Angela Merkel with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Photo: DPAAFP · 25 Aug 2016, 15:59Published: 25 Aug 2016 15:59 GMT+02:00Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to bring up major rights violations, including a "policy of disappearances", when Germany hosts the president of Turkmenistan next week. The monitoring group said the rare visit to Germany by Turkmenistan's reclusive president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on Monday should be used to tackle the plight of activists. "Chancellor Angela Merkel should not waste this opportunity to directly and insistently call for oppression in Turkmenistan to be ended," said HRW's director for Europe and Central Asia, Hugh Williamson. Rights groups regularly list ex-Soviet Turkmenistan, which has the world's fourth largest known reserves of natural gas, as one of the least free states.

Source: The Local August 25, 2016 13:07 UTC