Turkmenistan

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 26 June 2018

Summary: Non-signatory Turkmenistan has never commented on cluster munitions or on its position on accession to the convention. It has abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention and has not participated in a meeting of the convention since 2015. Turkmenistan is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions, but possesses a stockpile that it inherited from the Soviet Union.

Policy

The Republic of Turkmenistan has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Turkmenistan did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention. It has never made a public statement on cluster munitions or its position on accession.

In December 2017, Turkmenistan abstained from the vote on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution thatcalls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitionsto “join as soon as possible.”[1]

Turkmenistan participated as an observer at the First Review Conference of the convention 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 or produced cluster munitions.

Turkmenistan possesses cluster munitions that it inherited after the break-up of the Soviet Union, but it has never publicly disclosed information regarding the types and quantities stockpiled.[2] 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.[3] Turkmenistan reportedly received a transfer six Smerch rocket launchers in 2009–2010.[4]



[1]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017. Turkmenistan abstained from voting on the previous resolution in2016 and was absent from the vote in 2015.

[2] 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),pp. 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 Turkmeni military officers in April 2004.

[3] 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).

[4] Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, “Arms Transfers Database.” Recipient report for Turkmenistan for the period 1950–2011, generated on 4 May 2012.