political life in Turkmenistan sucks dictatorshit

When newly appointed Secretary of State Condoleza Rice listed her outposts of tyranny at her Senate confirmation hearing on January 18, 2005, she listed the regimes of Cuba, Belarus, North Korea, Iran, Burma, and Zimbabwe. Suspiciously absent from the sound byte was tyranny that can easily rival any of the above states especially in terms of creating a cult of personality. Since becoming independent in 1991, Turkmenis-tan, a country of about five million, has been ruled over by Saparmurat Niyazov who, before becoming president-for-life and father of all Turkmen, was the Turkmen Communist Party chief (who therefore had also initially opposed his country’s independence). He has proceeded to organize the entire state apparatus around his rule, including naming the month of January after himself. In a show of familial affection April went to his mother’s name, May to his father’s, while September was reserved for Rukhnama, Niyazov’s alleged divinely inspired literary masterpiece.

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