Saparmurat Niyazov

Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov (Turkmen Saparmyrat Ataýewiç Nyýazow) (born February 19, 1940) has been the most powerful figure in Turkmenistan since 1985. He is referred to as Serdar Saparmurat Turkmenbashi the Great, or just Turkmenbashi.

Criticized by Western media as one of the world's most authoritarian and repressive dictators, he also has a reputation of imposing his personal eccentricities upon the country, although in Turkmenistan, many do regard him as the "Great Leader of the Turkmen" (the meaning of his title).

Global Witness, a London-based human rights organization reported that money under Niyazov’s control and held overseas may be in excess of $3 billion, of which $2 billion is supposedly situated in the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund at Deutsche Bank in Germany.

Background

Niyazov was orphaned at an early age; his father died fighting the Germans in World War II and the rest of his family was killed in the massive earthquake that leveled Ashgabat in 1948. He was then raised in a Soviet orphanage before being taken into the home of a distant relative.

In 1962 Niyazov joined the Communist Party where he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming head of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR (later known as the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan) in 1985 after the previous leader, Muhammad Gapusov, was removed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev due to a cotton-related corruption scandal. Niyazov, as leader of the Turkmen SSR, supported the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 and retained control of the country after the fall of the Soviet Union. He became Turkmenistan's first and only "president."

On October 22, 1993, he styled himself Turkmenbashi (Türkmenbaşy or Туркменбаши), meaning "Leader of all Ethnic Turkmen", in the style of Kemal Atatürk, "Father of the Turks." On December 29, 1999, he was proclaimed President for Life by the country's rubber-stamp legislature.

Personality cult

Niyazov is an authoritarian leader and is notorious in Western countries for the personality cult that he has established around himself in Turkmenistan. Claiming Turkmenistan to be a nation devoid of a national identity, he has attempted to rebuild the country to his own vision. He renamed the town of Krasnovodsk, on the Caspian Sea, Turkmenbashi after himself, in addition to renaming several schools, airports and even a meteorite after himself and his immediate family. Niyazov's face appears on all Manat banknotes and large portraits of the president hang all over the country, especially on major public buildings and avenues. Statues of himself and his mother are scattered all over Turkmenistan, including one in the middle of the Kara Kum desert as well as a gold-plated statue atop Ashgabat's largest building, the Neutrality Arch, that rotates so it will always face into the sun and shine light onto the capital city. Niyazov has commissioned a massive palace in Ashgabat commemorating his rule. He has been given the hero of Turkmenistan award five times. "I'm personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the streets - but it's what the people want," Niyazov has said.

The education system indoctrinates young Turkmen to love Niyazov, with his works and speeches making up most of their textbooks' content. The primary text is a national epic written by Niyazov, the Ruhnama or Book of the Soul. This book, a mixture of revisionist history and moral guidelines, is intended as the "spiritual guidance of the nation" and the basis of the nation's arts and literature. With Soviet-era textbooks banned without being replaced by new publications, libraries are left with little more than Niyazov's works. In 2004, the dictator ordered the closure of all rural libraries on the grounds that he thought that village Turkmen do not read. In Niyazov's home village of Kipchak, a complex has been built to the memory of his mother, including a mosque (est. at $100 million) conceived as a symbol of the rebirth of the Turkmen people. The walls of this edifice display precepts from the Ruhnama along with Qur'an suras.

Older pictures of him had white hair; these days it is a healthy black.

Domestic policies

Culture

In addition to placing himself at the center of Turkmen culture, Niyazov has sought to promote the culture to the world and cleanse it of Russian and Western influences. He has shut down opera and ballet companies, claiming them to be "unnecessary". Western-style universities and conservatories have been closed. Libraries have all been closed. Recorded music has been banned. He introduced a new Turkmen alphabet based on the Latin alphabet to replace Cyrillic and renamed the days and months after national heroes and symbols described in the Ruhnama. According to this new calendar, January is called "Turkmenbashi." Niyazov has proposed to build new wonders of the world in Turkmenistan; these include an ice palace in August 2004 and a large zoo in September 2005. The ice palace was completed in May of 2006.

Security

After an alleged assassination attempt against him on November 25, 2002, the Turkmen authorities proceeded to arrest massive numbers of suspected conspirators and members of their families. Some critics claim that the attempt was staged in order to crack down on mounting political opposition from inside the country and abroad.

