Peace Without Poison

As elsewhere in the Soviet Union and in the West, population control measures began in 1962and were imposed on Turkmenistan, then the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, by the Soviets.From 1962 until independence in 1991, Turkmenistan’s fertility declined from 6 to 4 children perwoman; a decline that can be explained by family planning services and psychosocial measuressuch as compulsory education for boys and girls, delayed marriage and women’s employment.Since independence, however, fertility has declined from 4 to 2.3 children per woman despite acontraceptive prevalence rate that never exceeded 62% and that for the past ten years has beenbelow 48%.Decreasing fertility accompanied by decreasing use of contraceptives indicates that the freelyelected government of Turkmenistan now relies exclusively on covert methods of depopulationto accomplish its demographic goals.881 | P a g e