Nazarbayev honors Turkmenbashi

OK, so this story is a few days old, but Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev was on a state visit to Turkmenistan last week. I scoured the news for suitable photo opportunities of the man Reigstan playfully calls "Uncle Nazzy" and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov, but alas - I can't find anything with a suitable freshness date. If anyone has a recent picture of Nazarbayev and Berdimuhammedov shaking hands, hugging, or laughing maniacally together, please consider sending it my way?

Anyway, this story has some intriguing tidbits about life in the dictator lane in Central Asia. Nazarbayev apparently had about as much fun in Turkmenistan as it's possible to have, and as a sign of respect, laid flowers on the grave of the recently departed dictator of Turkmenistan Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niazov, who lest we forget, is reputed to be Berdimuhammedov's real father. I'm not exactly an expert on customs in the former Soviet Central Asia, but in the west, a visitor would have taken great pains not honor the memory of the likes of Niazov, no matter what protocol calls for. Nazabayev himself is a dictator, granted, but Niazov's infamy is such that you'd imagine that Nazarbayev should have been talked out of it. Needless to say, if anyone can link or provide me with a photo of Nazarbayev giving props to Niazov, I'm all over that like white on rice.

The cult of the bling daddy

It wasn't supposed to be this way, was it?

Since the death of Saparmurat Niazov, Turkmenistan's new president Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov seemed poised first to cling to the status quo established by Turkmenbashi, and then, to erase it. Berdimuhammedov was quick to publicly criticize the need for a personality cult, and quickly moved to purge revanchist elements within his ruling party. L'État c'est moi was out, après moi le déluge was in. Could the new guy be an actual reformer?

The illustrious Berdimuhammedov appeared to change direction last month during his 50th birthday. After initially promising to downplay the event, he reversed course and turned it into a public celebration. He also decided celebrate the occasion, by awarding himself Turkmenistan's highest national honor, complete with serious bling.

Apparently, he must have enjoyed his first public flirtation with self-aggrandizement, because signs now point to the creation of a new personality cult centered around Berdimuhammedov. The personality cult of his predecessor, one of the world's most pervasive, will be a hard act to follow, and it seems that Berdimuhammedov's image and public praise isn't nearly as lavish as Turkmenbashi's, Yet still, for the man who appeared poised to completely do away with the wild Stalinist excesses of his predecessor, the emergence of any personality cult has people worrying about a return to the bad-old-days under Niazov.

Berdimuhammedov's first trip into public self-glorification appeared during his 50th birthday. Could be suffering a mid-life crisis? Does he need self-validation? A cookie? A hug? Or are the persistent rumors that Berdimuhammedov is Niazov's illegitimate son actually true, and that a personality cult is simply a way of honoring the daddy he never knew that well? Construct your own Freudian postulate here, people, but I'll definitely be keeping a close on eye on Berdimuhammedov to see if his casual flirtation with a personality cult blossoms into a torrid love affair with Niazov-style self-deification.

Berdimuhammedov goes for the bling-bling

Turkmenistan's president Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov continued dismantling the personality cult of the late Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niazov by mandating the removal of the overlay of Niazov's profile (seen in the upper right hand corner of the photo) from television programs in Turkmenistan. What's more, statues of the late "Father of all Turkmen" have been quietly disappearing, while villages named after Niazov have been quietly re-named.

The quiet demise of what was one of the world's most powerful dictator personality cults is perhaps one more indication that Berdimuhammedov is serious about dragging Turkmenistan out of the political dark ages. It's also a sign that he's coming out on top of a recent power struggle with the remnants of his predecessor's former lackeys and apparatchiks. Berdimuhammedov was apparently expected to be a puppet controller by Niazov's former director of state security, Akmurad Rejepov. However, in a move reminiscent of Nikita Khrushchev's triumph over Lavrenti Beria, Berdimuhammedov unexpectedly had Rejepov sacked and arrested for "crimes against the state", thus eliminating his single greatest political obstacle.

It's still too soon to say whether Berdimuhammedov is a genuine reformer or not, but there appears to be no doubt that he's firmly in the driver's seat. So, will Berdimuhammedov be a dictator or not? Despite the nascent political reforms and dismantling of the Niazov personality cult, some signs remain that old habits die hard in Turkmenistan. Despite an official pronouncement that he would not welcome an official celebration of his fiftieth birthday, Berdimuhammedov apparently changed his mind at the last moment.

After only six months in office, Berdimuhammedov presented himself with the medal of the "Order of the Motherland", an award created by Turkmenbashi himself to honor, well, Turkmenbashi himself. The medal itself is said to weigh just over a kilogram of solid gold and is adorned with diamonds. It's also worth noting that the Order of the Motherland prize comes with a $20,000 cash bonus and a 30% increase in salary and pension benefits. Not bad for a former dentist, eh? What's more, despite his previous refusal to create a personality cult, Berdimuhammedov has decided to splurge a bit and release a commemorative gold coin with his portrait as a part of his birthday celebration. No word yet on whether or not he'll be going for gold statues, as Niazov did, but Berdimuhammedov's abrupt volte face in favor of Niazov style self-aggrandizement shows that he's still relevant fodder for discussion on Dictators of the World. Thank heavens!

