Khajitboi Yakubov, Chairman of the Khorezm regional human rights organization Nazhot or Salvation, claims that more and more sick Turkmens apply for medical treatment in Khorezm, Uzbekistan.

According to the human rights activist, the Turkmens are driven to Uzbekistan by centralization of medical facilities in Turkmenistan where the Turkmenbashi ordered them all concentrated in Ashkhabad alone and closed elsewhere. Residents of distant etraps or districts with serious health problems are forced to make the difficult, expensive, and time-consuming trip to the capital now. Moreover, doctors in Ashkhabad demand the kind of pay for their services few Turkmens can really afford.

It follows that residents of the Tashauz district of Turkmenistan find medical treatment in Urgench in Uzbekistan cheaper even despite the bribes they pay.

"There are lots of citizens of Turkmenistan to be found in the clinical hospital of the Khorezm region, children's hospital, and other prestigious facilities nowadays," Yakubov said. "Genial Khorezm doctors have no objections to treating their Turkmen brothers."