On May 22, 2009 the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington D.C. registered on its website the arbitration claim filed by German investor Adem Dogan against the State of Turkmenistan. The claim became necessary after the Turkmen government had seized Mr. Dogan’s investment in violation of international law and after highest-level diplomatic and economic intervention proved fruitless.
In 1999, Adem Dogan – a German citizen – together with a Turkmen business partner set up a large poultry farm on land leased from the State of Turkmenistan. It was the first major European venture in the country and thus regarded as a showcase project for future foreign investment in Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia that gained independence in 1991. The farm quickly proved very successful, supplying the entire Turkmen market with eggs which were previously mainly imported from neighbouring Iran.
Beginning in 2002, the Turkmen government made several attempts at expropriating the highly profitable farm. Despite repeated diplomatic and political intervention from the highest German authorities as well as by EU representative Javier Solana and the French, UK, and US embassies in Turkmenistan, Mr. Dogan’s poultry farm was seized and destroyed by the Turkmen authorities in 2007.
Adem Dogan’s investment is protected from such expropriation by the Germany-Turkmenistan bilateral investment treaty. Mr. Dogan is seeking damages under this treaty for expropriation by way of an investment arbitration. An international arbitration tribunal will decide on the matter.
Adem Dogan is being represented in the investment arbitration proceedings by Gleiss Lutz lawyers Dr. Stephan Wilske (partner), Dr. Martin Raible, Lars Markert and Todd J. Fox (all Stuttgart).
Forward