UPDATE: Does anyone know what's going on with the status of the Ruhnama in Turkmenistan under Berdimuhammedov? It's hard to imagine that Berdimuhammedov would dismantle Niazov's personality cult while leaving the Ruhnama's intact.

Gurbanguly gone wild!

One of the occupational hazards encountered while blogging about dictators is that some of these guys refuse to stick to the script. And do you want to know who really knows how to rain on my parade lately? Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov.

Turkmenistan was, perhaps, one of the world's most notorious dictatorships under the infamous Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niazov, and why not? It had all the ingredients - a post-Soviet political pedigree and an isolated (some would say exotic) Central Asian locale added an irresistible setting for the world's most notorious political personality cult. So when the lunatic despot kicked the bucket back in December of 2006, everyone sat on the edge of their seats: would the dictatorship crumble, or would some party hack close to Niazov simply pick up where the late dictator left off?

Things seemed promising for Dictators of the World when Niazov's successor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov, replaced Niazov after a nakedly fraudulent election. I guessed that I would simply be able to pick up where I'd left off with Niazov, and write all of these juicy exotic stories about bizarre edicts, gold statues and secret policemen terrifying the populace. But that would just be too easy, wouldn't it? Instead, Berdimuhammedov appears to be doing the nastiest thing a man can do to a dictator blog, namely, instituting genuine political reforms and dismantling his predecessor's authoritarian state. What a dick!

Sure, he started off slowly, but he's gaining steam with every passing month. And now? Now I'm reading this article in Kommersant which talks about Berdimuhammedov instituting a political thawing out in Turkmenistan. First he decided to dispense with Niazov's all pervasive personality cult, declining all offers to build a new one of his own. Now, he's even declined to stage national celebrations in honor of his own birthday. Veteran dictator watchers know that serious dictators always live large on their birthdays. But would Berdimuhammedov stop there? Apparently not. He's also decided to disburse Niazov's secret oil and gas contract kickback slush fund. Now, granted, there are a number of criteria that make a dictator a dictator, but you show me a leader who declines a ready made personality cult and a multi-billion dollar slush fund, and I'll show you someone who's itching to make meaningful political reforms.

That's good for Turkmenistan, of course, but it's obviously bad for Dictators of the World. Will Gurbanguly go whole hog with this reform business, or will he pull back? I'd like to think he's going for something akin to Nursultan Nazarbayev's style in Kazakhstan. You know the type of regime I'm talking about - autocratic enough to get what he wants politically at home, without being brutal or dismal enough to make Turkmenistan an international laughing stock and pariah again. Obviously, we don't know which way he's going to turn ... yet. I'm still starting to worry that I'm not going to have anything to blog about from Turkmenistan in the near future.

Tomorrow: Dictators of the World celebrates its 200th post.

Dictator club gathering in Russia

For a blog like Dictators of the World, what could be better than a roomful of autocrats getting together to talk shop?

Such was the case this week when post-Soviet autocrats Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and the world's newest dictator, the multisyllabic Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov of Turkmenistan, met in what was described as an "informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States" at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Any such CIS gathering involving Berdimuhammedov would have be "informal", I suppose, as his illustrious predecessor voluntarily reduced Turkmenistan's participation in the CIS to that of an "associate member".

So what was discussed, exactly? Given that the big English language news outfits seemed to have snoozed through this gathering, we have to turn to the government press releases for more information. However, they say only that "trade-economic and humanitarian spheres were called the priority areas of cooperation" - whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. Given that Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are major producers of crude oil and natural gas, it's not unreasonable to presume that the conversation drifted towards what's generically been called "energy co-operation", but which can be more accurately described as "how can we work together to whack the Europeans with higher fuel prices?" Of course, they also might have had a chance to discuss juicier topics that only dictators need to worry about, like "which Swiss banks ask the fewest questions?" and "how the hell do I get Transparency International off my back?"

Whatever they talked about, I think it's safe to presume that the topics of human rights and democratization weren't on the agenda. With any luck, Joshua and/or Nathan at Registan can come up with some of the missing details regarding this week's gathering. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall ...

UPDATE: The photo at top left is of Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov, who's starting to bear an eerie resemblance to Saparmurat Niazov. There were, apparently, rumors that Gurbangly is Turkmenbashi's illegitimate son, but even I'm shocked when I check out the photos. Berdimuhammedov is on the left, Niazov on the right:




Creepy.

