Another Death I Find It Hard To Get All Broken Up Over...

by hilzoy

From the NYT:

"Turkmenistan's President-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov died suddenly on Thursday after 21 years of iron rule, raising a risk of political instability in the energy-rich country that some feared could have an impact on Europe's gas supplies.

Niyazov, 66, who crushed all dissent in his reclusive state and basked in a unique and bizarre personality cult while ruling a country with huge natural gas reserves, died overnight of cardiac arrest, state television said.

His funeral was set for December 24 and the government fixed December 26 for the desert state's highest representative body to meet to decide on the succession and name a date for elections.

Turkmenistan has never held an election judged to be free and fair by foreign monitors. Until the new polls, which have to be held within two months, Deputy Prime Minister Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, 49, will be acting head of state.

But Niyazov, who held all top posts, left no designated heir and his sudden death raised concerns about the transfer of power in the ex-Soviet nation of 5 million, where foreign oil and gas companies are keen to invest in vast energy reserves."

Niyazov was Kim Jong Il's main competition for the title of "most insane and dreadful living dictator". He did all sorts of horrible things, some of which I listed here. For sheer strangeness, my favorite was basing the driving tests in Türkmenistan on knowledge of his leaden book of "wisdom", the Ruhnama. The candidates for most destructive act are legion; one would surely have to be his decision to close all the hospitals outside the capital city, saying: ""Why do we need such hospitals?" he said. "If people are ill, they can come to Ashgabat."" This in a country of 188,457 square miles (slightly smaller than Spain, slightly larger than California), which is mostly desert and has only 19,488 km of paved roads. (By comparison, Spain has 659,629 km.)

He was a brutal and destructive lunatic who deprived his people of anything remotely resembling freedom, and spent most of his time and his country's wealth on pointless self-aggrandizement. I'm trying to think of some reason to mourn his death, but I'm having a pretty hard time.

Comments

[Ugh]

I'm trying to think of some reason to mourn his death, but I'm having a pretty hard time.

I heard he was a wizard with a karaoke machine. Actually, that's probably another reason not to mourn his death.

[Slartibartfast]

Unrelated: just when you thought Sandy Berger had disappeared below the national radar for the last time:

Berger took a break to go outside without an escort while it was dark. He had taken four documents in his pockets.

"He headed toward a construction area. ... Mr. Berger looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the Archives and the DOJ [Department of Justice], and did not see anyone," the interview notes said.

He then slid the documents under a construction trailer, according to the inspector general. Berger acknowledged that he later retrieved the documents from the construction area and returned with them to his office.

"He was aware of the risk he was taking," the inspector general's notes said. Berger then returned to the Archives building without fearing the documents would slip out of his pockets or that staff would notice that his pockets were bulging.

You know, this looks bad. Even ignoring whether any information was lost, this looks very bad.

[cleek]

Even ignoring whether any information was lost, this looks very bad.

charge, try, convict. maybe we'll learn his motivations in the process, maybe not.

[Slartibartfast]

Motivations are of interest, to be sure. But you never know when you're going to get a peek at those, do you?

Still, Berger knew the risks. What could possibly have made those risks look worth taking? That's a question I'm very interested in getting answered.

[cleek]

What could possibly have made those risks look worth taking?

dementia ?

seriously... beats me. they were Millennium Plot docs, right ? maybe he was going to write an article or a book about it.

[Ugh]

1m in ur d0cqments, stuffin' mah pokits

[matttbastard]

Good analysis of Turkmenistan's uncertain political future from EurasiaNet.

[janinsanfran]

I've got a little list--I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed--who never would be missed! -- W.S.Gilbert

Niyazov makes the list. I have a friend who is a refugee from Turkmenistan who was given asylum on 3 grounds: he's gay, he's a Christian, he was a human rights advocate. Pretty amazing and one of the rare times our asylum processes did the right thing, letting him stay.

[Bruce Moomaw]

"I'm trying to think of some reason to mourn his death, but I'm having a pretty hard time."

"Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintances sneered and slanged,
I wept; for I had hoped to see him hanged."
-- Hilaire Belloc

I feel exactly the same poignant regret, for the same reason, every time somebody like Pinochet or Kim Il Sung finally shuffles off this mortal coil for natural reasons. The number of tyrants who actually get executed is still depressingly small.

[Nell]

Jonathan Edelstein and commenters provide some more material for speculation about the future in Turkmenistan.