When a Turkmen wants to know or introduce someone the immediate thing he/she does is referring to the person's parentage. After that and after calculation of the mentioned previous generations, bending his/her fingers, he/she can recognise the person. Even one scoundrel is enough to disgrace all the last seven generations of a family. Everyone will pinpoint at him/her and say, as if there were a court verdict brought in, "he/she is from so-and-so family". No try to defend oneself will find a support; the only truth will be what people say. Looking at this or that investigation carried out by the Turkmenistan Chief Prosecutor's Office, one can once again see him/herself how wise and right is the principle of judging a person by his/her patronage. Indeed, "like father like son". Today we are going to talk about a nation traitor who has been found guilty of committing heinous crimes, taking advantage of the trust of our Leader and of the people, when working at various high-level posts after the light of our eyes, our Turkmenistan, our beloved motherland, gained the Independence. The name of this traitor - who abused the confidence of our Great President and our people, stole the country's property with greedy hands and when everything came to light instead of pleading guilty, asking his own people's pardon and repenting of his crimes, as a true man would do, run away to a foreign country -is Boris Shikhmuradov.
Over the years when working at various high-level posts B. Shikhmuradov had had his own understanding of the confidence shown to him and had tried to exercise it in his own way. Pretending to be wise and farseeing and thinking that no one would call him to account for his deeds committed at the time when the country was just about to stand on its own feet and enter the world community, he had gone into dirty business. Instead of thanking God for a royal-like life style he had already been enjoying, he, pretending to be one of those who were step by step earning the country's prestige, had maliciously squandered state property. Perhaps, the crimes committed by this scoundrel can make the most skilful thieves bow their head to him. In 1994 Boris Shikhmuradov in his then capacity of Deputy Prime Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan and Head of the State Commission for Material & Technical Procurement of the Turkmenistan Defence connived at squandering military property of the state by others who abused their office and went beyond the area of their authority. There is no lack of evidence of that. Below are testimonies of witnesses.
From a testimony given by former Defence Minister of Turkmenistan Dangatar Abdyevich Kopekov:
"In 1994 I received a phone call from Head of the State Committee for Material & Technical Procurement of the Turkmenistan Defence Boris Shikhmuradov. He ordered me to hand over 6 SU-17 fighters to the Rosvooruzhenie (Russian armament) State Company. He said the fighters export had been legalised and there was an agreement on that. At that time I did not see any written instruction on that from B. Shikhmuradov. We set everything ready for the hand-over but no money had been transferred to the Turkmenistan Defence Ministry fund. Then I issued an order banning the hand-over of the 6 fighters. When I started showing deep interest in the case, B. Shikhmuradov told me I should not interfere and the issue was under the authority of Head of Turkmenistan Defence Ministry HQ A. Soltanov.
At that time issues of Turkmenistan Armed Forces procurement and purchase/sale of ammunition and military equipment were under the authority of then Deputy Prime Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan and Head of the State Committee for Material & Technical Procurement of the Turkmenistan Defence Boris Shikhmuradov, Secretary Executive Bekdurdy Shalykov and Head of Military & National Security Organisations Dept of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan.
On 12 October 1994, based on B. Shikhmuradov's instruction, I issued Order No388 on hand over of 9,000 AKS-74 sub-machine-guns and 1,500,000 5.45-mm bullets to the Rosvooruzhenie".
From a testimony given by former Secretary Executive of the State Committee for Material & Technical Procurement of the Turkmenistan Defence Bekdurdy Shalykov:
"In March 1994 I joined the Military & National Security Organisations Dept of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan. The department was then headed by Roman Borisovich Kruglov.
On 25 March 1994 in accordance with a decree of the President of Turkmenistan was formed the State Committee for Material & Technical Procurement of the Turkmenistan Defence; B. Shikhmuradov was appointed the Committee Head and R. B. Kruglov Secretary Executive.
On 23 May 1994, Deputy Prime Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan Boris Shikhmuradov signed Order Nol2 on sale of 6 SU-17 fighters belonging to the Defence Ministry of Turkmenistan to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. The order had been drafted by R. B. Kruglov. Based on that order the Ministry of Defence of Turkmenistan sold the above mentioned 6 fighters to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. No agreement was made on sale of the fighters between the Ministry of Defence of Turkmenistan and the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. This I know for certain. Those fighters were sold only by B. Shikhmuradov's order. Based on B. Shikhmuradov's order the Ministry of Defence of Turkmenistan issued its own order on sale of the fighters.
