WEBVTT - Part One: Turkmenbashi: The Dictator Who Declared Himself Jesus 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:06.840 Hmm, what's ringing my bells? I am Robert Evans. This 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:09.280 is Behind the Bastards, the show where every week I 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.240 try out a new introduction. This one got so Pie's approval, 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:14.320 so that's good. It's also a show where we talk 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:16.400 about the worst people in all of history, tell you 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:18.319 the things you don't know about them. My guest today 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.959 is David Christopher Bow. Hello. How you doing, Dave? I 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.279 am well. I almost hit a man with my car 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.520 on the way here. Oh sweet, did he have it coming? Yeah? 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:30.480 Actually he was jaywalking. Well the fuck him? Yeah that's 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.080 what I thought. Yeah, yeah, that's that's good. I'm gonna 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:35.760 I'm gonna share a little bit of your personal business 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.760 day because it makes me laugh. Your parents came here 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.440 from the the blighted hellscape that is the East Coast 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.200 to escape the snow. Yes, that's true. They're very old, 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.239 so they do what old people do, and they went 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:48.800 to a warm climate during the winter, and then Los 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.240 Angeles got its first snow in sixty something. Here. Sure, 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.960 they are very bummed out because when it's not snowing, 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.360 it's been raining that stop. We've had our first winter 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.400 in decades, which has been delightful. It's been great for 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.440 the people who live here. It's nice. Yeah, especially after 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.200 the summer, although it is a dire sign of climate 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:15.680 change when Los Angeles has seasons. Yeah, the world is dying. Yeah, 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:22.039 but it's nice to get to wear a jacket, Hollywood. Yeah. Uh, well, Dave, 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.279 today we are talking about a special fellow, very special fellow. 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.160 Have you ever heard the name saparmar Atni is of 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.520 Oh boy, oh oh boy. Now, the last show we 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.560 had you won was Momar Kadafi. Kadafi is kind of 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.040 the gold standard for just a lunatic who winds up 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:42.320 in charge of a country, like not like a guy 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.720 like like Hitler Stalin. People call them crazy, but they 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:46.440 really weren't. Like if you if you look at them, 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:48.840 everything they did kind of made sense, like based on 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.880 where they're coming from. Kaddafi was a fucking maniac. Uh. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:57.080 And saparmar Atnia is off maybe even crazier than Kaddafi. 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:01.160 He might be the craziest person who's ever run a country. Uh, 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.080 But we'll have to judge that at the end of 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:09.120 these episodes. Before we get into that, I have a 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:13.480 new sparkling water beverage called Bubbly and I got it 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:15.840 hoping for an orange soda of some sort, but I 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:17.480 don't know if that's what it is or if it's 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:19.600 more like one of those one of those lacroix. So 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:24.480 I'm gonna I'm gonna learn right now. How is it. 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:26.680 It's actually really nice. It is on the Lacroix scale. 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.520 So it's like someone put an orange in. It's like 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.000 it's like an orange was in the same room as 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.840 some sparkling water. Um, but in this case, the orange 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:38.519 talked to the water. Uh, and they reached in a chord. 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:42.239 It's good. Okay, it's good. Yeah, it's like a melted 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.720 popsicle bubbly. I'm gonna have to try it if you 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.760 want too. Yeah, report in your lacroix. All right, Here 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.160 we go over the over the equipment. This is we're 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:58.680 reaching across the table. Oh Jesus sorry, it's good. Has 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:05.639 it mixed with that? But I'm going to keep drinking it. 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.320 So that's a little bit of science for you listeners 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.880 at home. Do not mix passion fruit lacroix with orange bubbly. Uh. 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:14.359 Not a good idea. All right, speaking of bad ideas, 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.440 let's talk about saparmar At Niyazov, the lunatic god king 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:24.040 of Turkmenistan. I'm so psyched. So today we're talking about 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:26.000 a guy who was at one point probably the most 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.920 powerful crazy person on planet Earth. He was the absolute 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.519 ruler of a nation of five million people. So parmar 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.720 At Niyazov was the dictator of Turkmenistan. And I think 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.880 you're going to enjoy him, Dave, Although Turkmenistan did not um, 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:45.280 I am extremely ignorant of the world. So where is Turkmenistan. 