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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmenistan unveils gold statue of president
2015-05-26
[Hurriyet Daily News] The isolated Central Asian state of Turkmenistan on May 25 unveiled a large gold statue of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov riding a horse, in a move echoing his predecessor's cult of personality.

The 21-metre (69 foot) statue, located in the capital Ashgabat, depicts the president mounted on his favourite horse, Akkan ("White Khan"), and saluting with his right hand.

Cast in bronze and covered in 24-carat gold leaf, it is the first such monument of the president of the energy-rich ex-Soviet country since he came to power in 2006.

The statue is called "The Protector", Berdymukhamedov's unofficial title.

The former dentist came to power after the death of Saparmurat Niyazov, who built a gold statue of himself that rotated with the sun's movements.

It was taken down several years after Niyazov's death, but has since been moved to the outskirts of the capital.

Niyazov, known for establishing a personality cult, also renamed months after members of his family and wrote a "book of the soul" that all school children were expected to learn by heart.

At the unveiling of the new statue, which Berdymukhamedov did not attend, the parliament's speaker Akdja Nurberdieva said it was the result of "multiple suggestions from simple people, work collectives and public organizations," in order "to mark his services to the homeland".

The ceremony featured a rendition of the national anthem, soldiers taking an oath of loyalty to the president and a flock of white pigeons being released into the sky.

Last year, the parliament named horse-lover Berdymukhamedov a "Master Jockey and Mentor". He was later recognised as a "People's Horse Breeder" at a day of equestrian events in April. In 2013, the president suffered a fall from his horse seconds after winning a race, clips of which have gained thousands of views on YouTube.

"The protector" statue was unveiled to mark Ashgabat Day, a holiday celebrating the capital of 400,000 people that was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records in 2013 for having "the highest density of white marble-clad buildings".

Turkmenistan is regularly blacklisted as one of Freedom House's "Worst of the Worst" list of repressive countries for its lack of civic liberties.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmen President Quits as Party Leader
2013-08-18
[An Nahar] Turkmenistan's president announced Saturday he was stepping down as leader of the ruling party while he remained in office to promote a multi-party system in the isolated former Soviet state.

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov told a party congress that he was resigning as leader of the ruling Democratic Party, which he has led since 2006, because he wanted to remain above party politics, according to television footage broadcast Saturday evening.

"I am suspending my membership of the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan while I am president," Berdymukhamedov said.

"I also think that it would be useful for those who hold positions of responsibility in the government not to be members of a party while they are carrying out their functions," he added.

A government source earlier in the day had quoted Berdymukhamedov as telling the party congress that "the president of a country should not be a member of any party, so as not to create advantages for his party in a multi-party system."

Berdymukhamedov, a dentist by profession, took power in 2006 after the death of his father, eccentric dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, who erected a golden rotating statue of himself as part of a bizarre personality cult.

Berdymukhamedov also took over as Democratic Party leader from Niyazov. Formerly the Turkmen branch of the Soviet Communist Party, it was the country's only party for two decades.

Last year, a new law authorized the creation of a new political party called the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan.

Both parties are set to contest parliamentary elections in December.
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Turkmenistan President Holds Horse Beauty Contest
2012-05-01
[An Nahar] The horse-mad leader of Turkmenistan on Sunday hosted his second presidential beauty contest for horses in the isolated Central Asian state.

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov awarded "the most beautiful horse of the year" prize to a thoroughbred stallion called Khan of the Eagles, which beat the nine other finalists decked in traditional bridles.

The leader then pulled off his jacket and leapt onto a horse to ride a victory circuit of the racecourse outside Ashgabat to cheers from the crowd.

The horse beauty contest falls on a national holiday, the Day of the Turkmen Race Horse in the ex-Soviet state, which is home to an ancient breed of horses called Akhal-Teke.

In the run-up to the holiday, state newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan published daily poems for a week on its front page singing the praises of the president's favorite horses, illustrated with color photographs.

Berdymukhamedov, 54, has written a book about horses that was published in a print-run of many thousands and once posed on his favorite steeds for a calendar.

