Post-Soviet Turkmenistan has suffered some of the worst political leadership the world has ever seen. Some of it is pretty boilerplate: its two leaders (since independence in 1991) elected with majorities in the high 90s, a succession of seven-year presidential terms, endemic corruption and the ruthless stamping out of any dissent – or any freedoms at all, come to that. Six million Turkmens have been subjected to continuous rule by two autocrats – the current occupant of the presidential palace and his predecessor, the notorious President for Life, Saparmurat Niyazov – that both serve up a comedic cult of personality along with ruthless despotism.
Niyazov, like many leaders following the collapse of communism, was a former apparatchik turned whimsical dictator. He was best known for the 12-metre-tall golden statue of himself, rotating so it always faced the sun. His other quirky policies included banning lip-syncing at public concerts as well as opera, ballet and circuses in 2001 for being ‘decidedly unturkmen-like’. Gerbanguly Berdimuhamedow, riding in on a wave of reform when he started his presidency in 2006, replaced his dead predecessor’s statue with one done in gold leaf of himself astride a giant Akhal-Teke horse (his favourite local breed) soaring 20-metres above the ground on an artificial marble cliff. No speciesist, for all his faults, the 61-year-old former dentist followed it up with a 6-metre golden statue of an Alabay – his favourite home-bred Turkmen variety of the Central Asian shepherd dog. The Alabay is said to represent a spirit of pride and self-confidence, qualities that the noble president ascribes to himself and no doubt would like to instil in his devoted fellow citizens.