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.680 It's like near Afghanistan and in in in the old 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.000 Soviet Union. It's one of those little chunks of the country. 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.480 It was like when Genghis Khan started doing his thing 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.119 when they like left China and started conquering his way 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.480 towards the Middle East. They were like the first empire 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.400 he ran into on his way out of China. Yeah, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.480 and he had to, yet he sucked him up pretty bad. 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.960 Uh So, Turkmenistan the actual country did not exist as 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.280 a political entity until nineteen twenty four. Like, it wasn't 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.720 a thing anyone had ever thought about as like an area. 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:16.200 It was just a place where a bunch of like 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.080 it had been a bunch of different kingdoms, but like 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.120 no one had called them Turkmenistan or whatever. They wound 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.720 up under Russian control during the era of the Csars, 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:25.520 and not much was done with them. They were a 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:27.760 little bit of a backwater, so they pretty much just 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.640 stuck to themselves and did Turkmen stuff, which mainly meant 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:35.200 outdoor picnics, fantastic wine and horseback riding. Oh good for them, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.159 It seemed to have that, seemed to have their ship together. Yeah, 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:39.440 and there's just like, no one's noticing us. Yeah, let's 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.160 just have a great time. Let's just chill out. They 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.000 like falcons, big, big falcon people doesn't Who doesn't love 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:47.839 a good falcon. They got great horses, and uh, they're 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.440 one of those pieces of the Muslim world where everybody 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.560 drinks still because they became Muslim, but they've been growing 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.239 wine since before they were Muslims. They were like, well, 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:01.400 let's just ignore that trunk earlier than we've been. It's 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:06.400 kept grandfathered into the religion. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Uh. 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:09.359 In nineteen twenty four, the brand new Union of Soviet 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.800 Socialist Republics decided this chunk of the world and its 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:15.599 people needed an official designation and borders. The Turkmen SSR 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.400 was considered to be the backwatery ist backwater in the 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.320 entire Soviet Union. Uh say, maybe some of those chunks 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.760 of Russia that were too cold for anything, but Gulags, 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.520 an American diplomat told New Yorker author Paul Thiou that quote, 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.279 it was the sleepiest, most remote, least favorite of the 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.440 USSRS republics. So they don't get much love. Yeah, but 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.920 I mean I want to live there. Yeah, if you're 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:38.720 going to live in the Soviet Union, you want to 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:43.840 live in the place that like Stalin doesn't think about ever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.520 And they were they were basically the Soviet Union's gas station. Uh. 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.279 They had like have like either the third of the 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.480 fifth largest natural gas reserves in the world, and so 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:53.440 the Soviet Union just kind of took all of their 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.320 fuel and and didn't really give them money for it. 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.080 And that that was kind of what happened for like 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.280 seventy years or so. So they were they were doing fine. Uh. 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.720 Suparmarat Niezov was born into this quiet region of the 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.120 world in nineteen forty. His father was Attaya Niyazov, a 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.640 farmer and His mother was Gurbon Sultan. They lived in 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:13.960 the town of ghip Jack, a small village six miles 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.880 from the capital, Ashgabat. If you know much history, you're 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.240 probably aware that nineteen forty was not a great time 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.880 to be born in the Soviet Union. The Nazis invaded 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.640 before Subparmarat was one, and in nineteen forty two his 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.960 father died in battle fighting the Wehrmacht. So not the 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:33.680 best start so far, das he's really fun things up 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:38.480 for this kid and twenty million other people. Yeah. Uh. 