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- Abdul Jalil Abdul Rasoulof
- BBC News
published photo, Getty Images
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov uses image of healthy nation as heart of state propaganda
Turkmenistan is among the few countries, like North Korea, that claim to have no cases of coronavirus. But reports say he is going through the third and possibly the strongest stage of Covid-19.
Sayhat Kurbanov, which is not his real name, tells his story with the infection of the virus in his country. Kurbanov was suffering from suffocation, and he wanted air to enter his lungs like he was in a marathon, and he felt an unbearable pain in his chest. They were all symptoms of the Corona virus, but the problem was that it was in Turkmenistan, where there is no official patient infected with this virus.
When Mr Kurbanov called the ambulance last month, the doctor told him he was suffering from pneumonia and had to go to the emergency hospital. Kurbanov knows that doctors in his country tell the person with corona that it is a case of pneumonia.
On his way to the hospital, Kurbanov managed to contact the clinic where he did the Corona test several days ago. A calm voice came to him from the other side and told him the result was positive, to ask him shouting, “Positive what? Is it Corona “, to get the answer” Yes “.
Some time later, Kurbanov discovered that a person with corona had never received any paper to prove it in Turkmenistan.
The first hospital where the ambulance arrived refused to receive the case because the hospital was full. He adds: “I almost died on the way, the virus grew quickly and I felt a lack of oxygen. I hit the driver’s windshield and screamed and asked to stop the car because I couldn’t breathe. They gave me oxygen, but it didn’t relieve much of the pain. “
The second hospital also refused to receive him, as his data is not recorded in the capital, Ashgabat.
And Kurbanov continued, “I started to get nervous and asked the doctor what to do now, should I die here!”
Kurbanov contacted a doctor he knew at the hospital and begged him to help him sort out the problem. After several phone calls and heated arguments, he was allowed to enter the hospital. His condition did not change for five days.
Kurbanov said: “I couldn’t breathe, I was suffocating like everything in me was hanging on and I had anxiety attacks from shortness of breath. It was like I was underwater and that I couldn’t come to the surface. “
Kurbanov yelled at the nurses to give him anything to reduce the pain. “Admission to a hospital in Turkmenistan is not enough to guarantee care. Hospital doctors and nurses ignore patients and do not examine them unless the calls come from an important person.”
published photo, Turkish government
Death of Turkish diplomat Kemal Ochkin in Turkmenistan highlights Corona virus in this country
The hospital was under-staffed, as two nurses looked after more than 60 patients, and sometimes the cleaner injected the patients.
Nurses spoke of patients who died in front of them due to lack of ventilators and failed oxygen machines. The bill for Mr Kurbanov’s treatment was almost $ 2,000 – a huge sum in Turkmenistan – for medical services and bribes.
Foreign media in Turkmenistan are talking about a third wave of the epidemic, but almost everyone inside the country is afraid to talk about it. One of the country’s news sites has published more than 60 deaths from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Turkmenistan authorities are not disclosing coronavirus cases, and the country’s president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov – a former dentist – uses the nation’s healthy image as the core of state propaganda, and acknowledges the country’s impact on l he epidemic could undermine the legitimacy of his regime.
However, a case last year nearly exposed the hoax, when a Turkish diplomat – named Kemal Oçkin – fell ill in the capital, Ashgabat. Uchkin suffered from the typical symptoms of a Corona virus infection including chest pain, sweating and high temperature, but his condition was diagnosed as pneumonia.
The diplomat’s wife sent her husband’s x-rays to Turkish hospitals, all of which confirmed it was a case of Covid-19.
She made every attempt to send her husband back to Turkey, but the Turkmen authorities refused to allow an equipped medical plane to transport him out of the country, and issued a travel permit several hours after the death of the Turkish diplomat. Mr Uchkin’s body has been embalmed and forensic experts have been unable to find traces of the coronavirus.
published photo, Getty Images
Health workers in Turkmenistan do not use the words corona or covid
The Turkmen authorities have put in place quarantine measures to stop the spread of the disease, but the government is determined that Turkmenistan will be free of covid-19 through its “preventive measures”.
In the hospital where Kurbanov was treated, doctors and staff did not use the words corona or covid.
“The doctors over there say ‘this virus’ or ‘this disease’ and I ask them if it is Covid? They nod their heads silently,” Kurbanov explains.
While in hospital, Mr Kurbanov received a health warning letter from the government, recommending that he wear a mask due to the dust in the air. And Kurbanov continued: “Will we die from the dust? They will let people die, but they will never admit that the cause is Covid.”
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