The State Department declined the recommendation of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to include Turkmenistan as a Country of Particular Concern because of geopolitical interests. Turkmenistan is a player not only in the war on terrorism, but also in longstanding designs to build a gas pipeline across the Central Asian country. These very ties, however, could leverage discussions on human rights.

• Pray for the endurance and faith of persecuted believers in Turkmenistan, and write your congressional representatives or the State Department. Mention the USCIRF's recommendations that the U.S. government should:
  
  
• Support the proposed Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline and Turkmenistan's sale of natural gas on world markets only if the government takes specific steps to introduce religious freedom.
  
  
• Immediately suspend all nonhumanitarian assistance to the government of Turkmenistan, except what is linked to the campaign against terrorism.
  
  
• Identify specific steps that Turkmenistan could take for the United States to reinstate already suspended assistance, including protection of religious freedoms.
  
  
• Encourage scrutiny of religious-freedom violations in Turkmenistan by bodies such as the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
  
  
• Sponsor a resolution at the United Nations condemning religious-freedom and other related human-rights violations in Turkmenistan, which would create a U.N. special rapporteur to investigate the situation in Turkmenistan.
  
  

—Jeff M. Sellers