Travelling in Central Asia

[henk4]

One of the highlights of travels through Central Asia is a visit to a little known country, named Turkmenistan and I thought it might be interesting to share this with you. After its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 it has gradually established itself as one of the most peculiar places in the world. This is almost entirely due to its current leader Sapermurat Niyazov, in Soviet times the leader of the Communist party. He grabbed his chance in 1991, renamed himself Sapermurat Turkmenbashi (translates as: leader of all Turkmens) and has built up an unprecendented personal glorification combined with a ruthless way of ruling the country. Having not been there for three years I was eager to see what had changed. It already started in the airplane, run by Turkmenistan Airlines, now announced as a department belonging to the President of Turkmenistan, Sapermurat T, and modestly was added: The Great. (Imagine you are welcomed in this way by American Airlines, on behalf of GWB).
The whole of the capital of Ashgabat has undergone major renewal, pumping out one pompous building after another. (Whole residential had to be demolished for this and no compensation at all was paid, let alone new houses elsewhere were provided). The local TV is one continuous glorification, stressing traditional Turkmen values and giving absolute no information about the outside world. He has recently completed a book, titled Rahnama (translates as :"the only book") in which ST presents all his ideas, and from which parts are read daily on TV. There is a statue just showing a 5 by 3 metre image of this book. I am trying to get hold of an English translation so I can start with daily quotations.
The country is rich in oil and natural gas, having the fourth largest gas reserves in the world. This provides ST with enough money to transform the country into his own playground, and managing to achieve to most strange things, like renaming all the months of the year (no points for guessing how January is called now) and even showing a sense of humour by replacing the celebrations for women's day with a day devoted to a specific Turkmen dog.
I took a few pictures which are shown here. First one is an overview of the city taken from my hotel room, the gold dome being the presidential palace the statue in the distance is more detailed on other pictures. This statue is one of his greatest wonders, the size of him on top is certainly more than 10 metres, it is gold covered as you can see, but it also turns round in 24 hours, so that he is always facing the sun. It really is a landmark when you reach the city from the outskirts.
The other statue is one of his own design, and shows the world being torn apart by the ferocious earthquake that took place in 1948. His mother died during the earthquake, but managed to save him, which is represented in the statue through the golden child. (nature missed a golden opportunity there). The role of the bull is unclear. Some people saw he should have balanced the earth on its horns, and when he failed he caused the earthquake.
Needless to say that the people live in permanent fear of his whims (many civil servants I worked with in the past have been dismissed and one even shot himself), and as he has been chosen president for life, (he is currently 64) this will go on for a while. It seems that nobody in the outside world is taking real notice of all of this, because he is totally inwrd oriented and shows no threat what so ever for his neighbours.
Sorry for the length of this, but believe me, there is much more to say and to show.

[Spastik_Roach]

Totally mentally deformed dictatorship? I saw a documentry on tv about him, they interviewed him and to say hes a crazy barstard is an understatement..

[cp01ae]

Thats pretty crazy. So what month is it now Turkmenuary? :rolleyes:

[henk4]

Thats pretty crazy. So what month is it now Turkmenuary? :rolleyes:

It is now actually Maktmagully, named after a famous poet.

I also forgot to mention that in 1999 he totally changed his hair, from full grey to a very short cut black. (as rumour had upon the wish of a new mistress, his wife lives in Moscow, his sons are spending tons of money gambling somewhere in Europe). Now that would normally not be a problem, where it not that all the pictures of him hanging around everywhere, both outside in and inside (I once counted 14 in a simple room of a government building that I was visiting), had to change to reflect has new appearence. Only the banknotes that were printed earlier still have his old looks.

[henk4]

A further update on absolute crazyness

1. The nurses in the state hospitals have been replaced by soldiers, just to keep them busy.

2. Everybody who received training in a foreign country after 1993 will be sacked by the 1st of june. The certificates obtained abroad are no longer valid and considered not to meet Turkmen standards. He or she is advised to contact the local employment adviser on how to continue his/her career. Objecting this measure will mean being blacklisted and not being eligble for any job.


