Geldy Kyarizov is out of Turkmenistan
Locked up, ill and stripped of his horses – Geldy’s fellow riders raised hell for their political prison victim in Turkmenistan.
“Geldy Kyarizov, a once healthy horseman, survived years in [the infamous] Ovadan Depe but emerged in broken health and weighing only a hundred pounds,” the Long Rider’s Guild told Explorersweb not long ago, asking for media coverage of the issue.
Once released from the notorious prison camp, Geldy – a long rider, horse breeder and former director of state-run Association Turkmen Atlary (“Turkmen Horses”) – was instructed by the authorities to no longer engage in horse breeding. State officials demolished his stud farm and the horses were seized. In October 2013 Geldy Kyarizov and his wife were made to sign a paper stating that he may not approach horses again.
Geldy fell seriously ill. In a united effort including the Amnesty International and other human rights watch dogs, Russia issued visas and promised to treat him.
But the harassed family was refused permits to leave Turkmenistan. That’s when The Long Riders Guild rode in and today, Kyarizov’s US-based son sent news to founder of the Long Riders’ Guild in London, CuChullaine O’Reilly, that his dad had landed in Moscow.
Once a political prisoner himself, CuChullaine O’Reilly said, “In a world too often obsessed with competition, this is an example of the brotherhood of equestrian explorers defending each other.”