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.440 This prompted Subparmarants mom to move them into the capital, 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.880 where they all lived together until nineteen forty eight, when 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:46.159 a massive earthquake struck the city and killed a hundred 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.880 and ten thousand people, including Suparmarat's entire family. Okay, see, 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.680 he's just having none of the luck, none of the luck, 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.720 really really bad first eight years of his life. Yeah. Yeah, 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.919 rough rough start, um, fair to say so. Young Saparmat 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.880 grew up in a Soviet orphanage until the government found 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:05.719 a family member he'd never met for him to go 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.240 live with. Uh. In spite of the rough start, he 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.760 did pretty well, winning a place in Leningrad Polytechnical Institute 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.880 and graduating with a degree in power engineering in nineteen 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.040 sixty six. Uh he got a job at a power 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:20.880 plant near the capital, And UH do you like he 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:22.960 was just going to be a normal Soviet dude. So far, 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:25.800 so good, So far, so rough start, But he's getting 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.160 his life on track, getting his life on track working 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:30.720 as an engineer. If I know anything about engineers is 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.120 that they never turned into power krazed maniacs. Yeah, that's 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.760 that's for sure, something about engineers that we know. Uh 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.000 Saparmarat joined the Communist Party back in nineteen sixty two, 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.720 and his ambitions immediately extended beyond just working at a 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.120 power plant. Throughout the late nineteen sixties and the nineteen seventies, 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.880 he steadily rose the ranks in local politics, due largely 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:51.200 to the fact that he was a member of the 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.760 largest Turkmen tribe in the region. The techie now uh 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.240 saparmar at Yezov was named the first Secretary of the 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.280 Communist Party of Turkmen by Mikhail Gorbachev and nine eight 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.280 five he was put in power because his predecessor, a 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.360 guy named Gapasov, had been incredibly corrupt. Uh and and 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:11.000 stealing huge amounts of money from, you know, the republic. 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.240 So that's that's his predecessor. Now. The good thing about 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.800 Gapisov is that he'd almost completed construction of the world's 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.120 longest aqueduct during his term, so it was like a 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:21.040 couple of weeks away from being finished when he got 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.560 ship can't And then Niyazov comes to power and he 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:29.960 immediately takes credit for building the aqueduct, which good, solid. Yeah. 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.160 So Gorbachev promised that Niyazov's promotion meant the dawning of 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.199 a new age of corruption free governance in Turkmenistan. This 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.120 would prove to be about as wrong as a statement 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.119 can be. That feels like how a lot of monsters start. Yeah, 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.400 of like the guy before them was terrible and corrupt, 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.240 and they come up and they're like, no more corruption, 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:50.920 no more corruption. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good pitch, like 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.920 basically how this starts. Yeah, And he he probably would 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.880 have gotten busted by Gorbachev eventually because he was really 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.640 corrupt too. But five years after he comes to power, 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.000 the USSR starts to fall apart, and so when the 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.760 Soviet Union collapses, he's the guy in charge of Turkmenistan. 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.080 So in nineteen ninety, the Turkmen Parliament declares its independence 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:16.000 during a couple of different votes, and on October nineteen ninety, 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.920 the state of Turkmenistan was officially born. It held its 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:23.040 first presidential election immediately afterwards. Niyazov was the only candidate 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.320 and he received ninety eight point three percent of the vote. 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.679 So okay, so yeah, as everything collapsed around him, he 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.480 took It's like having it's like being the manager at 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.640 the final Blockbuster, yeah exactly, yeah, and just being like, 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:41.160 we're gonna do things differently around Blockbuster now. Yeah. Uh yeah, 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.559 he is. He is that guy. Uh. So, As the 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.640 autocratic ruler of a new nation, Niazov's immediate goal was 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:48.920 to be as neutral as possible and make a shipload 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:50.760 of money. So not a bad plan at the start. 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.160 He started selling gas oil and electricity to Iran, but 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.080 also sweet talked Saudi Arabia and flew to Mecca to 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.200 do his pilgrimage. So he's kind of trying to play 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.439 both sides of of every angle. He's trying to be 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.480 nice to Russia and be nice to the US. He 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.760 just doesn't want anybody to funk with Turkmenistan. So reasonable, Yeah, 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.040 that's fair. He's protecting his people, protecting his people. Now, 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:11.960 when he came to power, most Turkmen were still dirt 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.560 poor because the Soviet Union had basically just been stealing 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.120 their gas, like paying them, but paying them in Soviet 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:20.959 money that wasn't worth anything, and being like, yeah, you 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.040 guys are getting a fair market value for this. Feel 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.040 like it was. It was a free gas station for 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.840 the Soviet Union. But now that they were an independent nation, 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.600 these guys had like a shipload of money at like 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.080 something like five billion dollars a year coming in in 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.840 uh in fuel money. And there's only five million people. 