Absurdistan: The Turkmens And Their Crazy Prophet ...


On October 22, 1990, Turkmenistan declares its independence from the Soviet Union!



The "Republic" of Turkmenistan is rushing to get a new flag ...



... prints own money ...



... and no less hurry to introduce new state symbols!



The new boss, however, remains the old one! The old head of the former Communist Party of Turkmenistan, Saparmyrat Nyýazow - he appoints himself as the first President of the "Republic" (after a purely formal vote by a parliament that was not freely elected!) ...



Obviously his new rule goes to his head very quickly, because supported by the Turkmen secret service and the "security organs" he soon introduced a strictly authoritative system - and unleashed a personality cult around himself, which is probably only associated with the Kim- Family in North Korea is outdone!

Nyýazow changed his name to "Turkmenbashi" (= "father of the Turkmen") and from then on he was addressed as such.

The name of the city of Krasnowodsk on the Kaspian Sea was also changed to "Turkmenbashi".

From the beginning of his term in office until his death in 2006 the whole country was covered with literally hundreds of gilded "Turkmenbashi" statues down to the smallest village - the largest of course are in the capital ...:















In general, the "father of the towers" showed off gold leaf wherever possible ...:
The whole country - especially the capital - is full of bulky representative buildings that are empty for most of the year ...:







"Turkmenbaschi's" new palace could even make a ruler like Erdogan jealous - it has more than "just" the Turkish despot's 900 rooms and domes covered with gold leaf ...:



At the end of 1999 "Turkmenbashi" was appointed "President for life" by parliament.

The opposition was increasingly suppressed and finally banned completely, especially after an assassination attempt on Turkmenbashi-Niyazov on November 25, 2002 - probably orchestrated by the secret service itself.

"Turkmenbashi" also banned theater and opera, as well as smoking in public and the free choice of subjects. He made one of his books - the "Ruhnama" - official compulsory reading for his people.

Of course, the book was also given a gold-plated memorial!





In 2003, "Turkmenbashi" was named a "prophet" by a resolution of the lamb-pious and harmonized parliament.

Of course it all cost!

So "Turkmenbashi" brutally reduced the state's social spending. In 2004, 15,000 hospital workers were laid off and replaced by conscripts. The megalomaniac despot planned to close all hospitals in the country without exception, except for one in the capital.

At the beginning of 2006, pensions and disability allowances were also drastically cut.

The normal Turkmen lives in the actually rich country (huge deposits of geese!) Meanwhile in such villages ...:



The last parliamentary election under "Turkmenbashi" took place on December 19, 2004. Only candidates from the ruling party, the "Democratic" Party of Turkmenistan, were admitted.

On December 21, 2006 the "Prophet Turkmenbashi" was finally brought by the devil!

Not that much has changed:

His successor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow ...



... promised the people "reforms" (which are still waiting today!), but at the same time made it clear that they wanted to continue the course of the dead "prophet" (which is actually happening).

Instead, under the reign of Berdimuhamedow, bans that were unique in the world were introduced:

Because the color white is Berdimuhamedow's favorite color, only white cars have been allowed in Turkmenistan since 2015; vehicles of other colors have been withdrawn from traffic by the security authorities.

Furthermore, women are prohibited from driving a vehicle.

The import of bikinis and short swimming trunks is permitted, but the sale or even wearing of them is not permitted.

Most recently, Berdimuhamedov was confirmed in office in the presidential "election" in Turkmenistan in 2017 with more than 97% of the votes.

Those wacky fun loving Turks.

Turkmenbashi looks like an architect's paradise. Ain't it odd that a lot of these so-called "regimes" spend the wealth of the country on stupendous architecture that serves little or no purpose. Saddam Hussein, Kim Il Sung, Muammar Ghadaffi etc etc - they all did it.
The new bloke in charge in Turkmenbashi looks like a slimmer version of the old one. I bet there is a special paint line at Stuttgart that produces all-white limos for him

Phil