The summer of 2004 saw a leaflet campaign in the capital, Ashgabat, calling for the overthrow and trial of Niyazov. The authorities were unable to stop the campaign and the President responded by firing his interior minister and director of the police academy on national television. He accused the minister of being incompetent and declared "I cannot say that you had any great merits or did much to combat crime."

Freedom of speech is virtually non-existent under Niyazov - any criticism of the leader is considered treason and is punishable by lengthy prison terms, imprisonment in mental institutions, or exile to camps near the Caspian Sea. Private conversations are monitored by government informers. Hardly any access to the Internet is available and any email activity is constantly monitored.

Public health

In 2004 Niyazov dismissed 15,000 medical workers, replacing them with army conscripts. He followed up this action on 1 March 2005 by ordering the closure of all hospitals outside of Ashgabat. He pronounced on February 28, 2005: "Why should we waste good medical specialists on the villages when they should be working in the capital?" Niyazov is reported to be seriously ill and requires assistance to walk.

Foreign policy

Niyazov is the main proponent of Turkmenistan's constitutional neutrality. Under this policy, Turkmenistan does not participate in any military alliance and does not contribute to United Nations monitoring forces.

In late 2004, Niyazov met with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to discuss an oil contract in Turkmenistan for a Canadian corporation. In March 2005, news of this meeting caused an uproar amongst opposition circles in Canada, who claimed the affair could damage Chrétien's legacy.

In 2005, Niyazov announced that his country would downgrade its links with the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose alliance of post-Soviet states; he furthermore promised free and fair elections by 2010 in a move that surprised many Western observers.

In 2006, the European Commission and the international trade committee of the European Parliament voted to grant Turkmenistan "most favored nation" trading status with the European Union, widely seen as motivated by interest in natural gas, after Niyazov announced he would enter a "human rights dialogue" with the EU. ^*

Presidential decrees

As President-for-Life of Turkmenistan, he has issued many unconventional decrees, such as:

banning news readers from wearing make-up as Niyazov had difficulty telling male and female readers apart
banning lip syncing when performing songs
In December, 1999, that every school pupil, student, soldier and military officer in Turkmenistan is to be presented on New Year's Eve with a watch bearing the picture of President Saparmurat Niyazov
In April, 2001, banning ballet and opera, describing them as "Not a part of Turkmen culture"
In 2001, forbidding young men to wear long hair or beards
In June 2001, requiring foreigners wishing to marry a Turkmen national to pay a $50,000 fee.
In 2002, renaming bread from chorek, the traditional Turkmen word, to Gurbansoltan edzhe after his mother
In August 2002, redefining the stages of life, with adolescence extending to 25 and old age beginning at 85 (detailed below)
In 2004, insisting that all licensed drivers pass a morality test
In March 2004, dismissing 15,000 public health workers in wide-ranging cuts that particularly targeted nurses, midwives, school health visitors and orderlies^*
In April 2004, urging young people not to get gold tooth caps or gold teeth, suggesting instead that they chew on bones to preserve their teeth^*
In February 2005, ordering the closure of all hospitals outside Ashgabat, saying that if people were ill, they could come to the capital; also ordering the closure of all rural libraries of Turkmenistan, saying that ordinary Turkmen do not read books anyway^*
In November 2005, ordering that physicians swear an oath to himself instead of the Hippocratic Oath
In December 2005, banning video games, stating that they were too violent for young Turkmen to play
In January 2006, Russian media reported he had ordered to stop paying pensions to 1/3 (more than 100,000) of the country's elderly people, cutting pensions to another 200,000, and ordering to pay the pensions received in the past two years back to the State. This has supposedly resulted in a huge number of deaths of old people, who may have had their pension (ranging from $10 to $90) as the only source of money. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan strongly denied ^* these allegations, accusing the media outlets of spreading "deliberately perverted" information on the issue.

Stages of life according to Niyazov

Child: ages 0 to 12
Adolescent: 13 to 24
Youth: 25 to 35
Mature: 36 to 48
Prophetic: 49 to 60
Inspirational: 61 to 72
Wise: 73 to 84
Old: 85 to 96
Oguzkhan-like: 97 and upward

Oguzkhan, who is considered to be the founder of the Turkmen nation, lived until the age of 109.

Monuments to Niyazov

Latest news

2005 was declared the year of Ruhnama by the parliament.
In October 2005, 100,000 copies of a new book by Niyazov were printed. The book includes his lyrical poetry and short stories.
Niyazov has ordered the building of a new university to be named after Ruhnama. The university is scheduled to be built in 2010.

External links

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