Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to bring up major rights violations when Germany hosts the president of Turkmenistan next week, thelocal.de reported.
The monitoring group said the rare visit to Germany by Turkmenistan's president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on Monday should be used to tackle the plight of activists.
"Chancellor Angela Merkel should not waste this opportunity to directly and insistently call for oppression in Turkmenistan to be ended," said HRW's director for Europe and Central Asia, Hugh Williamson.