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:41.400 So in a fair and equitable system, everyone in Turkmenistan 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.320 could be really rich, like like they are in Kuwait 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.880 or something. Of course, I assume that's what's going to happen. Yeah, 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:48.920 that they all get taken care of really well, and 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.600 then that's it. Well you can find us on Twitter 0:10:53.600 --> 0:11:00.360 and Instagram and at Bastards pod day. No. Uh So 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.040 that was what a lot of people hoped for, that 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:03.920 like the economy will be reformed and they'd all get 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:06.680 some of this sweet sweet gas money. But Niyazov was 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.320 worried about what might happen if he reformed the economy 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.160 too much. He thought it might be too much change 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:13.840 for people in too short a period of time. Right, 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.640 you got to protect the people from progress for money, 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.520 change money. So what those people to have, who knows 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:24.040 what they'll spend it? Are exactly houses? Food? Yeah, you know, 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.400 you don't want to risk that. So he promised that 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.040 he would eventually add in some free market stuff, but 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.120 in the short term, he decided that he really needed 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.920 absolute power to get stuff started for good foot you know. Yeah, 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.160 makes sense, understandable. I just need a little I just 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.960 need a little absolute powerst a couple of years. Absolute power. Yeah, 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.840 I swear I will. I'll give it up. Yeah, like 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.040 all the times people have given up absolute power in 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.520 the past. Uh. So he got his wish when Turkmenistan's 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:54.360 new constitution was drafted. It declared that power is held 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:56.680 by the president, who was elected by the people, which 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.720 seems reasonable until you realize that, once elected, the president's 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.839 power was essentially infinite. Uh, and then included the power 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.079 to determine how elections were held in the future. Yeah. Perfect. Now, 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.520 under the constitution, citizens did have the right to form 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:11.520 political parties as long as they could get a thousand 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:13.880 other people together. That was like the minimum threshold you 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:16.520 can make a political party. So several citizens did this. 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:20.040 They created political parties, They kept in line, scrupulously followed 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.360 the law, they avoided any calls for violence, they filled 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:25.280 out all the required forms of petitions, and their parties 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.439 were immediately banned. Um. Since the state controlled all media, 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.520 no political parties were allowed in any airtime. So yeah, 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:35.360 that's that's uh, that that's what nias sort of starts 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.480 off U tagging Jumakov, a journalist working for a state 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.920 paper that was essentially owned by nias Off explained, quote, 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.280 at this time, there is no need for a multi 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.720 party system. Many problems have to be solved, social problems, 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.400 and we must raise living standards. When our living standards 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.000 are high and we are economically independent, then we can 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.560 have a multiparty system. But if this happens now, there 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.000 will be anarchy. It feels like there's a lot of putting, 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.760 putting it off, putting, a lot of like, you know, no, 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:03.920 it's a great, it's great, we'll do that at some point, 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.840 but right now we really can't. Yeah, I'll clean up 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:12.320 my room after yeah, finished stealing all this natural guess 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:14.720 I'll clean my room, But first I got to do 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.920 this cocaine, and that'll help me clean up. I can't. 