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Ashgabat Travel Guide

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Is Turkmenistan The New Kazakhstan?

December 10, 2008 at 4:04 PM | by egw | 1 Comment

Move over, other former Soviet republics: For the Wall Street Journal, there can be only one, the reform-minded Republic of Turkmenistan.

After President for Life Saparmyrat Niyazov died in 2006, Turkmenistan faced the end of what blogger Paul Karl Lukacs calls "one man's autocratic--and deeply weird--rule," but also the hope of becoming more open to the West. But while the new, suspiciously elected president Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow has given high culture the green light, opened up government posts to people who don't share his ethnic background and yanked Niyazov's book from the school curriculum, many citizens feel the change isn't happening fast enough.

We'd love to see Turkmenistan at a time like this, where the country is changing so quickly that a year's difference in trips could make a huge difference. But celebrating the country after its deeply wacky dictator has kicked the bucket? It's just too easy. Travel vets will scoff at you like you're a "Borat" fan who never watched "Da Ali G Show."

Related Stories:
· Turkmen Dictator Is Gone, but He's Still in the Process of Being Forgotten [WSJ]
· Life Under The Turkmenbashi's Thumb [Knife Tricks]
· Turkmenistan Plans To Move Dead-President Tower [Jaunted]
· Turkmenistan coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: vankasteren]

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Turkmenistan Plans to Move Dead-President Tower

May 7, 2008 at 3:00 PM | by egw | 0 Comments

Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
--P B Shelley, "Ozymandias"

Not even a giant self-portrait in sculpture can assure immortality, as fans of the late president of Turkmenistan are discovering. Saparmurat Niyazov's reign as president for life abruptly ended in 2006 with his death, and now a 246-foot-tall tower with a rotating gold statue of him at the top is facing exile from the center of the capital city of Ashgabat, says Reuters.

The new president's rationale for moving the tower, known as the Arch of Neutrality, is that it belongs on Neutrality Avenue, in the south of the city. But it's hard not to see the symbolism of removing a very prominent statue of the man who called himself "Turkmenbashi," or "Leader of all Turkmen," marking the final chapter of his 21-year reign.

Related Stories:
· Turkmenistan to Move Gold Statue [Reuters]
· Ding-Dong! The Dictator's Dead! [Jaunted]
· Turkmenistan: It's Not Kazakhstan [Jaunted]

[Photo: lonebiker2007]