In October 1994 by B. Shikhmuradov's immediate instruction the Ministry of Defence of Turkmenistan sold 9,000 AKS-74 sub-machine-guns and 1,500,000 5.45-mm bullets to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. By B. Shikhmuradov's immediate instruction I myself went to the military aerodrome in Akdepe and attended the hand-over as Representative of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan. There I signed and sealed the papers".
From a testimony given by former Head of Turkmenistan Defence Ministry HQ A. Soltanov:
"... in 1994 a delegation of the Rosvooruzhenie State Company visited Turkmenistan to purchase 6 SU-17 fighters from the Ministry of Defence of Turkmenistan. On 23 May 1994, Deputy Prime Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan and Head of the State Committee for Material & Technical Procurement of the Turkmenistan Defence Boris Shikhmuradov issued Order No 12 and gave instructions to hand over the fighters to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. As the Defence Ministry's Air Defence & Aviation command was under the authority of the Turkmenistan HQ, I was the one who had the immediate authority to approve or disapprove the hand-over of the fighters to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. Roman Borisovich Kruglov was then Secretary Executive of the State Committee for Material & Technical Procurement of the Turkmenistan Defence. He came to me and expressed his displeasure at the delay with the fighters' hand-over to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. At the same time he informed me that B. Shikhmuradov summoned the Minister of Defence of Turkmenistan and me to his office. When I met with B. Shikhmuradov he demanded the fighters to be immediately handed over to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. I told him I would hand over the fighters without delay once I receive an order to hand over them to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. B. Shikhmuradov said that if such order were required then he would definitely issue it. After that conversation, B. Shikhmuradov sent the Ministry of Defence of Turkmenistan an order on hand-over of 6 SU-17 fighters to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. Based on that order, the Minister of Defence of Turkmenistan issued an order on forming a working group to price the fighters. Thus, 5 SU-17 fighters were loaded into an IL-76 plane and handed over to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company".
Any high-level official and, in particular, one who is responsible for the country's military has no right to solely make decision even on a very minor issue. However, B. Shikhmuradov turned a blind eye to this truth. Without consulting with any of the 17 members of the State Committee for Material & Technical Procurement of the Turkmenistan Defence he stealthily fulfilled his black intents by himself. Do you think that this scoundrel who worked at high-level posts had no idea that any arm sale contradicts the foreign policy of our Independent and permanently Neutral Turkmenistan?! He was more than aware of that. It will be right to look for the heart of the matter in his self-interest and in dirty money that made him dance like a monkey. There is another issue for one to become thoughtful. Everything that is being exported must be registered without fail. However, B. Shikhmuradov once again maliciously abused his office. Thinking that nothing would be disclosed later, he gave illegal instruction to then Chairman of the Turkmenistan State Customs Khabibulla Durdyev to let the fighters be exported without hindrance. Having sold the military equipment and tasted the dirty profit, the ill-intentioned man started acting like Beovenjik the Insatiable (a Turkmen fairy tale character) and as if rephrasing Beovenjik's famous "I have eaten this, I have eaten that. What do you think I can't eat you?" in "I have sold the fighters. What do you think I can't sell you?" On 12 October 1994 he issued the order under which 9,000 new AKS-74 sub-machine-guns and 1,500,000 5.45-mm bullets to a total amount of $2,500,000 US were loaded into 2 IL-76 planes at the military aerodrome and transported by the Bonex JSC of the Rosvooruzhenie State Company. The State Customs was not informed. Bekdurdy Shalykov, then Secretary Executive of the State Committee for Material & Technical Procurement of the Turkmenistan Defence signed and sealed all the papers.
Though no agreement was signed with the above JSC, $5,723,235US-worth goods were delivered in Turkmenistan in 1994-95. Where is the rest of the amount? The only person who can answer this question is B. Shikhmuradov, who, craving for a profit, illegally exported the military equipment and was the mastermind of all the dirty tricks. On these deeds the Turkmenistan Chief Prosecutor's Office has instituted proceedings and the investigation is under way.
Malicious criminal B. Shikhmuradov's guilt is being completely proven. His Order No 12 of 23 May 1994 on duty-free shipment of 6 SU-17 fighters to the Rosvooruzhenie State Company, his written instructions No 14/158 of 23 May 1994 to the Turkmenistan State Customs and a few arms sale/purchase papers have been confirmed by testimonies given by A. Soltanov, B. Shalykov, Head of Military Equipment Store Warrant Officer Dovran Potarov, Major Ainazar Khanov, Valentina Tikhonova and some other witnesses.
Turkmen use to ask a scoundrel who put his hands on people's property, a grasping man with satiable stomach but insatiable eyes, "Was it your father's cow?" Has such question ever tormented the Motherland's traitor B. Shikhmuradov?!
