Posted on 12/22/2006 11:44:12 AM PST by gleeaikin
Edited on 12/22/2006 11:53:25 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Saparmurat Niyazov, the president of Turkmenistan who died on Thursday at the age of 66, was an idiosyncratic dictator who ruled the Central Asian republic as a cruel and often capricious medieval khan for 20 years.
Known as Turkmenbashi, the Father of the Turkmens, Niyazov fashioned an image as a munificent leader guiding the country to a golden age. But the Turkmenistan he leaves behind is even more culturally and economically impoverished than during the Soviet era in which he honed his ruthless authoritarian skills.
Niyazov was born into a poor workers’ family on February 19 1940. His father was killed in the second world war. After his other close relations died in an earthquake in 1948, Niyazov was sent to an orphanage.
Analysts have traced Niyazov’s desire to establish himself as the benign father of the Turkmens to his early tragic life. Others say early privations gave rise to a flashy extravagance. Niyazov’s hands were always decked with gems.
Nicknamed “Mr 33%”, he accumulated bribes from foreign businessmen in foreign bank accounts, some critics alleged.
Niyazov was from early youth a dedicated communist. He graduated from Leningrad (now St Petersburg) polytechnical institute and later received political and ideological education at the Communist party central committee’s school, Moscow.
He pursued a career in engineering until Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet general secretary, named him head of Turkmenistan’s Communist party in 1985. It was an unusual appointment. Most high-ranking Soviet officials in Central Asia were Russian. Niyazov was an ethnic Turkmen from the large Tekke clan.
Strong local support and the backing of the exceptionally tough Turkmen KGB helped Niyazov retain power after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and Turkmenistan declared independence. No other Central Asian leader achieved this feat.
Turkmenistan, more than any other Central Asian republic, was a success waiting to happen in 1991. The republic’s huge natural gas fields were already developed and linked by pipeline to Russia. Cotton grew in abundance.
But Niyazov squandered the opportunity to build a flourishing economy. Major international oil companies courted Niyazov for oil and gas deals, but eventually departed confounded by his contrary negotiating tactics. Gas production dived.
Niyazov refused to engage with international financial institutions. “You cannot do business with this man,” one exasperated US official declared after years of trying to persuade Niyazov to commit to a project to pipe natural gas across the Caspian Sea to European markets.
High world oil and gas prices have revived Turkmenistan’s fortunes. Niyazov proved a wily if treacherous negotiator, playing one group of customers off another.
Niyazov committed gas supplies to Russia and then extracted higher prices after committing to build a gas pipeline to China.
In the final weeks of Saparmurat Niyazov’s life it seemed as if the façade of the promised golden age was visibly cracking.
He warned of looming bread shortages and claimed that petrol smugglers from neighbouring Afghanistan had carried away the republic’s fuel.
What do you want from a VPSh [High Party School] graduate? It was widely known to be a zoo.
"Failed"??
Well, if it's all people - he never tried in the first place; if it's indeed elite only (as "his people" term could imply), he did not fail - elite was living that "golden age" in fullest.
What is, strangely enough, not mentioned in the article is that Turkmenistan is a Muslim country.
That Turkmenbashi was a cruel dictator should not come as a surprise. How many benign leaders can anyone name in the Muslim world? Even with their great wealth, how many Muslim countries are truly successful in terms of social and religious freedoms?
This book is studied at Turkmen schools as a separate subject, those who want to obtain a driving licence or to become a public official, have to pass an exam on it.
Here I present the link to this jewel in English . Take note, other materials from this site are also worth looking through.
The "Ruhnama" is mentioned in my final article of the day, listed in Comment #1, now posted. Sounds life his version of Mao's Little Red Book.
I just read the link you listed up to page 23. Actually, I was surprised that it was as moderate as it was. Of course, anyone who accepts Jesus as Savior would find a lot to disagree with. However, he mentions Jesus respectfully, counts Noah as an important influence, and lists the Old Testament, the Gospels, and Psalms specifically as books to be respected. Also that woman should expose their faces to the sun, husbands should not beat their wives and children, and children should respect their parents.
I have to go cook dinner, but will be back later, can you tell me on what page the really bad stuff starts? Naturally, I know a monster can write anything to fool the people, so please don't flame me.
Yes, but he says the Ruhnama is a continuation to Qoran, what is rather eccentric.
