UPDATE: 01 October 2006
Turkmenistan
The
land of "Turkmenbashi the Great"...
GUEST REPORTER: Todd Drummond, a native of Auburn, Alabama who has spent most of his adult life living in Central Asia.
Turkmenistan, May 2006
After
twelve years living in Central Asia one would think that Natasha and I would
have been prepared for “the adventure” that was Turkmenistan. We traveled
there for two weeks of work in May of 2006 and stayed in Ashgabat, the capital
of this desert land. 
I had followed events there through the years and had many
colleagues and friends from the NGO community and the government who had been in
and out of Turkmenistan since independence in 1991. The thing that makes
Turkmenistan different from the other former Soviet Republics is that it never
experienced a “perestroika,” a “glasnost,” or any serious opening to the
outside world. President- for- life Saparmurat Niyazov, known in
Turkmenistan as “Turkmen Bashi” (lit. “head” of the Turkmen but usually
translated as “father” of the Turkmen) survived the transition from Soviet
to sovereign power only to institutionalize a personality cult that even Stalin
and other Soviet dictators would envy. Turkmenistan today is an authoritarian
state, a “one man state,” where one ruler decides almost everything,
isolated from the rest of the modern world. For anyone wanting to know what it
must have been like to live during the most oppressive years in the Soviet
Union, Turkmenistan is the place for you.
[Photo top: Turkmen rugs. Photo at left: An example of the successful public works in Ashgabat.]
Just
a few of Turkmenbashi’s more well known “reforms” over the last few years
have included: closing all hospitals in the country outside the capital,
eliminating the last two years of secondary school (perhaps his most unpopular
move), gutting much of the traditional school curricula and mandating the study
of his own autobiographical and philosophical treatise on life and the meaning
of "being a good Turkmen,” (the Ruhknama), renaming the days of the
week and months after national heroes and family members. Most important places,
many cities, and government institutions are ceremoniously named after
Turkmenbashi, his picture and statue are ubiquitous and his image is already on
the face of all paper currency in the republic. The story of his life has become
legend and his writings are revered in an almost “biblical” or “koranic”
way. One of the stranger monuments, from a pool of otherwise not too
"kitschy" public works in the capital, is a fifty foot copy of his
book “Rukhnama” which rotates and opens and closes every hour. Another gold
statue of him rotates with the sun, his arm outstretched “pointing the way”
to peace and prosperity.
[Photo at right: Todd's wife Natasha at Nissa - an ancient Parthian city at the base of Kapet Dag. Photo at left below: Natasha's rug making lessons.]
TV
channels carry news only of him and his brilliant activities, his cabinet
meetings, or most interestingly, there is a TV channel where one can hear
someone reading from “Ruhknama” around the clock. 
There is so much "Turkmenbashi"
in your face, that the visitor indeed starts focusing only on him and his
antics. As scholar Eric Freedman has pointed out, rarely do we in the west
"get beyond" the personality cult to see what is truly happening there
in Turkmenistan. Instead, we focus on the personality cult itself and some of
its stranger or even humorous phenomena: it’s hard not to. The antics do
indeed distract us both from what is really bad about the regime AND from what
is really good about the country and the Turkmen people.
Not
to be apologist for the regime, but I think there are some positive things about
Turkmenistan that perhaps only someone who has lived in other poor and corrupt
countries could appreciate. Smoking has been outlawed in public places, crime
rates are low, the center of Ashgabat (the capital) is spotless, and – despite
much corruption - many government funds actually wind up going to what they were
allocated for. Gas and oil prices are ridiculously low, beautiful new
Ministries, fountains, parks, and housing complexes dot the capital (though many
people were evicted from their homes to make way for land development). T
he
Turkmen are hospitable, open, and very friendly to foreigners (as long as the
topic of conversation is not too overtly political). While the outsider who is
visiting Central Asia for the first time might find many of the public works
projects strange to say the least, anyone who has lived in Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, (or any other country where there is a complete lack of governance
and public projects rarely get realized) is struck by the fact that buildings
actually get built, fountains actually work, and the police actually at least
pretend to do something. If a country like Kyrgyzstan is characterized by a
complete breakdown in authority, a country where government funds rarely get
spent where they were supposedly allocated, Turkmenistan is characterized by
total control. In other words, there are a few "bright” sides, no matter
how "dim" the light.
[Photo at right: Natasha in a city park in Ashgabat. Photo at left below: Natasha shopping for rugs. Photo at right below: Natasha in front of a new central building.]
On
the other hand, many of the ugly aspects of an authoritarian society (spying,
100% controlled press, constant, overt state propaganda, overt and covert
discrimination against non-Turkmen, etc.) are very visible, 
even to the
newcomer's eye. Natasha and I were thoroughly enjoying the cleanliness and order
of downtown Ashgabat (with our "rose colored glasses still on") when
after only a day or so a TV show brought home to us what is really unsettling
about Turkmenistan. In one of his daily cabinet “meetings,” the great leader
was scolding one of his Ministers. The man cowered before him, the discomfort
painfully obvious. He could do little but stutter and stammer in front of the
great leader. Later, in other meetings, grown men of 60 years old avoided eye
contact at all costs, each of them pretending to scribble his "great words
of wisdom" into their notebooks as Turkmenbashi lectured on and on. What
was sickening was that you could really feel the genuine fear these men and
women felt.
Despite
this current state of political affairs, the Turkmen (and other nationalities)
are a hospitable, proud, and strong people. 
Travelers with experience in other
former Soviet countries will feel at ease there and despite some cultural
differences, the common Soviet heritage is obvious. The patience and endurance
of the Turkmen is to be envied and sometime in the future I have hope for a
better and freer Turkmenistan. It is a very unique country and for those seeking
adventure travel beyond the usual European track it can offer many delights.
Because I was also working, Natasha and I visited primarily Ashgabat and environs which is located at the foot of the Kapet Dag Mountains in the south central part of the country. It is 15 km from the Iranian border. Turkmenistan is the home of many ancient civilizations like the Margush and for those with time a trip to Mary and perhaps a desert excursion across the Kara-Kum are highly recommended. Turkmenistan is also home to some of the best textile and wool carpet weavers in the world. Turkmen Teke and Yomud carpets are known throughout the world and can be purchased and shipped for a fraction of the price that one would pay in the west for the same work. Turkmenistan is for the adventure traveler. You can expect many hair raising cab rides, as well as lots of mind boggling bureaucracy, but it is well worth it.
|
Rug making |
Todd in a public park in Ashgabat on his
first visit |
Statue of independence |
Turkmenbashi the Great |
Turkmenbashi the Great |
Words of wisdom from Turkmenbashi the Great |
