Turkmenbashi carks it

cymrococh · December 21, 2006

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1976842,00.html

Saparmurat Niyazov, the hardline president of Turkmenistan, died from a heart attack early today, bringing the curtain down on one of the world's most eccentric personality cults.

Niyazov, 66, had turned his former Soviet central Asian desert state into an object of international ridicule through a series of bizarre decrees that left Turkmens living in an isolated world where fact and fantasy were blurred.

State television showed musicians sawing on violins and a week of mourning was announced. New Year celebrations were cancelled.

The government urged the nation to be "be calm and brave, and unite further, in order to overcome with dignity the severe ordeal which has befallen it and continue honourably the deeds of the national leader".

The president was said to have died at 1.10am from a cardiac arrest. He had announced publicly last month that he was suffering from heart disease.

Known as Turkmenbashi, or Father of all Turkmens, Niyazov was renowned for such peculiar acts as ordering citizens to get gold teeth extracted, outlawing opera and banning men from listening to car radios.

During a 21-year rule he turned his country into a hymn of praise to himself: kindergartens, towns, factories and a month of the year (January) were named Turkmenbashi. He erected a revolving gold statue of himself in the capital Ashgabat and giant billboards of the leader hung all over the country.

He often feigned embarrassment at the adulation. "I'm personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the streets - but it's what the people want," he once said.

But the pressure to worship the leader was relentless. Children in the gas-rich state were forced to learn his book of poetry, the Ruhnama, at school, and a copy of the book was sent into space for good measure.

Official propaganda had it that Turkmenbashi brought his people into a new "golden age" but in reality they were held in almost total isolation and political dissent was crushed.

Niyazov used an alleged assassination attempt in 2002 - thought by many critics to be fabricated - as an excuse to crack down on opponents, who were imprisoned and interned.

He came to power in 1985 as first secretary of the Turkmen Communist party. After the Soviet collapse six years later he became president and in 1999 was made president for life.

The authoritarian leader has no obvious successor because he ensured that noone in his close circle could establish a power base.

According to Turkmen law, the president is succeeded by the head of the lawmaking body, the people's assembly. But that post was held by Niyazov himself.

Deputy prime minister Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was named head of the commission handling the funeral, a position that analysts said might indicate he would be the successor.

Niyazov's funeral is set to take place on Saturday in Ashgabat.

More info - http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1977043,00.html

matty · December 21, 2006

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