The former dentist took over the leadership of the energy-rich state in 2007 after the death of the eccentric dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, who renamed months and days of the week in honor of himself and his family.

The new president removed some of the trappings of that regime but has launched his own cult of personality and is known by the unofficial title of the Protector.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmenistan to build ŽPalace of HappinessŽ
2009-04-15
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Central Asian country of Turkmenistan has found an original way of coping with the global financial crisis: if your people are sad, build them a "Palace of Happiness."
A bordello?
The reclusive ex-Soviet republic said Tuesday that it would build the palace as part of over $1billion (€753 million) worth of construction projects to beautify the capital Ashgabat and make it more liveable. "President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed a series of documents under which several important community structures will be built in Ashgabat at a cost of over $1 billion," state newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan wrote.

" President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed a series of documents under which several important community structures will be built in Ashgabat at a cost of over $1 billion "
State newspaper
Neutral Turkmenistan The Palace of Happiness -- to be used as a wedding hall -- will cost over €100 million ($133 million), said the newspaper, a mouthpiece for the government of the energy-rich country.

Turkish construction firm Polimeks won over $200 million in contracts as part of the projects, which will also see an additional 2,000 hotel rooms built in Ashgabat.

The announcement comes one week after Turkmenistan unveiled plans to build a $1billion Olympic village, including a winter sports complex, despite the fact that the desert nation is not due to host any upcoming Winter Games.

Garish construction projects sprang up across Turkmenistan during the rule of dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in 2006, even as much of the population remained mired in poverty.

His successor Berdymukhamedov has erased some of the more bizarre aspects of Niyazov's personality cult but has come under fire from critics who accuse him of simply replacing it with his own.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmen leader restores calendar names
2008-04-25
January is January again in the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan. President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who swept to power in 2006 in his gas-rich Caspian nation, on Thursday reversed a decision made by his autocratic predecessor who renamed the first month of the year after himself in 2003.

Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled Turkmenistan with an iron fist for 21 years until his death in 2006, dotted the desert nation with statues of himself and also renamed all other months and days of the week after his mother, national poets and symbols. He declared himself Turkmenbashi, or Head of the Turkmen, and banned opera, ballet and circus during his long rule.

Berdymukhamedov, seeking to soften Turkmenistan’s image abroad and open up the long-isolated country, has been reserving some of Niyazov’s most eccentric and unpopular policies. Under his latest reform, all months and days of the week will be given their original Turkic and Russian language names. Under Niyazov’s arrangement which many Turkmen people found confusing, January was called Turkmenbashi, April was named after his mother, September after his spiritual guidance book “Rukhnama”, and Monday was just called “The main day”. “Thousands of citizens have written to ask to return to the Western month names and call the days of the week the way our ancestors did,” parliament speaker Akja Nurverdyeva said.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
US warns Turkmen leader
2007-12-12
The United States has urged Turkmenistan to take more active steps to improve human rights protection and review jail sentences handed down under the nation's previous leader.

Turkmenistan has been emerging slowly from self-imposed isolation since last year's death of President Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled the Central Asian state for 21 years. Niyazov's successor, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has promoted closer ties with the West and vowed to push ahead with fundamental reforms. But international human rights groups say many Niyazov-era laws are still limiting civil freedoms.

"I think we need to continue moving forward," Deputy U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Erica Barks-Ruggles told reporters in the capital Ashgabat over the weekend. She urged the government to review prison sentences handed down by closed courts under Niyazov, who jailed many of his opponents. "If people are going to be charged, they are to be tried and charged by an open court and if they are not, they need to be released," Barks-Ruggles said.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmenistan TV erases face of former leader
2007-07-09
The image of Turkmenistan's late autocratic leader, long shown on television screens during most programmes, disappeared from broadcasts yesterday, the latest of his successor's steps to diminish Saparmurat Niyazov's personality cult.

The gold-coloured profile of former president Niyazov, who died in December after two decades of iron-fisted rule in the natural gas-rich Central Asian country, had been a symbol of Turkmenistan's four government television channels. It appeared in the right-hand corner of the screen during virtually all broadcasts. The authorities did not comment on its removal yesterday.

Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, Niyazov's successor, has scrapped some of his least-popular policies and moved toward greater transparency. However, he has given no sign that he will scrap one-party rule. In recent months, the new president has removed his predecessor's name from a patriotic oath and some of his once-ubiquitous portraits from streets and newspapers.
Although Mr Berdymukhamedov has told ministers that he should no longer be met by singing schoolchildren, dancers and oaths of loyalty, some of his portraits have replaced those of Niyazov in government buildings. The new leader has awarded himself a massive gold and diamond pendant and issued silver and gold coins with his portrait on his 50th birthday, in what analysts said were efforts to begin a new personality cult.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Internet returns as Turkmenistan reforms
2007-02-18
Turkmenistan opened its first two internet cafés on Friday as new President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov moved to fulfil promises of limited reform in the Central Asian nation.

The curtailing of the internet was one of the hard-line moves ordered by late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov. There was no immediate rush to the two cyber-cafés opened in the capital, Ashgabat, though the order issued by Berdymukhammedov within hours of his inauguration on Wednesday was seen as a sign of willingness to carry out some degree of liberalisation. "Our aim is not only to save the results achieved since independence but [also] to reinforce ... state policies and to implement them in the interests of the country's prosperity and people," Berdymukhammedov told Chinese journalists.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmen leader's election 'unfair'
2007-02-15
Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been sworn in as the new president of Turkmenistan in an election that has been declared unfair by international observers. Berdymukhamedov, who took over as acting head of state when Saparmurat Niyazov died in December, won 89 per cent of the February 11 vote, the head of the election commission said on Wednesday.

The election was described as "not free and fair" by the head of a group of parliamentarians from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, who observed it. Human rights groups, Western diplomats and exiled Turkmen opposition leaders also criticised Sunday's election as rigged. But it has been seen by others as an opportunity to begin gradual change. Berdymukhamedov has called for limited reforms, including allowing access to the internet, reorganisation of the education system and getting more doctors and hospitals after two decades of authoritarian rule by Niyazov.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmenistan votes for successor to late dictator
2007-02-12
ASHGABAT - The people of Turkmenistan voted Sunday to elect a successor to their late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, with the gas-rich Central Asian republic’s interim leader seen as guaranteed of victory. It was Turkmenistan’s first multi-candidate presidential poll, but acting president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov appeared certain to win.
Oh, I am so surprised.
His five nominal rivals were little-known figures, all members of the ex-Soviet republic’s sole political party, while any real potential opponents live in foreign exile.
Not quite safe to return home, is it?
The election followed the sudden death in December of Niyazov, who dominated Turkmenistan for 21 years, overseeing a powerful personality cult, banishing political opponents, and tightly controlling the media. Many Turkmens hope that Berdymukhammedov, 49, will draw a line under this era and open the mostly Muslim, desert nation of five million people to the outside world.

A longtime Niyazov loyalist, Berdymukhammedov has recently called for reforms, including an eventual end to the one-party system and allowing widespread Internet access. He has also vowed to provide greater economic opportunity. That message has gone down well with ordinary Turkmens.

A turnout of 85 percent was recorded with four hours of voting to go, easily passing the 50-percent minimum needed to make the poll valid, the Central Electoral Commission said.

This was the country’s first election in which a team from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was invited, although not as official observers. The OSCE is a pan-European human rights body.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmenistan Opposition Prepares to Launch ’Flour’ Revolution
2006-12-31
The leader of Turkmenistan’s United Democratic Opposition, currently based in Norway, proposed Wednesday sending a trainload of flour to Turkmenistan and carrying out a “flour” revolution in the republic, Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency reports.

President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov died at 66 of heart failure last Thursday. During his rule, the eccentric leader erected golden statues to himself, named a meteorite in his name, and decreed that his quasi-Islamic precepts, under the title of Ruhnama, be the nation’s guiding principal.

“The opposition is going to dispatch to Turkmenistan a train of flour to support the republic’s starving people,” Avdy Kuliyev said over the phone.

