NEWS
By David Holley and David Holley,LOS ANGELES TIMES | December 22, 2006
MOSCOW -- President Saparmurat Niyazov, an eccentric leader who ruled Turkmenistan with an iron hand, died suddenly yesterday, triggering a scramble for power in the gas-rich Central Asian state. Niyazov, who used the name Turkmenbashi, or "Father of all the Turkmen," was 66. State television said he died of a heart attack. In an apparent sign of an immediate power struggle, the country's Security Council announced the opening of a criminal investigation against the speaker of parliament, Ovezgeldy Atayev, who under the constitution was in line to become acting president.
ENTERTAINMENT
By John W. Kropf and John W. Kropf,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | October 13, 2002
With the wave of a meat ax and a smile, a young man in a bloody butcher's apron tries to entice me into buying a skinned sheep carcass. Careful not to offend, I smile and move briskly to the next stall. This is the start of my Saturday morning shopping grocery shop at the Mir Market Bazaar in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Two years ago, I might have complained about the long lines in American supermarkets or the paralyzing number of choices of cereal. But after two years as a State Department official in the central Asian country of Turkmenistan, bordered on the south by Iran and the west by Afghanistan, I've decided when I return to the United States, I'll stop complaining.
NEWS
August 9, 2002
THE PRESIDENT of Turkmenistan, who several years ago adopted the name Turkmenbashi, or Father of All Turkmen, yesterday renamed January after himself. He renamed April after his mother, who died in an earthquake in 1948. He renamed September after his book, Rukhname, which is required reading for all Turkmen schoolchildren. He also renamed the other months, and the days of the week. (Wednesday becomes Good Day. That's creative.) The National Council acclaimed the changes, by unanimous vote.
NEWS
By Faye Flam and Faye Flam,KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE | May 6, 2001
PHILADELPHIA - A major early civilization - rivaling in sophistication the ones that emerged in the Indus Valley or Mesopotamia, the famed Cradle of Civilization - apparently thrived in central Asia between 2200 B.C. and 1800 B.C. These people, who lived in desert oases in what is now Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, used irrigation to grow wheat and barley, forged distinctive metal axes, carved alabaster and marble into intricate sculptures, and painted pottery...
NEWS
By Will Englund and Will Englund,Moscow Bureau of The Sun | December 1, 1994
MOSCOW -- Supporters of two Central Asian journalists who have been arrested here launched a campaign yesterday to try to block their extradition to Turkmenistan.The two men are critics of the Turkmen president, Saparmurat Niyazov, who has smashed his opposition at home, spread his portrait everywhere (even on coins and bills), and renamed himself "Turkmenbashi," or Father of All Turkmen.Like many dissidents fleeing oppression in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, the two journalists, Murad Esenov and Khalmurad Soyunov, had come to Moscow to continue their work.
NEWS
By Myron Beckenstein | July 26, 1992
RED ODYSSEY.Marat Akchurin.HarperCollins.406 pages. $25.7/8 "I . . . made a death mask of what was formerly the Soviet Union," writes Marat Akchurin of what he accomplished in "Red Odyssey." "That country no longer exists and never will again."That was the result, not what he set out to do, because when he left on his backwater tour in 1990 the Soviet Union still was sputtering along and the unimaginable events of August 1991 were still unimaginable.Most of the news westerners got about the Soviet republics dealt with Moscow and the major Russian cities.