Around Russia

The end of Turkmenistan

December 25, 2006 Anton Oresh

The People’s Council of Turkmenistan nominated candidates for the presidency. In general, it is quite strange that the very first reaction to the death of Niyazov, at least in news programs, was the question: who will become his successor? I don’t understand what is the point in political forecasts for the country, where only now they adopt a law on presidential election. The president all this time existed, but the law did not exist.

For a country where, instead of a political system, there was a religious cult. Where God was a living person who wrote his own Bible or, if you like, the Qur'an. What election chances can we talk about where there have never been elections? There were no parties, politicians, public opinion. Even the bureaucracy existed in the form of a Brownian movement, continuously hungry and shabby (in the word “grinding” I even want to replace one letter).

Many are trying to consider possible scenarios of the further development of events (although so far Turkmenistan has not known any scenarios except one), but this is, in essence, and it is not important. The significance of this country on a global scale is negligible. Even on the scale of the CIS. Yes, she has a lot of gas. But there is a lot of gas on the planet in many places. In general, 99 people out of 100 on the map of Turkmenistan simply will not find and there is nothing to say about it. Except one. Turkmenbashi.

Niyazov was the Turkmenistan herself. He not just personified her, he replaced her! Do we know a lot about what was happening under Saparmurat in his state? Even we, Russians, are really unknown. Despite the fact that there, for example, there is a huge problem of the Russian -speaking population, which our Russian Russian -language leadership safely spat. The American leadership spat a lot on Turkmenistan. In my opinion, there was only one even more wild regime around the world - the North Korean, and certainly Turkmenbashi no better than Saddam. But Niyazov did not call the dad of the American president a “earthen worm”, but rather, he was meek and polite, observed neutrality and sing, and, therefore, had the right to do everything that he pleases. He did, and there was no deed to his affairs.

But half a world saw his kilogram “Kokhinor” on his finger! And who did not hear about Rukhnamu, which flew into space? About the law on golden teeth, about renaming all months, about the division of human life into periods from birth to 109 years? By the way, Saparmurat himself only recently entered the period of old age, but he had left seven years before the wisdom period! And the ice palace in the desert, and hundreds of other eccentricities from the “thousand and one night” interspersed with the “Notes of the Madman” and “Brief Course”! They knew about this, they saw it - it was Turkmenistan.

And this Turkmenistan is no more, and will not be. Because it is impossible to put the production of Turkmenbashi on the stream. The gods are not elected from six candidates on a certain day. They become gods. For 21 years or a little less. To do this, it is not enough to be even an illegitimate son of God (as they say about Berdimuhammedov, the main candidate for the presidency), this requires a special courage and the chemical composition of the brain. Therefore, Niyazov is unique. Therefore, after his death, Turkmenistan will take its present - modest - a place on the map and in the carousel of world politics. And no matter what happens there, whoever the rules there, the plot about this will go in news feeds in 150th place, how to lead from the troubled East Timor or from Fiji, where a revolution occurred in the middle of the beach paradise. Anton Oresh

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