(certainly to be continued)

[megotmea7]

sounds like a damn messy situation. i think bush has another project ;)

[henk4]

sounds like a damn messy situation. i think bush has another project ;)

He has no weapons of mass destruction, so Bush has no excuse! ;)

[Matra et Alpine]

He has no weapons of mass destruction, so Bush has no excuse! ;)
That's OK, neither has Iraq, but they both share large oil reserves - I hear the choppers in-bound as we speak :(

[Falcon500]

Makes mequite glad i live in a "Normal" (i use this word very loosly) country :eek:
One queastion i have to ask...are the people suffering...or do they just lead normal lives with a truly oddball leader?
And do they have a death penalty over there....because i think i have a few new things for my wish list of lawn ornaments :cool: j/k

[megotmea7]

for all we know ther could be several thermo nuclear devices in those statues... and with their oil reserves they could be planning the worlds biggest molotov cocktail :eek:

[henk4]

One queastion i have to ask...are the people suffering...or do they just lead normal lives with a truly oddball leader?
And do they have a death penalty over there....because i think i have a few new things for my wish list of lawn ornaments :cool: j/k

As long as people play along they are not really suffering, actually government salaries are the highest compared to all former soviet central asian states and the Caucasus. I have asked the same question also and in one thing they feel more restricted. In the past they could always blame Moscow of everything, and the Kremlin would not take notice. If they now blame the local government of anything, they would take immediate notice.

I am not sure what you want to put in your garden. Statues?

[henk4]

Having been in the region for already two weeks it is time for the latest update on Turkmenistan (where I am not).

Internet access for private people is being restricted. The police has allegedly searched all private houses to identify any internet connections. Only companies have now access.

The famous book Ruhnama now also has to be studied for 16 hours for those who apply for a drivers license. It is not sure how that will improve driving, but whatever. Only 20 hours will be dedicated to learning the traffic rules and the technical parts of a car. All Turkmen driving schools are now supervised by the Ministry of defence, while the Ministry of transport will be responsible for curriculum development and teaching. Whether this will change the practice of buying a license remains to be seen.

By presidential order it is no longer allowed to use a cellphone, smoke or listen to loud music while driving. (a glimmer of hope here).

On another field: The deputy prime minister recently issued a decree to increase taxes in the bazaars and markets by 20%. When the salesmen responded by increasing their prices twofold, the Leader personally revoked the measure and ordered that the deputy pm should be without salary for the next three months.

Very soon the construction of lake in the Karakom desert will begin that will ultimately have a surface area of 3500 sqkm. It should be filled with waste water coming from the irrigation activities. It is highly doubtful whether there will be enough water, a scarce commodity in a desert country, to get this lake filled. It should also be remembered that the Stalin initiated irragation of Central Asia using the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers has resulted in the drying up of what once the fourth biggest lake in the world, the Aral Sea. The costs of this lake are estimated at 8 bln US$.

On top of this a new canal will be constructed that will go right through the middle of the capital to feed fountains and other decorative elements in the city. Again lots of private houses and appartments will be demoslished and people will only be partly compensated.

It just shows what oli and gas riches in combination with a lunatic president can achieve.

[henk4]

A further update on absolute crazyness

1. The nurses in the state hospitals have been replaced by soldiers, just to keep them busy.

2. Everybody who received training in a foreign country after 1993 will be sacked by the 1st of june. The certificates obtained abroad are no longer valid and considered not to meet Turkmen standards. He or she is advised to contact the local employment adviser on how to continue his/her career. Objecting this measure will mean being blacklisted and not being eligble for any job.


(certainly to be continued)

which is now:

After having replaced the nurses by soldiers, the great leader has now ordered to close all hospitals outside the capital, since the quality of the medical services is not high enough. Every sick person will have to travel to the capital (mostly a one hour flight, or a seven or eight hour car trip, or 12 hours in a train) to receive proper treatment.

It is encourageing to hear that the German specialist who has been treating the great leader for severe heart problems has refused to do so any further as he did not want to "obey the orders" how to carry out operations.

