Gold Statue of Late Turkmen Leader Comes Down

Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, was a scene of rare excitement on August 25 as people gathered to watch the dismantling of a golden statue of previous president Saparmurat Niazov.

The removal of the 63-metre Neutrality Arch, topped by a 12-meter statue of Niazov which revolved to face the sun, was landmark in the gradual erosion of the personality cult that surrounded Niazov until his death in late 2006.

Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov, who became president in 2007, has ordered the arch to be replaced by a new monument to Turkmenistan’s declared status of neutrality.

The structure will bear Turkmenistan’s flag and national crest, and decorations to symbolise the main Turkmen tribes. It should be finished by October, 2011, when the country celebrates 20 years as an independent state.

Dismantling the arch took more than two months, and local people came to watch as the golden statue was carefully removed.

One of those watching speculated that the statue would reappear in a less central location.

“Niazov is a historical figure – let him go and join other historical monuments,” he said. “They’ll probably put him in Berzengi [suburb of Ashgabat] where the Ruhnama is standing.”

He was referring to a monument showing an oversize version of the Ruhnama, a book Niazov wrote as a basic ideological text for his nation-building project.

After he became the first president of independent Turkmenistan, Niazov, a former Soviet Communist Party functionary, created a cult around himself, styling himself Turkmenbashi and ordering placenames to be changed in his honour. Images of him were ubiquitous, and were obligatory in every office and school, as were copies of the Ruhname.

The country’s substantial natural gas revenues were channeled into white-elephant construction projects glorifying Niazov.

Since coming, Berdymuhammedov has instituted limited reforms, which often amount to rolling back some of Niazov’s eccentric and retrograde policies.

Part of the process has involved quietly effacing the public imagery of the personality cult. Pictures of Berdymuhammedov have replaced those of Niazov, though the new leader does not go in for ostentatious statues and name-changes.

A public servant in Ashgabat said the authorities were serious about clearing away traces of the late president.

“There are rumours they’re going to remove a big bull that stands near the dismantled monument,” she said. “It has a little boy – Niazov as a child – sitting on its head and holding its horns.”

One of the onlookers as the arch was demolished, a pensioner, pointed out that there were still many monuments to the late Niazov and his family members.

“Do you think everything can be obliterated from memory so easily?” she said.

Not all the onlookers were happy to see the end of the concrete and gold Neutrality Arch..

“Who was it obstructing?” she asked. “We will never see this beautiful thing again.”

This article was produced as part of IWPR’s News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.