A number of Turkmen activists have been summoned to security centers in Golestan Province, north-east of the country, in recent days.
According to the Campaign for the Defense of Political and Civil Prisoners, security organs have summoned a number of Turkmen activists in the cities of Gonbad Kavus and Aqqala in recent days.
The Gonbad Kavus and Gorgan intelligence departments reportedly summoned at least six Turkmen activists in recent days.
“Hamed Pourmand”, “Hamed Ghezel”, “Mehdi Bayat”, “Aziz Mehri”, “Mehrban Salagh” and “Nasser Tavassoli” are among the six Turkmen activists who have been summoned to security centers in Golestan Province and interrogated, according to the information published on the Tuhraa website.
Among them are Hamed Pourmand, a sports reporter, and Nasser Tavassoli, a reporter for the Turkmen News website.
Nasser Tavassoli and Mehrban Salagh, both residents of Aqqala, were summoned to the Golestan Intelligence Department, and the rest of the civil activists were summoned to the Gonbad Kavus Intelligence Department.
The reasons for the summoning of these activists are not known, but informed sources say: “Some civil activists were threatened while attending security centers and asked to write articles and reports in line with the government’s goals.”
Security forces also reportedly threatened six Turkmen activists to 2 years imprisonment if they did not cooperate with the intelligence organs, and several high-profile Turkmen Instagram pages were banned.