Word: turkmenbashi
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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...
...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...
...years, Turkmenbashi (Father of the Turkmen) Saparmurat Niyazov kept the central Asian state of Turkmenistan under a bizarre and brutal dictatorship that fought dissent and infectious diseases simply by outlawing both. Niyazov's death from cardiac arrest in late December came as a shock to his 5 million subjects, who had never realized that "Presidents for Life" die, too. Now, six contenders are running in the first presidential election in 15 years scheduled...
...border to Kyrgyzstan, but he will find it difficult to simply block out the example of Kyrgyz people-power. Perhaps we can even hope for the winds of revolution to spread the spark of democracy to the North Korea-like state of Turkmenistan, which is ruled by the demented Turkmenbashi (“Father of Turkmen”), who has deified himself (literally) and renamed months after his family members...
MEANWHILE Mommy's Boy While the name for the present decade is still in doubt, Turkmenistan's national assembly has cleared up the name for 2003: "The year of the Turkmen heroine Gurbansoltan edzhe, the mother of the first and eternal President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Turkmenbashi." The decision follows the renaming of April - now "Mother" - after the President's mom, who died when he was eight...
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