Who is this scoundrel who changed the motherland's reputation, the people's reputation for a small coin? What is his lineage? Let's try to find an answer to this question, using the old Turkmen tradition. It's good if people will know this scoundrel. We don't have information of the last six generations of B. Shikhmuradov's family and we don't think he has it himself. If his father thought of that custom, cared for people's respect for his lineage and hoped his children would bring good word to his family, he would have given them a proper Turkmen name instead of such alien to Turkmen people names as Larisa, Boris and Konstantin, the names that hard to remember. Of course, no one can blame them for that, because it's their own business to remember or not their last seven generations and to bear or not such names. Now let's look at information the motherland's traitor, who inherited his characteristics with blood, and his relatives are known and will be known by among the people. Let us to concentrate on facts which have made and will make the motherland traitor and his relatives known among the people.
Boris' father Oraz Shikhmuradov was born in the village of Durun, Bekherden. His mother, Mara Nikolaevna Agajanian was born in Karabakh, Azerbaijan. She is Armenian by nationality. They met and married in those turmoil 1930-s. Mara's elder brother, Yefim Agajanian was then Head of the Geokdepe NKVD (People's Commissariat of Interior Affairs). Taking his brother-in-law Oraz to work in his office, he killed two birds with one stone. First, he seemed patronising his new relative. Second, he trained the loyal cutthroat who had all the locals at his fingertips. And his bloodshot-eyed brother-in-law did not disappoint him: when he was asked to bring a telpek he brought a head. Old people in Akhal region and other velayats still remember him with disgust. There are a lot of people who are still mourning death of
many best Turkmen sons and daughters - wealthy people - who by Oraz Shikhmuradov's order were arrested, imprisoned, robbed of everything, exiled, executed, buried in old wells without investigation or verdict in 1930-s when brutal NKVD "was entering houses with fire and leaving them in ashes" and made many innocent people cry blood tears. Though there is a Turkmen tradition to speak only good or nothing about a dead, even old Turkmen people can't suppress their hatred when his name is mentioned.
There was a time when B. Shikhmuradov worked at three posts simultaneously: he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Head of the Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan and Head of the Turkmenistan Football & Table Tennis Federation. At that time this scoundrel used to illegally sell sacred Turkmen passport to foreigners. The appetite of the insatiable that was selling papers confirming Turkmenistan citizenship for tens of thousand US dollars run even higher. Being not satisfied with the profit he received from the sale of Turkmen passports right and left, he turned even Turkmen sport into a source of profit. He appointed his son Boris Jr Manager of the Kopetdag football team. "The best football players must play in the Kopetdag! The team that I'm leading must definitely be the champion of the country!" The question of how and at what expense that would be achieved was out of place. When one can achieve that if not when one's father holds such a high post and keeps all the gold money paid to the Federation in his own hands? The younger "master" "ate" himself and let those who obeyed him "eat" also. Players who agreed to play for the Kopetdag at the time were the best-paid ones and bought cars and apartments.
As time passed the appetite of the younger of the two Borises run higher and he began 'trading" to get bigger money. He called long forgotten and out-rated in Russia football players namely V. Broshin and V. Masalitin to play for the Kopetdag and for the national team. Then middle-rate football players and experts from Georgia, Ukraine and Armenia easily got Turkmen passport and started to play in the Shikhmuradovs' teams. Sure, it was not only for thank-you.
In 1998 our national football team took part in the 13th Asian Games in Thailand. Almost half of the national football team was then formed of Ukrainians, even if one does not count Chief Coach V. Pozhichevski, a Ukrainian. The memory of their shameful loss, despite they were allowed to take their family members with them and stayed in a fashionable hotel in Bangkok, is still vivid. People called it the Bangkok life in clover. What one can expect from a man who has no Turkmen blood in his veins? Neither father nor son knew or will know that only Turkmen can glorify the Turkmen people. If one will add to the above that Shikhmuradovs own a few luxury houses in and outside Turkmenistan and Shikhmuradov's youngest son Alexander studies in one of the United States higher education establishments, then a natural question arises "At whose and what expense?" Of course, it's more than obvious that it's not paid from their salaries or money he inherited from his grandfather. So there is no way but to admit the truth.
