Turkmenistan’s record on religious freedom is “one of the worst,” according to Thomas Farr, director of the Office of International Religious Freedom at the United States State Department. 

Referring to the 1998 destruction of a Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Farr said the State Department continues to closely monitor instances of state-sponsored confiscation or destruction of property owned by religious organizations in Turkmenistan and other countries.

Farr’s comments came at a State Department meeting with international leaders in the area of church-state relations, held April 26. In response to questions by James Standish, director of Legislative Affairs for the Adventist Church, Farr indicated that the State Department will consider reclassifying Turkmenistan as a “country of particular concern” as part of its ongoing review of nations in which violations of religious freedom are occurring. 

This rating, which is reserved for countries engaged in systematic, ongoing, and severe violations of religious freedom, can result in United States government sanctions, such as trade restrictions or the suspension of development aid. 

Standish, an attorney working in the public affairs and religious liberty department of the Adventist Church worldwide, also raised the issue of reparations from the Turkmen government for the destruction of the Ashgabat church building. “It is a fundamental principle of the rule of law that a government can’t take property without due legal process and without appropriate compensation,” says Standish.

Farr was a presenter at the State Department meeting, along with Elliot Abrams, chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and Michael Parmly, acting Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.