Turkmenistan, which is located in the heart of the EuroAsian continent, will certainly become one of the main prizes for the winners in the modern Great Game. The value of this Central - Asian republic is determined by its special strategic location and huge deposits of gas scattered all over its lifeless desert. Turkmenistan is one of three global leaders in the volume of natural gas stocks. Turkmenistan is one of the pillars of the energy politics of China, Russia and the European Community. Turkmenistan is an integral part of the Turkic world, for leadership of which Turkey traditionally applies, for it is also the guarantor of huge profits to be made in the transit of gas to Europe. Turkmenistan is a gate of Iran to Central Asia and a regional jumping-off place of the American special services. Turkmenistan is an important factor in the Afghani internal economy and politics. Turkmenistan is a transit route of goods and energy carriers from Central Asia to the coast of the Indian Ocean. Accordingly, it is also an important factor in the Indo-Pakistani conflict and peace process.
The list of this republic's virtues can be continued, but we have told enough for the comprehension of the special role of Turkmenistan in modern geopolitics.
The main participants in the fight over this republic are Turkey, China, Iran, Russia and the USA. However their ministers, diplomats, spies and businessmen until now did not manage to achieve such a level of influence on Ashkhabad, which already for a long time has been enjoyed by a certain ex-officer of the Mossad.

A Mirage of the Turkmen Desert

	Joseph Meiman

The president of Israeli Merhav Company, Joseph Meiman, and one of his closest assistants visited Turkmenistan last week. According to a source in the management of the company, this trip is connected to "activization of spade-work" before the beginning of modernization of a large oil-refining factory in the city of Seida in the East of Turkmenistan. The same source categorically denied rumors that Merhav will stop its activity in this country. Also the first secretary of one of the European embassies in the Turkmen capital was extremely skeptical about those rumors. As he said, on September,

Saparmurad Niiazov

15, he personally saw Joseph Meiman on a solemn ceremony in the city of Turkmenbashi, in the West of the republic. And, the second person that addressed the participants after the President, Saparmurad Niiazov, was the head of the Merhav Company. According to our interlocutor, this event deprives the rumors concerning the conflict between the President and the businessman of any grounds. The information available to AIA shows that for the last month some of the Israeli governmental bodies, and in particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, received messages from various channels about the preparation of an exodus of Merhav from Turkmenistan. So the assumption appeared to be that there are some disagreements on financial grounds between Saparmurad Niiazov and Joseph Meiman. Furthermore, it was concluded that because of these contradictions, Merhav is being compelled to discontinue its work in Turkmenistan. There were even messages that the head of the company plans to transfer the center of his activity in the post-Soviet space to neighboring Azerbaijan (where Meiman started to do business almost simultaneously as in Turkmenistan, in the first half of the nineties.)
Of all of the large foreign companies cooperating with the Turkmen regime, Merhav, or to be exact its owner, Joseph Meiman, for more than ten years has enjoyed the great favor and trust of Niiazov. The Israeli billionaire has lobbied for the interests of the Turkmen President in Washington and supervised on his behalf the work of foreign companies in energy projects of strategic value. For the last ten years Niiazov refused cooperation with many known world Western, Turkish and Russian companies. Only the position of Merhav remained firm for all these years. Therefore the messages, which came to some Israeli governmental bodies, needed to be checked most carefully.

	Turkmenbashi favors Meiman

Using its own connections in these structures, AIA found out that the information on Niiazov's conflict with Meiman came from three various sources. The first: the Israeli diplomatic representatives in one of the countries of Central Asia; the second: high ranking representative of the large Israeli company which have certain interests in the region and previously cooperated with Merhav; the third – conspiratorial local source of one of the Israeli bodies in Turkmenistan.
During the check, our attention was drawn by two circumstances. First, the message on Niiazov's conflict with Meiman was distributed selectively among the Israeli state bodies. For example several employees of the EuroAsian and East European department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been informed on Meiman's problems in Turkmenistan, and others did not hear anything about it .
And the interesting part was that those who didn't get the message were a few diplomats who more or less are familiar with Central Asia and know about Merhav and its activity. Second, the message on the crisis in the relations of Niiazov with Meiman did not appear in the mass media either in English, or in Russian, or the Turkish language. Such information also was not disclosed even by the Israeli mass media designed for a mass audience. The exception was just a brief item in the specialized economic edition focused on representatives of the state and private commercial and financial structures. Naturally, those few who are interested in Central Asia or Merhav noticed or retrospectively learned about this message.

The Shadow of the Enemy Behind

On the basis of the collected information it is possible to make a number of rather curious conclusions. At least two of three sources of data on the Meiman - Niiazov conflict are familiar with each other (the representatives of the private company and of the diplomatic mission). From them the message on Merhav's "problems " has gotten to some employees of the central apparatus of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Though the third source is connected to another state structure, it is impossible to exclude his contacts with the first two or at least with one of them (most likely with the diplomat, who visited Turkmenistan several times in the past). Accordingly there is a high probability that in all three cases the initiator of disinformation was the same person, or a narrow group. There are no doubts that the messages on the sharp weakening of the regional positions of Merhav have been designed exclusively for a small circle of officials and businessmen connected to Israeli activity in Central Asia.
The initiator of disinformation has professionally taken care of preserving his anonymity. It is impossible to establish for certain whom this person is. The suspicions aroused during a check of the collected information, unfortunately, are not supported by incontestable proofs. However, it is known for certain, that Joseph Meiman is not the only giant of Israeli business in Central Asia.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first one to rush to this region was the legendary Shaul Aizenberg (1922-1997). By that time he already owned a huge financial empire created by trade (first of all in arms) with neighboring China. After him in Central Asia appeared Joseph Meiman, Lev Leviev (the native of Uzbekistan), Benyamin Shtainmats and some other Israeli businessmen of a slightly smaller caliber. However, only the owner of Merhav managed not only to become almost the main commercial adviser and partner of the leader of one of the countries in the region, but also to keep this exclusive position for more than ten years.

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