[Pando]

I've "always" knew about this country, but it was only a year ago or so that I saw a BBC programme on it and learned how eccentric it is... I found it almost hilarious how far the leader had taken it, they showed the "book statue" open in ceremony etc. I also learned that they use "his book" for teaching just about everything in schools (and a english translation to learn english), hadn't heard about using it for driving instruction though! :) Well if you have the power, you can apparently almost do what you want with it! The whole region gets far too little attention imo, ok the riots in Kyrgyzstan is getting coverage now, but I think it is the first time that any of the x-sovjet countries in the region makes the headlines(and therefore attracts attention)... Which raises the question, henk how did you come up with the idea to visit the region three years ago?

ps. thaks for the interesting coverage! :)

[henk4]

Which raises the question, henk how did you come up with the idea to visit the region three years ago?

ps. thaks for the interesting coverage! :)

you are welcome, I worked there from 1997 to 2001 on an on-and-off basis (about 5-6 month per year on average) and started doing this again in 2004. I just left Kyrgyzia last week. (Just on time as the borders are now officially closed).

[Misho]

What is it that you do for a living Henk ?

[henk4]

What is it that you do for a living Henk ?

"trying to survive"

Currently checking on the progress of technical assistance projects, financed by the European Union.

[henk4]

I found it almost hilarious how far the leader had taken it, they showed the "book statue" open in ceremony etc. I also learned that they use "his book" for teaching just about everything in schools (and a english translation to learn english), hadn't heard about using it for driving instruction though!

I have an English translation of the book (Rukhnama) and it sheds a totally different light on the history of the people in that area or even anywhere in the world. We owe much more to the Turkmens than we ever dreamt of, but we are lucky that He is now in place to take care of the grear Turkmen legacy.

[Wouter Melissen]

Supposedely a Turkmen engineer invented the car.

[drakkie]

sounds like it is as full of crap as the red book of Mao.i have read that (my grandpa has one), and it was quite interesting, but sometimes also hilarious.maybe i can borrow this book one time, when you have come back to Rozenburg ?
when i saw the riots in Kyrgizistan on tv i feared that you were in that country, but luckely you are not anymore.I knew the country existed, but i had never read/heard anything about the situation there.let's hope tht the "great leader"of turkmenistan doesnt start building much weapons (of mass destriuction).thanks for the good coverage, i hope you will tell the ucp members more about all these small countries, cos not only i am very interested.

edit: hope this leader doesn't get the same as the famous roman empire Caligula.Caligula was an ok emperor in the beginning, but when he found out he could do anything, he started to lose his mind, as you might know.Just wondering, doesn't this man has an big arms stack, like many of these countries have ?

[Misho]

technical assistance projects

in what field may I ask ?

[henk4]

in what field may I ask ?

currently transport, in the past civil service reform, non-banking services, health care projects and few subjects more.

[henk4]

sounds like it is as full of crap as the red book of Mao.i have read that (my grandpa has one), and it was quite interesting, but sometimes also hilarious.maybe i can borrow this book one time, when you have come back to Rozenburg ?
when i saw the riots in Kyrgizistan on tv i feared that you were in that country, but luckely you are not anymore.I knew the country existed, but i had never read/heard anything about the situation there.let's hope tht the "great leader"of turkmenistan doesnt start building much weapons (of mass destriuction).thanks for the good coverage, i hope you will tell the ucp members more about all these small countries, cos not only i am very interested.

edit: hope this leader doesn't get the same as the famous roman empire Caligula.Caligula was an ok emperor in the beginning, but when he found out he could do anything, he started to lose his mind, as you might know.Just wondering, doesn't this man has an big arms stack, like many of these countries have ?

The Turkmen army is surprsingly small, he has been clever enough not to make any foreign enemies and his secret service is big enought to control the people. Countries are not really small, Kyrg is about 4 times the size of Holland, Uzbekistan is the size of sweden, and it takes four hours to fly to the full width of Kazakhstan.

[Pando]

I have an English translation of the book (Rukhnama) and it sheds a totally different light on the history of the people in that area or even anywhere in the world. We owe much more to the Turkmens than we ever dreamt of, but we are lucky that He is now in place to take care of the grear Turkmen legacy.

LOL! :) Do you know if a translation is availiable on the internet? Sounds like a good read! :)

Btw, do you think the revolt in Kyrgyzstan will spread? You seem to know what happens behind the scenes? Do you speak russian or any of the regional languages?

edit: I tried to google the Ruhnama, www.ruhnama.com seems like a fun site... A t-shirt with the cover would be cool! ;)

edit2: I think I found a translation http://www.ruhnama.com/rukhnama/id9.htm
i don't know if it's the whole book or not...¨
(see I'm not THAT lazy. I can google too) ;)

[henk4]

that is the translation, good find. The book is anything but secret, and as far as I know Part II is ready also. (Haven't been there since last year).

