A Seventh-day Adventist Church member, evicted from her home in Turkmenabad, Turkmenistan, for holding religious gatherings, is making her way to Siberia, Russia, to stay with relatives while she considers her future. Maryam Ismakaeva, made homeless late December by order of city authorities, met with Adventist Church leaders in Moscow last week to discuss the situation in Turkmenistan.

Victor Krushenitsky, public affairs and religious liberty director for the Adventist Church in Euro-Asia, says Ismakaeva’s eviction is in line with the Turkmen government’s policy of systematic repression of religious minorities.

“It was such sad news from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Turkmenistan when our church building was demolished in November 1999,” he says. “Our group of about 10 people in the city of Turkmenabad has been under oppression for the past five to six years. Several times our members have been arrested, their literature and tapes have been confiscated, and they have been fined for meeting together from time to time, which does not violate the law.

“Suffering the most among this group was Maryam Ismakaeva, whose apartment was used for such meetings,” adds Krushenitsky.

In its decision of December 21, 2001, the city court accuses Ismakaeva of holding illegal religious meetings of the Adventist sect as well as spreading propaganda for the Adventist religious organization. Krushenitsky says the prosecutor forced some of her neighbors and apartment complex management officials to support the idea of evicting Ismakaeva because she had used her apartment for “an improper purpose.”

Describing Ismakaeva as “very depressed,” Krushenitsky says, “We need to use all measures to protect her and other members of the group who are afraid even to meet with one another.”

In December last year the public affairs and religious liberty department of the Adventist world church issued a statement condemning the anti-religion activity of the Turkmen government, which has included “arbitrary detention and imprisonment, exile and deportation, the destruction of houses of worship, the confiscation of personal property, the imposition of punitive fines, the loss of employment, [and] mental and physical abuse.”