He said the leaders of opposition movements, who have fled overseas to escape persecution at home, could follow the train and return to Turkmenistan.

“This will be the start of our ’flour’ revolution,” Kuliyev, who was foreign minister in late President Saparmurat Niyazov’s government in the early 1990s, said but added that the opposition’s intentions are peaceful.

The opposition borrowed the name in association with the “orange revolution” and “rose revolution” in other former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, which brought West-leaning governments to power in 2004 and 2003.

Kuliyev said Turkmenistan suffers from a constant lack of bread and flour, which are the main products for the most residents in the current dire economic conditions.

Turkmenistan’s opposition earlier nominated Khudaiberdy Orazov, its leader and a former deputy prime minister, as a presidential candidate, who said the opposition will seek democracy in Turkmenistan by all means, including a possible coup. Orazov is wanted in Turkmenistan on embezzlement charges.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmenistan oppo group seeks probe of Deutsche Bank
2006-12-26
Desperately seeking Turkmenbashi's slush fund...
Deutsche Bank, the German bank, was last night under pressure over allegations it was holding billions of dollars in accounts formerly controlled by Saparmurat Niyazov, the autocratic president of Turkmenistan who died suddenly on Thursday.

The Financial Times daily reports that it obtains a document that reads that the German bank is holding an account for a $1.68bn Turkmenistan government contract, signed in 2001, to export gas to Ukraine. The account is managed by the bank on behalf of the Turkmenistan central bank, according to the document. Much of the country’s central bank funds were under the personal control of Niyazov, according to finance experts.
A quick spin thru my email shows no spam yet from Turkmenbashi's widow, orphans, or former vice-chancellors...
In a report issued in June, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development warned that funds in the Turkmen central bank were under the “discretionary control of the president without appropriate regulation and transparency”. Niyazov maintained a personality cult that impoverished his country and involved oppression of opposition groups and alleged human rights abuses. His funeral is due to be held tomorrow.

Leaders of a Vienna-based Turkmen exiled opposition group wrote yesterday to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, demanding an “official investigation” into Deutsche Bank’s role. The letter from the Republican party of Turkmenistan, obtained by the Financial Times, cites an estimate of $3bn being held by the Deutsche Bank and other foreign banks. It said there “are further questions about money-laundering” [and] “violations of European Union banking standards on transparency”. Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt declined to comment.
"Ve know nossink. Tell zem, Hogan!"
Speculation over Deutsche Bank’s alleged involvement with Niyazov has been circulating for months in Turkmenistan and other central Asian countries, according to oil industry workers in the region. Global Witness, a London-based non-governmental group that reported this year on Deutsche Bank’s involvement in Turkmenistan, last night said: “Deutsche Bank should come clear on the Niyazov funds it holds, and if necessary freeze the accounts to ensure the money is not stolen.” Alexander Zhadan, Niyazov’s private secretary and purse-keeper to the deceased president since communist times, controlled his financial affairs. Mr Zhadan has not been seen since the day before Niyazov died, according to unconfirmed reports.
Not to worry. CSI: Ashgabat is on the case!
Andrei Grozin, an expert on central Asia in Moscow’s Institute of the CIS, said it was “naive” to think European banks would return the funds to Turkmenistan.
After he stopped laughing, that is.
He added that Russian officials scheduled to attend Niyazov’s funeral, including Mikhail Fradkov, the prime minister, and Alexei Miller, the head of Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly, were expected to remain in the republic for talks about gas supplies and revenues. Arkady Dubnov, an expert on central Asia, and commentator for Vremya Novostei, a Russian daily newspaper, said: “None of Turkmenistan’s export revenues go through the budget. It is most important for the new government [when it is established] to access the hard currency accounts.” Kurbanguli Berdmukhamedov, Turkmenistan’s interim president, said the date of an election to choose a successor to Niyazov would be announced on Tuesday. In a televised statement, Mr Berdmukhamedov said the People’s Council would name candidates for the presidency. Russian analysts said the results of the election would be pre-determined. Turkmenistan’s Majlis, or parliament, appointed Niyazov president for life in 1999.
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