WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Turkmen president dies of heart attack
(AP)
Updated: 2006-12-21 14:25
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan -- President Saparmurat Niyazov -- who created a
vast cult of personality during two decades of iron-fisted rule over
arid, energy-rich Turkmenistan -- has died, officials said Thursday. He
was 66.
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov attends a government meeting in
Ashgabat in this December 27, 2002, file picture. [Reuters]
A terse report from state television said Niyazov died early Thursday of
heart failure and showed a black-framed portrait of the man who had
ordered citizens to refer to him as "Turkmenbashi" -- the Father of All
Turkmen.
"It happened overnight. The president has died," a government source said
on Thursday.
Niyazov underwent major heart surgery in Germany in 1997 and last month
publicly acknowledged for the first time that he had heart disease. But
he did not seem seriously ill; two weeks ago he appeared in public to
formally open an amusement park named after him outside the capital.
Niyazov had led Turkmenistan since 1985, when it was still a Soviet
republic. After the 1991 Soviet collapse, he retained control and began
creating an elaborate personality cult.
He ordered the months and days of the week named after himself and his
family, and statues of him were erected throughout the nation. He is
listed as author of the "Rukhnama" (Book of the Soul) that was required
reading in schools. Children pledged allegiance to him every morning.
It was unclear who may be in line to replace Niyazov or how the
succession process would be conducted. The funeral is to be held on
Sunday.
"His death means a terrible shock for the republic, its residents and the
political class. It's comparable to a shock the Soviet Union felt after
Stalin's death," Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Moscow-based Politika
think tank, was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency.
Turkmenistan -- a majority Muslim country dominated by the vast Kara Kum
desert -- has the world's fifth-largest natural gas reserves, but Niyazov
failed to convert that wealth into prosperity for his country's 5 million
people.
Earlier this year, the leader announced he would provide citizens with
natural gas and power free of charge through 2030. But he has also tapped
the country's vast energy wealth for outlandish projects -- a huge,
man-made lake in the Kara Kum desert, a vast cypress forest to change the
desert climate, an ice palace outside the capital, a ski resort and a
130-foot pyramid.
Niyazov was born February 19, 1940. His father died in World War II and
the rest of his family was killed in an earthquake that leveled Ashgabat
in 1948. He was raised in an orphanage and later in the home of distant
relatives.
Niyazov attended Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in Russia to study power
engineering and worked at the Bezmeinskaya Power Station near Ashgabat
after his graduation in 1966.
Named head of the Communist Party in Turkmenistan in 1985, Niyazov was
named president of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in October 1990
and led his nation through its October 27, 1991 independence. He was
elected president of the new independent Turkmenistan in 1992 with a
reported 99.5 percent of the vote. In 1994, an alleged 99.9 percent of
voters supported a referendum allowing him to remain in office for a
second five-year term without having to face new elections.
In 1999, he was effectively made president for life after parliament
removed all term limits, but an August 2002 gathering of the country's
People's Council -- a hand-picked assembly of Niyazov loyalists --
nonetheless went further and endorsed him as president for life.
Under Niyazov's rule, Turkmenistan adopted a strict policy of neutrality
and spurned joining regional security or economic organizations that
sprung up in the wake of the Soviet collapse.
But Niyazov supported the US-led anti-terror campaign in neighboring
Afghanistan, allowing coalition airplanes to use Turkmen airspace and
humanitarian agencies to pass through to deliver aid.
Niyazov also pursued strong nationalistic policies to encourage the use
of the Turkmen language over Russian and banned access to
Russian-language media, leading to an increased exodus of some of the
country's most educated citizens and decimating its school system.
Secondary education has been reduced in Turkmenistan to a required nine
years, causing human rights groups to complain of a deliberate attempt to
dumb down the population and prevent dissent.
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