Turkmenistan

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 25 June 2019

Summary: Non-signatory Turkmenistan has never commented on cluster munitions nor on its position on joining the convention. It has participated in meetings of the convention, but not 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 2018, Turkmenistan was absent from the vote on a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.” [1] It abstained from the vote on the UNGA resolution promoting the convention in 2015–2017.

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 73/54, 5 December 2018.

 [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.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 18 December 2019

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 not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty.

Turkmenistan has not attended any recent meetings of the treaty. It did not attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. Turkmenistan submitted its fifth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 7 June 2010, but has not submitted an updated report since.

Turkmenistan is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Turkmenistan is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, use, transfer, and stockpiling

Turkmenistan has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines. It inherited a stockpile of 6,631,771 antipersonnel mines from the former Soviet Union. This stockpile included 5,452,416 PFM type scatterable mines in 75,718 KSF type cassettes.[1] The presence of such a large stockpile of antipersonnel mines in Turkmenistan was the result of the main ammunition storage facility for Soviet combat operations in Afghanistan being located in Charjoh (now Turkmenabad), according to military officials.[2]

The destruction of Turkmenistan’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines was completed on 11 November 2004.[3] 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.[4]



[1] Turkmenistan reported a total of 102,628 PFM and KPOM cassettes. This equates to 5,560,016 individual mines.

[2] Interviews with officers from the Ministry of Defense of Turkmenistan, Turkmenabad, 8 April 2004.

[3] CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 Report, 21 May 2009, p. 3. Translation by the Monitor.

[4] For details see, Landmine Monitor Report 2005, pp. 593–594.