Also that woman should expose their faces to the sun, husbands should not beat their wives and children, and children should respect their parents.
Followed by: As for the woman’s mouth, he ordered them to cover it. This cover become the Türkmen traditional cover or yaºmak. link
Check also what he wrote to be the Turkmen contribution to the world:
So that we may tell the whole story of the "father" of the Turkmens...let it be said:
He renamed a town after himself...Turkmenbasy.
He renamed schools and airports after himself.
He named a meteorite after himself.
He named the months and days of the week after himself.
His picture appears on all banknotes.
Every public building has a portrait of the president hung in prime viewing territory.
He had statues of himself and his momma scattered all over Turkmenistan.
He had a gold-plated statue fixed up on the countries tallest building....in such a way that it actually rotates so it always faces the sun and shines light into the city.
He had a palace built for himself. He was given the national hero fo Turkmenistan award five times.
He demanded the closure of all rural libraries (believing that rural Turks can't read).
He once accused his interior minister of incompetence....firing the guy on national TV....and saying on live TV: "I cannot say that you had any great merits or did much to combat crime."
Around 2000, the govenrment revoked all internet licenses except the state-run system. There are believed to be only 36,000 offical users of the internet in the country...representing .7 percent of the total population.
He banned ballet and opera in 2001....saying that it was not part of the Turkmen culture.
He banned young men from having long hair or beards in 2004.
He fired 15,000 heath workers in 2004.
He urged (not ordered) young people not to get gold tooth caps....suggesting they should chew on bones to perserve their teeth.
He strongly insisted in 2004 that all licensed drivers pass a morality test.
He banned news readers in 2004....from wearing make-up. He suggested that he had trouble telling men and women apart.
He ordered doctors in 2005...to swear an oath to him....rather than the Hippocratic Oath.
He banned video games in 2005....saying they were much too violent.
He directed a new pay scale for teachers....which reversed a long-standing order that teachers had to write a article praising him, and have it published in two national papers....to avoid being fired.
He banned car radios.
He banned video monitors in public places.
He banned dogs (at least freely walking ones) from the national capital.
He introduced a new Turkmen alphabet based on the Latin alphabet to replace Cyrillic.
He banned smoking in public places after major heart surgery in 1997. He also ordered all ministers to do so....which they did.
He declared that the chewing of tobacco on Turkmen territory was to be outlawed.
He ordered foreigners in 2001...marrying a Turk...to pay a $50k fee.
He redefined the stages of life....with adolenscence being from age 13 to age 24. Youth was to mean age 25 to age 35. To be mature....you had to be 36 to 48 years old. To be prophetic, you must be 49 to 60 years old. To be inspirational, you had to be 61 to 72 years old. To be wise, you must be 73 to 84 years old. After 85....you were simply directed to be old.
He ordered 10 July to be a public holiday....in honor of melons. April 27th was reserved as national horse day.
He ordered that women were not to be allowed more than one glass of wine in a bar or resturant. This was done to prevent women from being "morally and sexually unstable." Breaking the law meant a huge fine and was a valid reason for divorce within the court.
He ordered a new TV network in 2000....which whole purpose....was to publicize his life and his work.
He required the national press to publish his picture every single day....somewhere within the daily paper.
For his 63rd birthday.....his government ministers proclaimed him God's prophet on Earth.
He took almost $2 billion yearly from the huge gas profits within the country....and moved the cash out to Europe. Most of this money...well over $20 billion...rests in Germany today. No one is sure who holds the fortune now.
He prohibited circuses.
This guy had almost nothing to do with Islam and if he did tie one of his directives into it...it was strictly by accident. And this is only what you knew in public news...you don't even know his private lifestyle.
I can certainly see the megalomania, and the need to be very controlling. Do you have any information on murders and attrocities, like those of Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and Stalin, or was he a penny ante dictator?
On the other hand, given the culture, some things do not seem all that extreme. He built a palace. Saddam Hussein built something like 17. Catherine the Great, I think built several. If I understand correctly, he rescinded an unfavorable edict concerning teachers, and converting to the Latin alphabet would be useful in coming into the modern/Western world of education and commerce. Banning beards may have been part of an effort to control radical Islam. In Afghanistan the Taliban forbid men to be clean shaven if I remember correctly. Chewing on bones if they have been well stewed can be a useful source of Calcium.
Was he married, and what information is there on his personal behavior?
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