ASHKABAD, Dec 21: Turkmenistan has given Uzbekistan’s ambassador 24 hours to leave the country after accusing him of aiding people alleged to be behind a botched assassination attempt on the Turkmen president.

The Turkmen foreign ministry said in a note on Saturday that Abdurashid Kadyrov was persona non grata and was being expelled for “activities incompatible with the high status of a diplomat”.

Earlier in the week Turkmenistan accused Kadyrov of harbouring in his embassy the former Turkmen foreign minister, Boris Shikhmuradov, who Turkmenistan says led an alleged coup attempt against President Saparmurat Niyazov in November.

Turkmenistan, a largely desert ex-Soviet Central Asian state of around five million, is a major cotton grower in an arid region, like Uzbekistan, and disputes over rights to water in a river which forms their border have raised tensions.

Turkmenistan also has the world’s third largest natural gas reserves and has frequently argued with Russia over transport of that gas across Russian territory.

Its government said that in the Nov 25 attack, Niyazov’s motorcade came under fire on his way to work, though he was not injured and said he did not even know there had been an attempt until he was told about it later in the day.

Uzbekistan has categorically denied the Turkmen allegations but the foreign ministry repeated them in the diplomatic note on Saturday.—Reuters