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:19.640 I can't make my bed with all this cocaine on 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:21.720 the table. Exactly what have I what am I knocked 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.640 the cocaine off the table? Exactly? Yes, yeah, he has 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.480 that that that that logic is it? Exactly how Niazov 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.760 justifies what he does. So At a People's Council in 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.480 December nine, Niazov estimated it would take ten years for 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.400 Turkmenistan to achieve the prosperity it needed for people to 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.760 be allowed to vote. After the constitution was ratified, Niasov 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:46.800 ran for president again winning. Yeah. He's he's very pop 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:53.160 very popular, very also the only candidate, uh. He was 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:55.280 the only Central Asian head of state to continue to 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.760 govern after the USSRS fall. So, of of the guys 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.199 who are in charge when like the Soviet Union falls part, 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.959 he's the only one who manages to hang on to power. Um. Now, 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.559 Turkmenistan had never been a country before, not in the 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.080 modern sense of the world, and Niazov knew he had 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:10.839 to do something to bind all of his people together, 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.520 so he held conferences using sketchy history to claim that 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.199 all Turkmen were part of the same ethnic group, the Tehran, 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.320 which was essentially just an ancient Persian word for the region. 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.000 He also announced, to great fanfare that his name was 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:26.160 now Turkmen Boshi, which means first among Turkmen's. He created 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.920 an ethnic group, yeah, kind of okay, he just said 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.800 we're all this thing. Yeah. He didn't want the tribalism 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:34.160 to get in the way, so he said, we're all 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.720 part of the same thing. Now, all right, Yeah, you 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.400 got to invent stuff if you create a country. His 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:44.000 full title was Serdar Turkmen Boshi, Great Leader of all Turkmen. Now, 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.080 as natural gas money started to flow into the country, 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.480 Turkmenistan found itself with money for the first time and ever. Really, 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.560 Turkmen Boshi, a man who had promised his people prosperity, 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.360 knew what he had to spend his windfall on. Wait 0:14:55.480 --> 0:15:00.040 what do you mean? It was, Oh god, I I 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:01.600 don't know what do you what do you think you 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:03.680 spent the billions of dollars That is the first money 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.560 is country has ever gotten on. I mean, this could 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.320 go in so many ways. It could be like war um, 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.840 but I feel like it's like a clown party or 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:17.080 something like that's not super far I watched, I listened 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.600 to another show, and to not make too many predictions, 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.560 he spent it all on statues. Oh, of course, of course, 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:29.480 of course, why do oh man? That's I think there's 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:33.640 something in our DNA where we want to It's just 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:35.720 a natural thing we want to do is make statues. 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.440 If you give me, if you gave me a million dollars, 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.760 I'll be like, Okay, well the statue, um, and then 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.480 I'll get a nice apartment. I guess a second RoboCop 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.400 statue in Detroit would make sense. Yeah, yeah, let's do 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.640 that first, and then another rocky statue in Philadelphia, all 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:56.040 slightly bigger, slightly she like drive the statue by homeless 0:15:56.040 --> 0:16:04.000 people in the street and like statue. Uh. New Yorker 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.320 writer Paul Three visited Turkmeno STANDARDI end of Turkmen Boshi's bragin. 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.840 Here's how he described the capital city quote Ashkobat was 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.480 filled with gold statues of Turkmen Boshi. And these statues, 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.560 which had an ecclesiastical era. Boshi was el Dorado the 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.240 man of Gold, all powerful and all knowing. Statues show 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.400 him sitting, striding, waving, saluting, and smiling a twenty four 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.320 carrot smile. One even showed him as a precocious golden 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:28.040 child sitting in the lap of his bronze mother. He 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.440 once said to a journalist, I admit it. There are 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:32.960 too many portraits, pictures and monuments of me. I don't 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.240 find any pleasure in it, but the people demand it 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:37.600 because of their mentality. Guys, just give me a few 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.920 more years. Everything will be fine. We'll get a few 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.320 more statues up and then that's it. Just a couple 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:47.080 of more statues and love democracy promise. I swear you're 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:50.600 going to vote at some point. I do love that 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:56.040 he makes his mom bronze, but he's gold. A little 0:16:56.080 --> 0:17:01.400 bit of mom shade there, it's just worth. Yeah, you 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.159 want the baby to really pop in your in your 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.280 statue of yourself as a baby. Now, we don't know 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:09.639 what the people actually demanded, because they weren't, you know, 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:13.760 allowed to vote, or form political parties or speak freely. Uh. 