Turkmenistan: A hollow facade of neutrality in a country at odds with its own people

It is unclear if Armenian president Armen Sarkissian is completely ignorant of the ruinous cul-de-sac down which President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow is taking Turkmenistan, or if the content of a recent letter to his despotic counterpart to mark the annual Day of Neutrality was intended to be so ironic that it veered towards black comedy. Intending…

Turkmenistan: Cop out that once more fudges the real issues affecting an oppressed nation

The cliched image of a 'fat cop' more au fait with bribery and corruption than a consistent and just delivery of the rule of law is synonymous with countries whose regimes provide the inspiration for their police force, both in terms of an amoral modus operandi and in physical appearance that can often mirror the…

Turkmenistan: A presidential portrait of modern-day narcissism wrapped in despotism

In 2004 the Harvard Business Review called it right. Their take on narcissists concluded that the vainglorious are "unproductive when, lacking self-knowledge and restraining anchors, they become unrealistic dreamers. They nurture grand schemes and harbour the illusion that only circumstances, or enemies block their success". Does all this sound terribly familiar, even in the modern…

Foreign Governments continue to turn a blind eye to gas-rich Turkmenistan’s despotic regime

Turkmenistan's appalling record of human rights violations and its ranking at the very bottom of the World Press Freedom Index should see it internationally regarded as a pariah state, but a continued clamour from the European Union and western powers to do business within the Central Asian republic only serves to underplay the oppressive, police…

Turkmenistan: The Hypocrisy of Food Shortages and Presidential Excess

In the world and mindset of a confirmed, unabashed dictator normal rules have long since gone out of the window, assuming of course that they ever applied in the first place. Only in a country whose throat is being kept under the boot of its protector, and predestined guide, can food shortages directly contributing to…

Turkmenistan: Will the European Union take to the floor to dance with the devil?

Not content with treating his own citizens with contempt Turkmenistan president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow now appears to have the European Union (EU) on a string, if reports of an upgrade from its current liaison office to a permanent mission in the nation's capital Ashgabat are to be believed. Quite what the EU want with and in…

Turkmenistan: Berdymukhamedow fails to live up to self-styled benefactor of the nation image

I don't smoke or drink alcohol, although that isn't to say I haven't at one time or another or fail to understand the rationale behind why people do so to varying degrees. Nor, however, do I condone the excuses so often hidden behind, and used to justify, in particular with alcohol, levels of behaviour that…

Ignorance is no defence for celebrities taking money from oppressive regimes

I have said it before: what was Jack Nicklaus thinking? History is littered with autocratic regimes seeking legitimacy through celebrity endorsements, often exploiting the ignorance of those who have pitched up in good faith but only later find a wave of condemnation highlighting at best a hitherto unawareness of the firestorm such appearances create; at…

Turkmenistan: Can Berdymukhamedow get what he came for from US visit?

It is as of yet unclear if recent US policy prohibiting the acquisition of Turkmenistan cotton has taken effect, or if it amounts to little more than lip service without actual implementation. Nevertheless, for the central Asian republic such publicity regarding its vital cash crop can only be bad, highlighting in the strongest terms the…

Turkmenistan: President Berdymukhamedow Raps while his Countrymen Sing for their Suppers

Fiddling while Rome burns has always been the preserve of emperor Nero, although the idiom that in effect describes a focus on the trivial while issues of greater importance are left unattended has been adopted on countless occasions by those, in modern parlance, who seek to control the controllables, rather than address the more pertinent…