In other Dumfukistan news...

[Clayton Bigsby]

...Saparmurat Niyazov, the President-for-life of Turkmenistan, has died. Wonder if we'll still be able to stop in Ashgabat for overpriced gas, once the succession settles...looks like he left the lines of succession as clean-cut as Saddam did.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6198983.stm

Turkmenistan's 'iron ruler' dies

State TV said Nizayov's death was a "great loss" to the Turkmens

Turkmenistan's authoritarian president Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled the Central Asian country for 21 years, has died aged 66, state TV has reported.

Mr Niyazov, who named cities and airports after himself in a personality cult, left no designated successor.

Turkmenistan, which has large gas reserves, now faces an uncertain future with rival groups and outside powers scrambling for influence, analysts say.

Mr Niyazov died at 0110 local time (2010 GMT Wednesday) of a heart attack.

Last month, the president publicly acknowledged he had heart disease.

His funeral is set to take place on 24 December in the capital, Ashgabat.

BBC correspondents quote witnesses as saying the capital has been quiet since the news broke, with many people staying at home, shocked and unsure of what may happen next.

Deputy Prime Minister Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been named head of the commission handling the funeral, state television said.

According to Turkmen law, the president is succeeded by the head of the legislative body, the People's Assembly. But this post was held by Mr Niyazov himself.

Turkmenistan has called an emergency meeting of its highest representative body for 26 December to decide on Mr Niyazov's succession, the government said.

Mr Berdymukhamedov has also been named acting head of state until then, according to government sources.

The cabinet of ministers and the National Security Council in Turkmenistan have held emergency sessions to discuss the situation.

Uncertainty

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for power in Turkmenistan to be transferred "in the framework of the law" to ensure stability in the region.

"We hope that a new leadership will act to benefit co-operation with Russia and to benefit the region as a whole," he said.

The president of neighbouring Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, said he was saddened at the news of Mr Niyazov's "unfortunate" death.

Mr Karzai said Mr Niyazov "played a key role in strengthening bilateral relations" between the two countries.

Many in the region fear it is less the bizarre style of his rule and more the lack of political institutions that could prove to be the real legacy of Mr Niyazov, says the BBC's Natalia Antelava in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Education, healthcare and society generally are regarded as having crumbled under his rule.

"President Niyazov was in effect the state and what he decreed on any subject, from politics, to culture to science, was absolute law," says Michael Hall, Central Asia project director for the International Crisis Group.

A mostly Muslim nation, Turkmenistan boasts the world's fifth largest natural gas reserves as well as substantial oil resources.

Cult of personality

Mr Niyazov became Communist Party chief of what was then a Soviet republic in 1985 and was elected first president of independent Turkmenistan in 1991.

In 1999, he was made president-for-life by the country's rubber-stamp parliament.

During his reign, Mr Niyazov established a cult of personality in which he was styled as Turkmenbashi, or Leader of all Turkmens.

He renamed months and days in the calendar after himself and his family, and ordered statues of himself to be erected throughout the desert nation.

Cities, an airport and a meteorite were given his name.

Mr Niyazov was intolerant of criticism and allowed no political opposition or free media in the nation of five million people.

His laws became increasingly personal. It was forbidden to listen to car radios or smoke in public, or for young men to wear beards.

An alleged assassination attempt in 2002 was used to crush his few remaining opponents.

All candidates in the December 2004 parliamentary elections, at which there were no foreign observers, were his supporters.

SAPARMURAT NIYAZOV

Became head of Communist Party in Turkmenistan in 1985

Styled himself Turkmenbashi, Father of the Turkmen

Built up a cult of personality, with cities, airports and months named after him

Introduced bizarre laws, banning young men from wearing beards and listening to car radios

Poverty remained rife in the energy-rich country

[Chuck17]

Think they will lift the restrictions on taking pictures of the blue hanger?

Chuck

[Clayton Bigsby]

Just going in to pay for the gas was an event of itself - you have to sign like 40 identical forms, and 100% of the writing on them is in Cyrillic - you have no idea what you're signing. Plus when you get into the van, like 6 other locals all hop in too, surrounding you - feels like you're getting rolled up or something.

[HerkDerka]

Originally posted by Jumper Bones:

Mr. Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov

Try saying that three times fast.

HD

[Guest KoolKat]

Shit, try saying that once fast!

BENDY

[Flare]

Fast? Try saying that once at any speed! :D

[M2]

¡Adiós, muchacho!

Cheers! M2

[M2]

As President-for-Life of Turkmenistan, (Saparmurat Niyazov) had issued many unconventional decrees, such as:

1. In April, 2001, banning ballet and opera, describing them as "Not a part of Turkmen culture"

2. In 2004, forbidding young men to have long hair or beards

3. In March 2004, dismissing 15,000 public health workers in wide-ranging cuts that particularly targeted nurses, midwives, school health visitors and orderlies

4. 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

5. In April 2004, ordering the construction of an ice palace near the capital in spite of Turkmenistan's climate and more pressing social needs.

6. In 2004, insisting that all licensed drivers pass a morality test.

7. In 2004, banning news readers from wearing make-up as Niyazov had difficulty telling male and female readers apart

8. In February 2005, ordering the closure of all hospitals outside Aşgabat, 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

9. In November 2005, ordering that physicians swear an oath to him instead of the Hippocratic Oath

10. In December 2005, banning video games, stating that they were too violent for young Turkmen to play

11. In January 2006, Russian media reported that 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 US$10 to US$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.

12. In September 2006, the Daily Telegraph reported that Türkmenbaşy had issued a new pay scale for Turkmen teachers, which was to come into effect in October of that year. Until then, teachers who wished to avoid being put on the lowest grade of pay or even sacked, would have to write a newspaper article praising Türkmenbaşy and have it published in one of the two newspapers of the country.

13. In October 2006 Turkmenistan claimed to have set free 10,056 prisoners, including 253 foreign nationals from 11 countries on Night of Omnipotence. Niyazov said: "Let this humane act on the part of the state serve strengthening truly moral values of the Turkmen society. Let the entire world know that there has never been a place for evil and violence on the blessed Turkmen soil"

14. The Taipei Times reports that the Turkmen leader changed the Turkmen word for bread, and name of the month of April, to that of his late mother

15. Car radios were banned

16. Video monitors were required in all public places

17. Niyazov never liked dogs so dogs were banned from the capital

(Source)

[LockheedFix]

18. Ordered military members to wear reflective belts 24/7 for all operations. He quickly reversed his decision two days later when he realized how ridiculous this made his military look, and also that no one had been hit by a vehicle indoors or in broad daylight in the history of the glorious Land of all Turkmen.

[Toasty]

Originally posted by M2:

7. In 2004, banning news readers from wearing make-up as Niyazov had difficulty telling male and female readers apart

Oh, there HAS to be a story behind this one. STS.

[ 22. December 2006, 12:12: Message edited by: Toasty ]

[bucky60k]

Niyazov and Newton: Seperated at Birth?

[ 22. December 2006, 13:31: Message edited by: bucky60k ]

[HerkDerka]

A little Shatner-ish too.

HD

[Guest MeowMix]

Retire in NZ or AU? no way, Dushanbe for this guy right here!

What, you guys cant read cyrillic? Bring a Russian dictionary, goes a long way in those places.