Turkmenistan
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Non-signatory Turkmenistan has never commented on cluster munitions or on its position on accession to the convention. It abstained from voting on a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016. Turkmenistan participated in a meeting of the convention in 2015. It is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions, but inherited a stockpile from the Soviet Union.
Policy
The Republic of Turkmenistan has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
It did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention and has never made a public statement on cluster munitions or its position on accession.
In December 2016, Turkmenistan abstained from the vote on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[1] It was absent from the vote on a subsequent UNGA resolution on the convention in 2015.[2]
Turkmenistan participated as an observer in the First Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in September 2015, but did not make a statement. This marked its first and to date only attendance at a meeting of the convention.
Turkmenistan is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Turkmenistan is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.
Turkmenistan inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union but it has never publicly disclosed information regarding the types and quantities stockpiled.[3] It is reported to possess Smerch 300mm, Uragan 220mm, and Grad 122mm unguided surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[4] Turkmenistan ordered six additional Smerch rocket launchers in 2008, which it reportedly received in 2009–2010.[5]
[1] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016.
[2] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[3] As part of its Mine Ban Treaty obligations, Turkmenistan destroyed a stockpile of remotely delivered antipersonnel mines, specifically 5,452,416 PFM-type scatterable mines contained in 75,718 KSF-type cassettes, which are sometimes identified as cluster munitions. See ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2004: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch, October 2004),p. 830–832. Turkmenistan may also have a sizeable stock of cluster munitions, as the main ammunition storage facility for Soviet combat operations in Afghanistan was located in Charjoh (now Turkmenabad), according to Turkmen military officers in April 2004.
[4] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 279; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal, CD-edition, 10 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
[5] Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, “Arms Transfers Database.” Recipient report for Turkmenistan for the period 1950–2011, generated on 4 May 2012.
Mine Ban Policy
Turkmenistan signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 19 January 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. It has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines. Turkmenistan inherited a stockpile of antipersonnel mines from the former Soviet Union. It has not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty. Turkmenistan submitted its fifth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 7 June 2010 for the period 2004–2010 but did not submit an Article 7 report in 2011 or 2012. States Parties are required to submit an Article 7 report on 30 April of each year.
The destruction of Turkmenistan’s stockpile of 6,631,771 antipersonnel mines was completed on 11 November 2004.[1] While most of the stockpile was destroyed prior to its March 2003 deadline, it later destroyed 69,200 PFM-type mines (572,200 individual antipersonnel mines) that it had initially planned to retain for training and development purposes.[2]
Turkmenistan did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2011 or the first half of 2012. In December 2011, Turkmenistan voted in favor of UN General Assembly resolution 66/29 on antipersonnel mines.
Turkmenistan is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
[1] CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 Report, 21 May 2009, p. 3. Translation by Landmine Monitor.
[2] For details see, Landmine Monitor Report 2005, pp. 593-594.