Word: turkmen
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...this would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan became one of the most closed-off places in the world under the helm of Saparmurat Niyazov, who christened himself Turkmenbashi, leader of all Turkmen, and fostered a bizarre personality cult in the country. During his 16-year reign, he renamed the months after himself and his mother, required that all children read his philosophical tome Ruhnama and filled the country with impressive golden statues of himself. Economically, mostly Muslim Turkmenistan remained heavily dependent on its gas sales to Russia, its main...
...piano trio. The piece is usually associated with the Western classical tradition but, as Ma explained, Malaysian dance forms heavily influenced Ravel during his attendance of the World’s Exhibition in Paris in 1889.Later, six other undergraduates joined the Silk Road Ensemble to play music of Turkmen, Armenian, and Yiddish influence, using non-Western techniques and instruments to create music that was both captivating and unfamiliar. With irregular rhythms, a Japanese flute, and a hand drum, the ensemble seemed to conjure fantastic foreign landscapes.Christopher D. Chang ’12, a violist who performed in the concert, says...
...What They're Building in Turkmenistan: In a move that has raised environmentalists' eyebrows, this Central Asian nation has begun channeling water to a 770-sq.-mi. man-made lake in the middle of the vast Karakum Desert. Turkmen leaders say the lake will help plant life bloom and attract migratory birds, but experts argue that much of the water will simply evaporate and that the multibillion-dollar project could cause an ecological catastrophe...
...strange move in a part of the world where leaders are none too shy about developing cults of personality. The late ruler of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov - the self-titled Turkmenbashi, or Chief of all Turkmen - erected a golden statue of himself that rotated with the sun, and renamed days and months after family members. In Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev has had not one but two museums built in his honor. During his presidency, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was featured in children's books, his name was printed on women's underwear and portraits of him in various guises - as deep...
...tension between the two states. "We are introducing a NATO response force to help quell the instability and return the situation to an internationally acceptable component," says U.S. Army Col. Matt Dawson, blue team commander and a strategic planner at Fort McPherson, Georgia. "There are some Uzbek nationals of Turkmen descent and Turkmen nationals of Uzbek descent and there have been atrocities that are exacerbating the situation...