who later became ambassador to Beijing, fled to Moscow when recalled and announced that he was joining the opposition. He was later arrested in Ashgabat and found guilty of plotting a coup against Niyazov last November, and is now serving a 25-year jail sentence for his involvement. A high ranking diplomat in the Turkmen embassy in Washington has also recently defected. |