Niyazov
I skipped a day yesterday. I was too exhausted, and too obsessed with the amazing election results, to delve into Mr. Turkmenbashi’s madness. But here goes.
Saparmurat Niyazov is the president of Turkmenistan. One of his primary goals (well, besides creating a ridiculous personality cult around himself) was to invent a glorious national past for Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan, throughout the millennia, was not a unified place. It still is not. 55 nationalities alone live in the capital city. It is a place of nomads, and wanderers. Desert people. But Niyazov wanted to inflame in the Turkomens a sense of ethnicity and unification. He set out to re-invent the past.
The truth of the matter, the FACTS of the past, did not suit his purposes, so he made stuff up, to make the Turkomens feel better about themselves. The local scholars, the intelligent people in the country, know the truth: that the Turkomens are not the source of everything wonderful and innovative on the planet, the Turkomens did not discover America, the Turkomens did not invent such-and-such…but they must parrot the regime’s version of the truth.
Niyazov’s father was killed in World War I, and his mother died in the 1948 earthquake in Ashgabat which basically swallowed up the entire city. 110,000 people died. The entire old medieval city disappeared off the face of the earth. Niyazov was then raised in an orphanage. Some scholars surmise that being abandoned (twice) like this in his childhood is the primary source of his personality cult. He has turned himself into the golden child of the country. He has put himself on all the currency. He has named months after himself. Ashgabad is clogged with golden statues of himself. Also, Times-Square-size billboards of his face fill the entire country. I read one travelogue where the writer describes riding through the devastatingly bleak Kara Kum Desert which makes up most of Turkmenistan, and seeing Niyazov billboards looming up out of the empty distance. Even in the middle of nowhere, Niyazov wants to make sure his presence is omniscent.
Niyazov was a member of the Communist Party since 1962. He rose through the ranks to the highest level. In 1990 (just before all hell broke loose across the Soviet Union…or, actually, during the hellfire) he became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, which is the top dog. Then the Soviet Union crumbled and crashed and shattered, leaving chaos, ethnic warfare breaking out, economic collapse…utter confusion, especially in these nomadic Central Asian Islamic republics…republics with no prior history of centralized government or democracy. In 1991, Turkmenistan declared itself independent. A new constitution was drawn up, a democratic constitution, which set in motion a presidential election. The first in Turkmenistan’s history. And hey, whaddya know, Niyazov was elected president.
There is a ludicrous fun-house aspect to his regime, which actually is rather dangerous. I say that because it seems rather easy for us to make fun of it all, how stupid it is, how ridiculous it is, how clearly it could never happen here. Niyazov has come out with a line of cologne. Turkomen cologne. He has published his own poetry which is always #1 on Turkmenistan’s best-seller list. He also, a la Qaddafi, has published books of his own philosophical (psychotic) musings. Musings on “Turkmenness”, and ethnicity, and how to create a government, etc. etc. The reason I say “dangerous” is that I have read articles which treat this regime humorously. The tone of the articles is: Ho ho, look at this crazy man!! Ha ha, isn’t it funny…blah blah blah. When, actually, what he has created is a society with no freedom of speech. Not only is there no freedom of speech, but there is no freedom of thought. Niyazov has hijacked the entire country. The people are trapped by their own leader. (Again, this sounds rather familiar, no?)
Every building built is built to glorify Niyazov and humble the population. This was Stalin’s tactic. Stalin would build inhumanly sized massive buildings, and streets which were impossibly wide, impossible to cross. The urban landscape was built specifically to make people feel miniscule and helpless. Niyazov does the same. He is a complete and utter megalomaniac who never ever ever hears someone say “No”, or “You know what, Saparmurat? I don’t think that is such a good idea.” Or “Well, we have a lot of problems in this country…unemployment, anger, poverty…maybe focusing on a line of cologne is not the best use of your energy??”
Nomads, historically, are very suspicious people. Suspicious of outsiders. It is not hard to imagine why. Typically, an outsider who shows up in the nomad world, is a thief, a Genghis Khan-type murderer, a raider, a pillager. Your life, and your trust, is placed with your CLAN. The outside world is not to be trusted. Only the clan matters. Two generations ago, Turkmenistan was a nation of nomads. This suspicion of outsiders, in their nomadic blood, has now been transferred into their government.
Niyazov’s regime is xenophobic. Suspicious. Defensive. The populace finds tremendous obstacles in their way if they want to travel. A vast bureaucracy has been created to make Visa applications nearly impossible. Niyazov wants no outside influence, he doesn’t want the citizenry to get any funny ideas. However he has NO problem with “hiring out”. Turkmenistan is a land with vast oil wealth. The Turkomans have no idea how to capitalize on this wealth. They don’t know about technology, they don’t have any experts in the country. So Niyazov hires vast amounts of experts from other countries (many of them Israelis) to come and build the infrastructure of the country FOR him.
Niyazov has a massive secret police force. Which he learned how to utilize during his days in the Communist Party. Journalists who come to the country to find out what is going on will often be followed, trailed, watched like a hawk. They will be assigned a “guide” who is really a government spy. All typical despotic tyrannical stuff.
Who knows how it all will end. I believe it cannot go on like this indefinitely. This nation of people have had no chance to figure out their own way. They are crushed under an iron fist, once again. From Communism to Niyazov-ism.
Niyazov is definitely one of those evil leaders out there. Someone we should definitely keep an eye on. The regime is “stable”, but only because no dissent is allowed. Political parties are outlawed. Nobody can make a move. The entire country is paralyzed. Something’s gotta give, and Niyazov will not give up easily. He’s a psychological case study, which is kind of terrifying to have in a tyrant. Someone who is working out his childhood abandonment issues ON the country he is leading. A terrible mix.
It is a disaster waiting to happen.
