MOSCOW – He was, by his own decree, the “Father Of All Turkmen,” and his death Thursday leaves an energy-rich, strategically situated swath of Central Asia without an heir apparent – and potentially at the heart of a global tussle between Russia, China and the United States.
President Saparmurat Niyazov, who died at age 66, ruled Turkmenistan for more than two decades with imperial eccentricity – naming towns, mosques and even the days of the week after himself, crushing opposition and requiring children to read his spiritual ruminations daily.
The former Soviet republic, which lent support to the U.S.-led war on terror, now faces a deeply uncertain future.
Some analysts were already predicting the vacuum could spark a new “Great Game” in Central Asia, similar to the struggle for supremacy in the region among imperial powers in the 19th century. At the least, the world’s major powers will be watching and maneuvering for influence in the country that neighbors Iran and stretches from the petroleum-rich Caspian Sea to the border of chaotic Afghanistan.
Niyazov helped Washington in its campaign in Afghanistan, allowing overflights by coalition planes. President Bush expressed condolences Thursday, saying: “We look forward to continuing to expand our relations with Turkmenistan, to a bright future for that country and to a government that provides justice and opportunity for its people.”
The announcement of their leader’s death sent the capital, Ashgabat, into quiet shock.
New Year’s decorations on the streets were removed and liquor stores ordered shut. The military was put on heightened alert, but there were no signs of increased military or police presence in the city.
Niyazov’s death is “comparable to a shock the Soviet Union felt after Stalin’s death,” Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Moscow-based Politika think tank, was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency.
Niyazov created an extraordinarily elaborate cult of personality, similar to that around North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
Niyazov banned opera and ballet, and railed against lip-synching and car radios. He declared himself “Turkmenbashi” – Father of All Turkmen – and renamed a seaport, the month of January and facilities throughout the country that way.
Like Stalin, his dominance left no room for an apparent successor. He is survived by a wife, daughter and son – but analysts say there is little chance of a dynastic succession.
If an orderly succession doesn’t occur, opposition figures who have long lain low could see an opening. But most of the main opposition figures live in exile and it was unclear if they would be allowed to return.
Turkmenistan’s 5 million people are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, but it is not clear how many are observant. Under Niyazov, the government was officially secular, but it encouraged an officially approved version of Islam. The country is home to Central Asia’s largest mosque – named “The Spirit of Turkmenbashi.”
Any other form of Islam was repressed and the country showed little sign of the religious radicalism that emerged in other ex-Soviet Central Asian states.
But “as new authorities will try to replace the ideology of Niyazov’s personality cult with something else, they might try to use Islam to some extent as a substitute,” said Eduard Poletayev, a political analyst in Kazakhstan.
Niyazov, who lost all his immediate family to war and earthquakes by age 8, became communist boss of Turkmenistan in 1985 while it was part of the Soviet Union, remaining in power following the 1991 Soviet collapse.
His cult of personality included authorship of the “Rukhnama,” a book of spiritual guidance that became required reading for children. Earlier this year, he said he had asked Allah to ensure that anyone who read the “Rukhnama” three times would go directly to heaven – and he appeared to have little doubt his request would be honored.
Niyazov’s visage adorned the country’s currency and statues of him were put up throughout the arid, impoverished land, including a golden one in the capital that rotated to follow the sun’s path. His face was even featured on some vodka labels and on canisters of tea.
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