Saparmurat Niyazov, the almost godlike "President for Life" of the former Soviet "republic" of Turkmenistan, died this morning at the age of 66, apparently of a heart attack. Why should you care about a dead dictator in a country you've probably never even heard of?
For starters, Turkmenistan is cradled atop Iran and Afghanistan. Add to that major natural gas reserves. Add to that the fact that Niyazov left no designated successor, plus an unemployment rate of Sixty percent.
As the Soviet Union unravelled, some of its constituent "republics" evidently decided they liked totalitarianism, whether or not you call it Communism. None went farther in that direction than Turkmenistan, whose "national father" (Turkmenbashi) was topped only by North Korea's Kim Jong-il in brutality, megalomania, and autoapotheosis, not to mention suppression of information. North Korea isn't even connected to the Internet — its top-level domain of .KP remains reserved but unused; Turkmenistan's .TM domain is filled mostly with foreign countries drawn by the idea of a "trademark" website.
Saparmurat Niyazov was the chairman of Turkmenistan's Supreme Soviet during the twilight of the Soviet empire, so he stepped right in to declare himself Turkmenbashi and then President for Life. He spent untold billions out of the public treasury to erect enormous portraits and statues to himself. You literally couldn't enter a building without finding his face beaming down at you. Every Turkmen schoolchild — during their nine years of public schooling, anyway — memorized passages from Niyazov's "Book of the Soul," treating it not only as a political guide, but also as a religious text on a par with the Qur'an.
His official biography on the Turkmenistan Embassy web site contains this paragraph:
Mr. Niyazov's success as President of Turkmenistan has been attributed to his extensive and productive work in stabilizing the economic situation of the country. He has established Turkmenistan's international prestige and has displayed concern for the people's well-being. Following his election, one of the first resolutions to be adopted was a decree on the free use of water, gas and electricity by the people of Turkmenistan.
The reality, of course, was far from such a glowing, soft-focus image. Water, gas, and electricity are free — when they're available. Turkmenbashi also bled the treasury dry reshaping the capital city of Ashgabat (sometimes written Ashkabad) and insinuating himself into every nook and cranny of life, even down to the proper material for dental fillings. The economic situation has improved somewhat, due to the country's natural gas reserves, but little of that prosperity has trickled down to the average citizen. Unemployment remains at a staggering 60%. To put that in perspective, U.S. unemployment maxed out at about 25% in the Great Depression of the 1930's, and hasn't topped 10% since World War II.
Of course, the United States is a little busy right now to be expending much effort on bringing democracy, human rights, or basic freedom of thought to a country with the population of a middling U.S. state. (Turkmenistan has more people than Colorado, but fewer than Minnesota. To put that in international terms, it falls between Norway and Finland.) Oh, but there's that little matter of geostrategic location! Turkmenistan is on the Caspian Sea (named for the Narnia character? ;-P ), and has land borders with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. The only other country bordering both Iran and Afghanistan is Pakistan. On the other hand, the centerpiece of Turkmenistan's post-Soviet foreign policy is its neutrality. On the plus side, it won't be giving any official help to the Taliban or the Iranian mullahs; on the downside, it also won't be available as a staging area for the invasion of Iran or the re-invasion of Afghanistan. On the much bigger downside, Niyazov's self-aggrandizing economic policies leave the country vulnerable to revolution or civil war — with 60% unemployment, almost anything could happen. In the mean time, foreign investors, eager to exploit Turkmenistan's energy reserves, wait to see how things settle out.
There can be no mistaking that in Saparmurat Niyazov the world has lost a brutal megalomaniac dictator whose passing should be celebrated by free people everywhere. Let's just hope that his country doesn't fall into civil war.