Berdimuhammedov sacks secret police chief

Less than four months ago, I cynically implied that newly "elected" Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov would run the country more or less the same way as his predecessor, the late, unlamented, Saparmurat Niazov. I had to make something of a reappraisal back in March, when Berdimuhammedov took the decidedly un-Niazov like move of voluntarily abolished some of his own executive powers, and even more startlingly, made it clear he would not build a personality cult of his own.

And now the top man in the 'Stan has taken another step to make his own mark, by firing the country's long time state security services boss, vertically demoting Turkmenistan's secret police chief to an as yet unnamed government post. The former boss, Akmurad Rejepov, served as the eyes, ears and iron fist both during Soviet rule and during Niazov's rule. No explanation was offered for the firing, but it's likely that Berdimuhammedov is looking both to rebuild the police state in his own image, and secondly, to reduce any possible threats from within to his own power. Given the political power amassed by security chiefs and generals in a dictatorship, the threat of a coup d'etat to a "reformer" (however modest) like Berdimuhammedov certainly needs to be taken seriously.

It's May Day, comrades!

It is May Day, comrades! Our glorious leader has smashed the decadent, capitalist world order and restored power to the proletariat! Long live the workers! Long live the Red Army! Long live Comrade Stalin!

Click here to visit the glorious people's May Day parade in Moscow, 1959!

UPDATE: Speaking of Soviet hangovers, Joshua Foust at Registan.net is unimpressed with the glacial pace of Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov's "political reform" in Turkmenistan. Read Joshua's analysis here.

UPDATE II: Fidel Castro a "no-show" at Havana's May Day parade. Poor Hugo.

Just what the hell is going on here?

I think we need to have a talk with Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov. Mere months after winning a mockery of an election, most foreign observers expected the new "winner" to continue ruling in the same way as his predecessor, the inscrutable Father of all Turkmen himself, Saparmurat Niazov. We expected more self-glorification, more bizarre edicts, and more of the usual casual disregard for human rights, freedoms, and the like.

Well, so far, Berdimuhammedov has been something of a disappointment for those expecting (or desiring!) a seamless continuation of Turkmenbashi's governance. What, for example, are we to make of a report claiming that Berdimuhammadov has voluntarily abolished some of his own executive powers? Are we able to infer anything from his scathing criticism of television programming choices in Turkmenistan that were laid down from on high by Turkmenbashi himself? Most shockingly of all, what would the Father of all Turkmen make of the decision by Berdimuhammedov to tone down the formerly all pervasive personality cult?

Is this any sort of way to run a Central Asian dictatorship?

So far, Turkmenistan hasn't taken any politically radical steps, but considering he's only been in power for less than three months, he's got quite a lot of work to do if he wants to continue to be mentioned in the same breath as his predecessor.

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.

Even after the December death of Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niazov, it seems that the people of Turkmenistan are still terrified of the state.

In other shocking news, newly "elected" president Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov publicly kissed a copy of the Ruhnama and vowed to strengthen political ties with China. Why, it's almost as if nothing has changed! Were you expecting changes or something? Come on now, people.

On the serious tip, when I asked for more dictator merchandise back in December, I had no idea that Turkmenistan was only to happy to oblige my appalling bad taste.

No, really. You can get it right here. Sign me up for a shirt and a mug, Mr. President!

UPDATE: Damn! Doesn't that apparatchik behind Berdimuhammedov's right shoulder remind you of somebody?

Welcome to the club, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov.

The December death of Turkmen Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niazov obviously left big shoes to fill. And now they've been filled by the man who "temporarily" took Niazov's place as "interim president" since his death. He's also probably killed his country's narrow window for political, economic and social reform, too.

After a thoroughly crooked, if fitting, election, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov is the new dictator (er, president) of Turkmenistan has been sworn in and officially welcomed to the Central Asian Dictator's Club by fellow member Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan.

While early reports from the ridiculously secretive nation indicated that Berdimuhammedov won the election with 99% of the vote, it appears that the margin of victory was an only slightly less ludicrous 89% of the vote. Even though the outcome was predetermined, the ruling Democratic Party of Turkmenistan clearly didn't feel like taking any chances: all six Presidential candidates were members of the party. Juicy, but obviously unconfirmed, rumors abound that Berdimuhammedov is Turkmenbashi's illegitimate son. Interestingly, while serving as interim president, Berdimuhammedov changed Turkmenistan's constitution to prevent the political participation of Niazov's legitimate son, Myrat. Sibling rivalry? Or just a struggle to keep Junior away from the prize?

Having emerged on top after a brief power struggle and ludicrous election, the consensus opinion is that Berdimuhammedov is in no mood for reversing the economic damage wrought by his predecessor, nor opening Turkmenistan to the world, nor loosening his party's iron grip on power, but rather, that he intends to stay on top for as long as humanly possible.

I know, what a surprise.