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.280 Several of them were eventually allowed to operate political parties, 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:17.919 but these were just for show and most did not 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.000 meet the minimum number of members required in the constitution 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:22.720 was just so that Turkmen Bosha could be like, no, 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.200 we're not a one party state. Look at all these 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:30.240 other parties. There's like nine guys in that one. Whenever 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:32.560 Turkmen Poshi got in hot water with the democratic world, 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:34.480 he'd sponsor a party or two and let his people 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:36.560 have the illusion of a tiny amount of choice, or, 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:38.840 to be more accurate, let the world have the illusion 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:41.440 that his people had a tiny amount of choice. Now, 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.680 Nyazov immediately started renaming parts of the country after himself. 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.800 It started, not crazily, at least changing the name of 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.199 a major street in the capital from Lennin to you know, 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.920 Turkmen Bosh. That's fair. You know, Soviet Union's gone. You 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:57.639 know when it named after Lennon. Okay, we named streets 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:00.240 after presidents all the time. Uh. He ran him to 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.760 collective farm in the Linen Canal with his own name. Also, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.960 when people compared what he was doing to Stalin's personality cult, 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.600 he said, quote Stalin achieved his personality cult through repressive measures, 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:16.840 whereas I achieved my popularity without conflicts. So overall, I'm 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.520 just sorry. I'm thinking about his childhood and stuff. There's 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:24.159 nothing like that messed up that happened to him and 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.920 the earthquake. I'm saying that there's not anything like horrible 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:30.639 things happened to a lot of people. Yeah, this feels 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.359 like a story of like this is just like you 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.520 give someone too much power. This it feels like this 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.879 could be anybody. It's just like, let's give him a 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.680 lot of power and then the next thing you know, 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:47.199 they're a golden baby statue. That's possible. We'll say how 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:49.240 you feel at the end of this, Okay, I feel 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.679 like he I mean, yeah, so so far, I'm not 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:56.600 saying what he did is understandable so far, it's just 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:01.640 that it's I find it remarkable that his childhood isn't 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:04.119 that over the top. Well, we just don't know that 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:05.920 much about like what happened in the orphanage or what 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.440 that's sucking. Soviet orphanage in the late forties that probably 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:11.720 wasn't the best place you can Probably you probably some 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.040 bad stuff, But I really don't know because there's just 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:17.800 not like Turkmenistan is still a very close society, so 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.360 there's not a whole lot of information. I can't imagine 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:24.240 this guy keeping good records, know what's going on. Not 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.080 a big fan of that now. Um, Turkmenistan launched its 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.280 own currency, the man, in the late or in the 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.080 early nineteen nineties. It's great wealth meant that the money 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.120 launched at parody with the U. S. Dollar. So at 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.120 the start, the Turkmenistan man is worth one U. S dollar, 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:41.960 which is great. You know. Yeah, a new country, your 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:43.720 dollar is a pretty good thing to be worth. In 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:47.040 the early nineteen nineties, uh Niyazov's face was, of course, 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:51.040 prominently printed on each and every bill. Um. Now, it's 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.919 not true that his popularity was without conflict. Dissidents were 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.440 punished brutally, although he was pretty popular at first. Because 0:19:57.440 --> 0:19:59.640 the Turkmen had been treated like ship by the Soviet Union, 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.280 and now that were independent, uh, there was enough money 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.200 for both ridiculous statues and social programs. So Turkmen Boshi 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.760 tripled the salaries of public employees, He heavily subsidized food, 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.760 and he offered free gas, electricity, and water to all citizens. 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.560 He also spent a hundred and thirty million dollars turning 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:19.320 his presidential seven sixty seven into an airborne palace. Yeah, 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:21.840 so a little bit for you, a little bit from 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:23.560 a little bit for you, a lot a lot for me, 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.840 get golden statues for me. Gasoline is basically free. Uh 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:31.640 so you know, I mean as a citizen at this point, 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:34.600 it's not the worst case and it's not the worst 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.360 not the worst case scenario. It's just like, Okay, well 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:41.040 there's a bunch of just terrible statues of this, really 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.359 bad statues. But you know what I'm not I'm not 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.000 paying for gas. I'm not paying for gas. We will 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:51.040 see where this story goes. But speaking of not complaining, 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:53.879 you know what makes me not complain? I want to 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:59.240