B. Shikmuradov's younger brother's name is Konstantin. He is an entrepreneur. As his brother was appointed the high post Konstantin's business went up in the world. In 1999-2001 he bought enormous number of cars on behalf of his relatives and acquaintances. Let's look at some examples. Although a Chevrolet Chevy Blazer, number plate G8778AG, was bought on behalf of Nuryagdy Khojaev, a Volga GAZ-21, number plate F6226AG, on behalf of Oraz Shikhmuradov, a GAZ-3110, number plate G1100AG, Murat Shikhmuradov, a ZIL-130, number plate B6226AG, Murat Shikhmuradov, a Ford Explorer, number plate G8338AG, Marina Osipian, a Ford Mandeo, number plate H3057AG, Azat Begnazarov, a Nissan Maxima, number plate G0460AG, Allaguly Pashyev and a Ford Mustang, number plate 1H02104, Movlam Shalarov, it was established that the cars' real owner was Konstantin Shikhmuradov. The cars have been confiscated. Being so busy with "dancing for money'', he failed to bring up his offshoots properly. His son Murat Shikhmuradov born in 1981 committed a group crime. Perhaps, it's also blood related. It seems the motto "Catch, beat and kill" he inherited from his grandfather had not let him live in peace. As a result of that, leader of a criminal group Murat Shikhmuradov killed Manager of the Mir Cinema Pool Hall Igor Khrustikov for no reason...'
Let's finish our talk about Shikhmuradovs' family "heritage" with the motherland traitor's friends and relatives. Born in 1952, Mukhammed Abdyev, an officer with Agriculture Dept of the Akhal Velayat Khiakimlik, was a dear friend of B. Shikhmuradov. It was established that on behalf of these two bosom friends were bought 100 hectares of land in Akhal velayat (50 hectares for each) and another 100 hectares of reserve land in Bekherden etrap (50 hectares for each). What for did they need so much land? Indeed, their stomach was sated but not their eyes. M. Abdyev fully confessed to his illegal deeds. With the assistance of B. Shikhmuradov he had misappropriated a MTZ-80 tractor (with a trailer), a GAZ-32321 (Gazel) car. 50 hectare of land in the Akhal Peasant Association, hundreds of livestock, 2 GAZ-66 military lorry trailers. All of that has been confiscated by the law-enforcement agencies.
Born in 1952 Khudainazar Rakhmanov who lives at 5, Garashsyzlyk Street, Bekherden etrap, used to head Akhal Velayat Dept of the Turkmensiyakhat (tourist agency} in 1995-1998. He is B. Shikhmuradov's nephew and has kept closely in touch with his uncle. Of course, it's natural for an uncle to be dear to his nephew and vice versa. However, there are a lot of buts in their relation. What comments one can make if in 2000 a VAZ-21063 (car} was bought on behalf of Kh. Rakhmanov, in April 2001 a VAZ-21099 on behalf of his son Meretmukhammet Rakhmanov, in 2001 a VAZ-21099 on behalf of his other son Abdynazar Rakhmanov, a VAZ-21063 on behalf of his youngest son Orazdurdy Rakhmanov and a house in the town of Bekherden on behalf of his son Abdynazar who is Deputy Management Officer of Bekherden Etrap Dept of the Turkmenistan State Comercial Bank? A family living on their salary and honestly earning it can afford, God willing, one or two cars a year. But if one has an uncle in high office who does not care about honesty or dishonesty, then the number of cars, as it proved to be, can increase unlimitedly. In this issue Shikhmuradovs are more than professionals. At the time when Oraz Shikhmuradov was still alive, he presented an UAZ-463 car made in 1998 to Tarkhan Shikhmuradovich Annamuradov, a teacher with secondary school No2 in the town of Bekherden, who lives at 5 Annamurat Shikhmuradov Street in that town. Do you notice at which street Tarkhan lives? The street was named after elder brother of B. Shikhmuradov's father, Annamurat, who's missing in action in the Great Patriotic War. Indeed, "roll my log and I'll roll yours". Our fathers used to say, "Those of dishonest blood never give up their intents." It is impossible to make an ill-intended man, many family generations of who had lived dishonestly, to give up his way of living. Indeed, it's like a Turkmen proverb says, "What comes with blood goes with the ghost". But nothing goes uncounted. Earlier or later one must pay for his/her deeds. That's why the man who disgraced the motherland and the people, the motherland's traitor and deserter, B. Shikhmuradov will be brought to account before the just law for every ill-intended and mean deed he committed.
If one does not love with heart and feels no pride and respect for the land he was born in, then he, as it proved to be, can leave and desert the people who have taken motherly care of him. But there is no way to go into hiding from punishment for a sin or crime committed. Wherever he is he is still a criminal. There is no place where he can hide from the wrath of Allah.
Khaldurdy Shikhdurdyev
"Adalat" newspaper, November 30, 2001
