Turkmen Service
Radio Azatlyk is the only independent Turkmen-language media outlet reporting inside Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most closed and authoritarian regimes.
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(2024)
Facebook video views
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Instagram video views
(2024)
YouTube video views
(2024)
About the Service
Launched in 1953, Radio Azatlyk reports from Prague, using in-country networks to gather the news the Turkmen government suppresses and deliver it to its audiences.
Despite censorship, the Service reaches tens of thousands of subscribers in Turkmen online and via social networks.
Radio Azatlyk’s coverage documents social unrest, official corruption, and human rights abuses such as forced labor.
Azatlyk journalists document Turkmenistan’s ongoing crackdown on religious freedom, including the recruitment of mullahs and other religious servants by Turkmen security agencies, in which they were tasked with collecting information on their congregations.
Reporting by Radio Azatlyk led to authorities permitting more than a dozen Turkmen women married to Turkish citizens to leave Turkmenistan and rejoin their families in Turkey after previously being barred from traveling.
The Turkmens of the World podcast series tells the stories of the Turkmen diaspora.
The Invisible Rainbow of Turkmenistan documents the plight of the LGBTQ+ community, who face daily persecution and legal crackdowns.
Reaching Audiences
Media Climate
Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index ranks Turkmenistan 174th out of 180 countries.
Khudaiberdy Allashov, a Turkmen journalist who previously worked for Radio Azatlyk, died in August 2024 following years of harassment by Turkmen authorities for his work with RFE/RL.
Members of the Turkmen government have waged disinformation campaigns against Radio Azatlyk, aiming to discredit the Service.
Turkmen security services have tracked down Radio Azatlyk social media followers and have called the Service “the West’s weapon against Turkmenistan.”
Latest Updates
Threats To RFE/RL Journalists Multiply As World Marks Press Freedom Day
Media freedom is under severe pressure throughout RFE/RL’s 23-country coverage region.
RFE/RL Names New Central Asia Director
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has named Hamid Ismailov as the company’s new Regional Director for Central Asia, effective February 1.
RFE/RL Reports Increased Attacks On Its Journalists
On the UNESCO International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has documented an expanding use of restrictive acts and intimidation targeting its journalists in no…
Service Director
Farruh Yusupov
Farruh Yusupov is the Service Director of RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk Radiosy. He originally joined RFE/RL in 2004, working as an editor with the Uzbek Service and providing major contributions to its investigative work, including a series of reports on corruption involving members of Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s family. Yusupov also launched several radio programs for the Uzbek Service, including “Health,” “The Other Side of the Coin,” and “OzodNavigator.” His 2007 radio documentary, Uzbekistan and its Neighbors After Andijon, was nominated for an AIB award. Before joining RFE/RL, Yusupov worked for USAID-funded projects in Uzbekistan. He has an M.A. in Linguistics from Ferghana State University in Uzbekistan.