Kyrgyz Officials Say No to Turkmen Leader's Book

The Kyrgyz education ministry has made it clear it will not allow the country’s main agricultural studies university to teach a course on the Ruhnama, the book written by Turkmen president Saparmurat Niazov as a guide to life for his nation.



While some find it baffling that anyone would want to study the Turkmen leader’s thoughts, others see the move as a ploy by the university’s heads to cosy up with his regime in the hope of getting some funding.



NBCentralAsia has learned that the Kyrgyz Agrarian University plans to start teaching the Ruhnama course from the academic year 2007-08, but it must first seek formal permission from the education ministry.



The Gundogar website reported that the university awarded President Niazov an honorary professorship at a ceremony held in the Turkmen capital in Ashgabat on December 7.



It is unlikely the plan will be approved. Kyrgyz education minister Dosbol Nur Uulu told NBCentralAsia, “This is never going to happen; we won’t allow it to. A university is not the property of its rector. They have no right to introduce any curriculum subject without our consent, and they have yet to contact us.”



Former education minister Ishengul Boljurova agreed with Nur Uulu’s stance, adding the warning that the proposed Ruhnama course could be “a bombshell for our national security”.



“National educational standards are an integral part of national security,” she explained. “The agrarian university should… on the contrary, run courses on our own state ideology.”



Political scientist Tamerlan Ibraimov believes the agrarian university must have some links with the government of Turkmenistan which it wants to capitalise on. Thus, the Ruhnama course should be seen not so much as promoting the ideology of a foreign state as an attempt to win the Turkmen president’s favour, possibly in the form of financial support.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)