DECLASSIFIED
Name & Rank: Agent Jenkins
Unit: ACI EASTCOM Field Operations Unit
Date: 2/9/2021
Authorized By: GD-CMDR, "Lightning Rod"
Site: RS-04
Reason: High Priority Target Declassification
Purpose: To assess the threat presented by the State of Turkmenistan to operational secrecy, and to recommend tactics for response and/or prevention.
Author(s): Agent Jenkins, James Rodrick M.A., Dr. Battulga
Commissioned By: ACI Head of Intelligence "Lightning Rod", GD-EURA & GD-ASIA.
To: Global Directorate, ACI DEP-022 (Counter Intel).
Date: 6/12/2012
Prelude - A Short History:
Turkmenistan is a small country based in EASTCOM, which has existed as a servile state for most of its existence, having been conquered by the Persian, Mongol, Islamic, Russian, and later Soviet states. The publicly recorded narrative remains correct up until the late 19th century when the then territory was occupied by Russians.
Under Russian rule, their nomadic lifestyle was discouraged and dismantled and gave way to sedentarism. It was then that anomalies started to be used in earnest within the infrastructure, supporting their weak economy and lack of substantial water-bound trade routes. Turkmenistan in particular had a large number of anomalies among their peoples that were kept as family heirlooms, ritual centerpieces, and revered as minor gods, which they had acquired by trade through the millions of travelers on the Silk Road over two thousand years.
The Turkmens continued to develop their infrastructure in the early 20th century with the integral use of anomalies, but a lack of technology or experimentation knowledge meant that it usually ended in disaster. One such disaster occurred in 1948 centered around the city of Ashgabat, in which an earthquake was caused by a soil fertility stone after it had come into contact with synthetic fertilizer. The resulting earthquake killed ~110,000 people, or 11% of Turkmenistan's total population at the time. Despite these tragedies, Turkmenistan would persist to build their anomaliýa infrastrukturasy bölümi (anomaly infrastructure department, abbreviated to AID).
Significant strides of advancement in anomalous infrastructure did not come until 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Turkmens, now free of the sovereign taxes and exports they had to send to Moscow, began to capitalize on their large supply of fossil fuels (4th largest reserve in the world) to export and trade with western countries in order to receive the necessary technology to control anomalies. This was the first time the Authority took significant notice of Turkmenistan, which under Soviet rule had been completely radio silent. With their newfound wealth, they built up AID so that anomalies may be used as a supplicant to their power grid, which allowed them to export more gas to other countries. By the beginning of the 21st century, Turkmenistan was one of the most wealthy countries per capita and was rising fast.
Current State of Turkmenistan:
Turkmenistan is not much unlike current day Dubai & Qatar, which goes especially for their main city of Ashgabat. While their oligarchy does leave for a minor amount of corruption and obfuscating bureaucracy, in general, the average Turkmen has a quality of life equivalent or greater than that of the Nordic states, but with almost double the buying power. If a tourist was to visit, this would not be immediately apparent why. Though their oil reserves are large, it hardly leaves for any great amount of resources that can be used to drive equality among the social classes. It is through their utilization of anomalous artifacts that allows them to be so prosperous, and spread this wealth to their people.
Hidden in their "nuclear facilities" lies their main power producer: one "lightning in a bottle" which they have uncorked. This lightning continually charges the entirety of Ashgabat, and its power is used to operate the machinery that extracts and converts oil. The Turkmens, along with their other anomalies, protect these secrets closely, and despite multiple attempts by foreign powers such as Russia, United States, the Authority, and ██████,1 most of these anomalies have stayed in their hands. However, despite these open attempts of subterfuge, the Turkmens never strike back nor declare war, as they are a UN-recognized neutral state, and would never consider breaking their peace nor their recognition as a neutral state. It is because of this political maneuvering that Turkmenistan, despite its small size, has survived for so long as a nation.
In contrast to its abject professions of neutrality and its small standing army, Turkmenistan has developed into one of the most advanced ballistic laboratories on the market. Their weapons program does not focus on combustion-based firearms and weaponry but electromagnetic and railgun weaponry, which uses electricity to send payloads of metal down a rail. As of this document, their premier handheld railgun, the "Elektromagnit Zarba Mk 1ba1" can fire .75x2.25 inch tungsten rods at 200 m/s. Due to the insular nature of Turkmenistan and its small population, further information about its military or developments is difficult to ascertain.
Authority involvement:
The Auctoritas had little to no contact with the Turkmen people for much of its existence. While some inquisitorial forces were sent to the far east to retrieve wayward templars or investigate heretical activity, rarely were long term stops or thorough investigations made in Central Asia. At the time, the Auctoritas did not have the manpower, nor the diplomatic sway to patrol all of the Silk Road. Though many stories came from the East, tales of mystical monks guarding fantastical treasures and Turkmen raiders carried by the wind on flying carpets, the head of the Auctoritas at the time, one Juan Borgia writes: It is no concern of ours what these orients practice, it is our solemn duty to that of the church and our pope.
This euro-centric, and later west-centric ideology was the main driving point of the Authority's domestic and foreign policy for the next 400 years, all the way up until the Soviet Union. The Authority had made some minor expeditions into Turkmenistan between the years, notably sending multiple Protectorate divisions to help after the 1948 Ashgabat Earthquake.2 It was not until the Soviet's grip began to slip that the Authority received a contract from the material starved Soviet Turkmenistan, to contain one "Gate to Hell". Despite the working relationship between Turkmenistan and the Authority, the Authority did not receive any more calls for service, even after the catastrophic "Verdant Grove"3 incident of 1996 in Ashgabat.
Authority Central Intelligence Actions:
In response to this seemingly non-committal diplomatic response, and Turkmenistan's intent to continue using the anomalous to power their city, fertilize their soil, and reinforce their infrastructure, ACI was conscripted to create prevention tactics to prevent the spread of the common knowledge of the anomalous. Several tactics were employed that were facilitated by the rise of the Internet, such as creating a different history of Turkmenistan, one that had always been ruled by a dictator, decrying previous books about Turkmenistan history as being propaganda pieces, and instituting counter-media praising the non-existent "Great Leader" of Turkmenistan. A narrative of despotic, single minded dictators that exist in the east was perpetuated in television media and on the internet. In order to sell the idea beyond words, the United States was given great incentive to go after multiple state leaders in the east such as Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein.
This is helped by the cooperation of European and American governments limiting and tracking the travel of citizens to the country of Turkmenistan, which they have an agreement to share with ACI counterintelligence. Due to closed borders by the Turkmens, implanted ACI agents only need to stay around the Ashgabat international airport, upon which they may expose the travelling citizen to a number of amnestics & memetics in order to make them forget their trip to Turkmenistan, or remember it as a backwards, despotic dictatorship. Strong magnets are also used to corrupt phone data to wipe physical evidence of Turkmenistan's technological and infrastructural advancements.
This campaign was greatly successful, and as of 2012, Turkmenistan is the 7th least visited country in the world. There are very few institutions that report positively about Turkmenistan, and those that do are labeled as Chinese sympathizers.4 The rare few who do visit see a great lush marbled city in the desert, and never understand or remember how it came to be.
Recommendations:
Having regard to the above-mentioned series of events, we recommend:
- The Authority continue to work on contracts such as RPC-616 to maintain plants within the country.
- The Authority gather more intelligence on what anomalies are in use.
- The Authority continue their counter-intelligence works to maintain anomalous secrecy.
- The Authority divert more personnel to secure the border of Turkmenistan.
- The Authority lobby in the EU and Congress for the discontinuing of any visitation to Turkmenistan.
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