Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov (19 February 1940 – 21 December 2006) was a Turkmen politician and dictator who led Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in 2006. He was the first secretary of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan from 1985 until 1991 and supported the 1991 Soviet coup attempt. He continued to rule Turkmenistan as the first president for 15 years after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Turkmen media referred to Niyazov using the title His Excellency Saparmyrat Türkmenbaşy, President of Turkmenistan and Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. His self-given title Türkmenbaşy, meaning Head of the Turkmen or the Leader of all Turkmen, referred to his position as the founder and president of the Association of Turkmens of the World. In 1999, the Assembly of Turkmenistan declared Niyazov President for life. In his time, Niyazov was one of the world's most repressive and autocratic dictators. He promoted a cult of personality around himself and imposed his personal eccentricities upon the country, such as renaming Turkmen months and days of the week to references to his autobiography, the Ruhnama. He made it mandatory to read the Ruhnama in schools, universities and governmental organizations; new governmental employees were tested on the book at job interviews and an exam on its teachings was a part of the driving test in Turkmenistan. In 2005, he closed down all rural libraries and hospitals outside of the capital city Ashgabat, in a country where at the time more than half the population lived in rural areas, once stating that, "If people are ill, they can come to Ashgabat." Under Niyazov's rule, Turkmenistan had the lowest life expectancy in Central Asia. Global Witness, a London-based human rights organisation, reported that money under Niyazov's control and held overseas may be in excess of US$3 billion, of which between $1.8–$2.6 billion was allegedly situated in the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund at Deutsche Bank in Germany.
Early life
Niyazov was born on 19 February 1940 in Gypjak, in the outskirts of Ashgabat, in the Turkmen SSR. He was a member of the influential Teke tribe of the Turkmens. According to the official version of his biography, his father, Atamyrat Nyýazow, died in World War II fighting against Nazi Germany, while other sources contend that he dodged fighting and was therefore sentenced by a military court. His mother and two brothers were killed in the devastating 1948 Ashgabat earthquake. His mother, Gurbansoltan Eje, later on became part of Niyazov's cult of personality after he named several places and institutions after her, renamed the month of April in the Turkmen calendar after her, and replaced the Turkmen word for "bread" with her first name, among other things. He grew up in a Soviet orphanage before the state put him in the custody of a distant relative. After finishing school in 1959, Niyazov worked as an instructor in the Turkmen trade-union exploratory committee. He then studied at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, where in 1967 he received a diploma as an electrical engineer. After graduating, Niyazov went to study in Russia, but was expelled a few years later for academic failure.
Soviet politics
In 1962, Niyazov started his political career, becoming a member of the Communist Party. He quickly rose through the ranks, becoming First Secretary of the Ashgabat City Committee, and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR in 1985. He gained this post after Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had removed his predecessor, Muhammetnazar Gapurow, following a cotton-related scandal. Under Niyazov, the Turkmen Communist Party had a reputation as one of the most hardline and unreformed party organizations in the Soviet Union. On 13 January 1990, Niyazov became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen SSR, the supreme legislative body in the republic. The post was equivalent to that of president. Niyazov supported the Soviet coup attempt of 1991. However, after the coup collapsed, he set about separating Turkmenistan from the dying Soviet Union. The Turkmen Supreme Soviet declared Turkmenistan independent and appointed Niyazov as the country's first president on 27 October 1991. On 21 June 1992 the Turkmenistani presidential election featured Niyazov as the sole candidate, and chosen as the country's first popularly elected president. A year later he declared himself Türkmenbaşy, meaning "Leader of all Turkmen". In 1994 a plebiscite extended Niyazov's term to 2002 so he could oversee a 10-year development plan. The official results showed that 99.9% of voters approved this proposal. On 28 December 1999, Parliament declared Niyazov President for life; parliamentary elections had been held a few weeks earlier for which the president had hand-picked all candidates. Niyazov and his wife, Muza Melnikova, who was of Russian and Jewish descent, had a son (Murat) and a daughter (Irina).
Presidency (1990–2006)
Niyazov became president at the transition of Turkmenistan from a Soviet republic to an independent state. His presidency was characterised by an initial crumbling of the centralised Soviet model that in many respects was unsuited for a transition to smaller, separate states. There was outside concern about press freedom and to a lesser extent religious rights of minority religious groups. Niyazov made a personal attempt to create a cultural background for the new state of Turkmenistan by writing and promoting the Ruhnama, an autobiography meant to guide the people of Turkmenistan with his ideas and promote native culture (and by extension prohibiting foreign culture). He also took part in creating new holidays with a specific Turkmen nature and introduced a new Latin-based Turkmen alphabet to replace Russian Cyrillic. The Latin Turkmen alphabet, or "Turkmen National Alphabet" consists of: Aa, Bb, Çç, Dd, Ee, Ää, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Žž, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ňň, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Ww, Yy, Ýý, Zz. Despite emphasizing a need to move from central planning to a market economy and to a full democracy during his reign, neither plan progressed. Yearly plans set forth by the government and a centralised economy gave little indication of moving away from state-dominated economics, and the dictatorial nature of many of his decrees and his declaring himself "President for Life" gave little hope as to much progress in these two areas.
Economy
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