As far as Kyrgizia is concerned, it may spread but not immediately. People in other countries may only start to realise the possibility of such a change after a while. On the other hand Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are much more wealthy as far as natural resources are concerned, which means that those who are in control of those stand to loose much more through a revolution and may defend there interests much more fanatically.

In Kyrgizia the basic change is the removal of the president but there is only a very small group of croonies that needs to be replaced. The large majority in the state operations had nothing and will continue to have nothing, because there is nothing. The GDP consists for 45% of foreign aid, another 30% is made up by the activities of one Canadian gold mining company (Kumtor). Of course there is a grey economy but it really is a poor country.

It is also kind of ironic that Akaev was the only president that was not part of the communist party before independence. All other leaders in CA were just the leaders of the local branches of the Soviet CP, and simply declared themselves president after the dissolution os the USSR. Initially there were great hopes that Akaev would do things differently but by 1997-1998 he had more or less learned how to play the games that his collegues did right from the start. It is also interesting that at some stage the daughter of Akaev married a son of the president of neighbouring Kazakhstan, but that marriage did not last.
Also interesting to note is that Poetin was quick to recognise the new government, while the USA has taken up no position as yet. Obviously Poetin has learned something from the Ukrainian developments.

Will it spread? My guess would be that Moldava could be the next, and also Belarus and may be Armenia. Azerbaijan has just turned into a "monarchy" as the young Aliev took over from his father who died recently. Turkmenistan will have to sit out the current guy, which also goes for Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Tajikistan has seen a long period of more or less open civil war between tribes but has now calmed down during the past three years. It is heavily controlled by the Russians, which makes the chances of a dictatorship comparable to the other countries at this moment not that great

(Don't speak Russian, but work with people who do)

[henk4]

Today the world received the news that Saparmurat Turkmembashi, father of all Turkmens, has died from a cardiac arrest. Hopefully the transition into a normal state will go smoothly, as it was still unknown who eventually was going to succeed him. At least he is not there anymore to organise his own funeral and declare general mourning for the nex 6 month or so.

[go.pawel]

You forgot to mention that he's officially recognized in Turkmenistan as the last great prophet of islam and Rukhnama is a Holy Book, considered equal to Koran. :D
A few more notable achievements of Turkmenbashi were: a ban on golden teeth and long hair, closing opera, ballet, circus and music halls. Apart from the lake on the desert he also ordered to build there a cyprus forest.
Anyway, the general mourning is to last 7 days :) And all the New Year festivities have been cancelled.
The fight for succession has already started. The constitutional temporary ruler, the chairman of Mejlis (parliament) Auezgeldy Atajew, has been suddenly arrested and is being interrogated by the public prosecutor's office on criminal charges, which makes him unable to rule the country. Therefore the power went in hands of Kurbanguli Berdymuhammedow, vice Prime Minister, minister of health and chairman of the National State Council, who was a relative of the late Turkmenbashi (well, not officialy, but everybody in Turkmenistan knows about it :cool: ).
But Berdymuhammedow, who remained a favorite of Turkmenbashi only because of a total lack of personal opinions, is considered only a temporary solution. The real successor will probably be general Akmurad Redzhepow, chief of presidents' bodyguards, who controls the army, police and secret service. He's the leader of the National Security Council, a temporary ruling body that appointed Berdymuhammedow.
The funeral is going to take place tomorrow. The procession will go all the way to Niyazow's family village Kipchak, 50 km from Ashgabad. He will be buried in the biggest mosk in the country, built two years ago by French construction company for over 100 million dollars. His parents and brothers are also buried there.
As for Turkmenbashi's son, he's a businessman in Vienna and he never had good relationship with his father.
It's estimated that on Niyazow's private account in Deutsche Bank is about 2,5 billion dollars. Deutsche Bank is being pressed by international organizations like Global Watch or Human Rights Watch to block the account until a new democratic government will be elected in Turkmenia.
It's also feared that Niyazow's death might cause temporary problems with natural gas supplies for Europe, especially Ukraine, Hungary, Poland and Germany, since Gazprom's deliveries are heavily based on turkmen gas and only president had the power of signing gas suplly agreements.

Stay tuned for the newest news from Central Asia. :D