UN Office on Drugs and Crime and OSCE deliver online training course to enhance Turkmenistan’s capacities in countering terrorist financing

A three-day online training course aimed at strengthening the capacity of Turkmenistan to counter terrorist financing was organized from 1 to 3 June 2020.  Eighteen experts and practitioners from the Financial Monitoring Service under the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministries of Internal Affairs and of National Security, and the Prosecutor’s Office of Turkmenistan participated in the course.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) organized the course at the Financial Monitoring Service of Turkmenistan, in co-operation with the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department and the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat.

It aimed at strengthening Turkmenistan’s compliance with international standards, UN Security Council Resolutions, in particular Resolution 2462 (2019), the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF)’s standards, and UN norms and OSCE commitments to promote human rights-based approaches in countering terrorist financing.

The course emphasized the key role of inter-agency co-operation and of involving all relevant stakeholders, from public and private sectors, in efforts aimed at countering terrorist financing. Participants worked on exercises highlighting specific instruments and techniques that play an important role in countering this threat.

“One of the UNODC Regional Office in Central Asia’s primary objective is to increase the capacity of the national law enforcement, financial intelligence units (FIU) and financial institutions to detect and combat terrorist financing, disrupt terrorist networks and recover proceeds of crime,” said Ashita Mittal, UNODC Regional Representative in Central Asia. “Currently, government bodies and the private sector are actively working to prepare the Republic of Turkmenistan for its mutual assessment for compliance with the FATF international standards. In order to provide technical assistance and improve the effectiveness of the national framework for Anti-money laundering and Combating terrorism financing we are implementing the training programme on Countering the Financing of Terrorism.”

Natalya Drozd, Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, said: “The OSCE developed comprehensive measures to contribute to international efforts aimed at preventing and combating terrorist financing. Today’s event offers an excellent opportunity to share unique expertise accumulated by the OSCE and UNODC, and we believe it will contribute to the efforts of the Government of Turkmenistan to enhance the national system of combating terrorist financing in line with international standards and requirements of relevant international bodies”.

Fejzo Numanaj, Acting Head of the Action against Terrorism Unit of the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, said: “The OSCE-UNODC’s innovative multi-annual capacity-building programme to support national efforts on countering terrorist financing in Central Asia brings more real-life cases and exercises, more team work and interaction than other training programmes. It also allows for more local ownership since the curriculum can be updated based on suggestions from national experts.”

Chary Atayev, Acting Head of the UNODC Programme Office in Turkmenistan added: “ The UNODC Programme Office in Turkmenistan supports joint efforts and initiatives in the field of countering transnational organized crime and terrorist financing. The implementation of the OSCE-UNODC multi-annual training programme will help relevant national authorities to be more effective in achieving common goals and addressing common threats such as the financing of terrorism.”