Shashlik in Ashgabat

The shashlik at the Russian stalovaia next to our hotel in Ashgabat was excellent. That sums up the excellence in that city. New Ashgabat is grotesque, old Ashgabat is charming, but rapidly disappearing, victim of megalomania, personality cult verging on the ridicule and unbelievable lack of taste and decency. It is worse than Pyongyang and the Great Leader seems modest and humble by comparison. Niyazov, a.k.a. Turkmenbashi and his rumored illegitimate son and successor, Berdimuhamedow make the Soviet Union seem like a regime of reason, taste and good sense. Turkmenbashi was alright while he was just the leader of the Turkmen Communist party, he towed the Moscow line and behaved. But when the Union came crumbling down around him, he seems to have lost all sense of reality. Golden statues, one rotating so that he is always facing the sun, white marble palaces, some housing Ministries, like the Ministry of Fairness, Ministry of Turkmen Values, Ministry of Horses and last but not least Ministry of Carpets, others just built for the sake of building white marble monstrosities, around nothing at all. The Turkmen government is a single-party system and is not considered to meet even the most basic standards of democracy. Turkmenistan is among the twenty countries in the world with the highest perceived level of corruption, 1.8 on a scale of 0 (most corrupt) to 10 (least corrupt) in 2008.
Turkmenistan ranked second to last on Reporters without Borders freedom index, just before N-Korea. Former president Niyazov so thoroughly oppressed his people that they do not ask questions. At least not openly. Whole streets of marble clad palaces are walled of behind 4 meter high steel partitions. Why? „May be restoration work“ is the answer offered. Why are all the museums, the Arch of Neutrality, the famous Turkmenbashi Cableway, the Zoo & the Circus closed. „May be restoration work“. We went to the Circus, having been told that it was open and performing every day. It was closed. We found a way into one of it‘s offices and found a clerk. „Will there be a performance tonight?“ „No“. „Next weekend?“ „No“ „When will the next performance be“ „Maybe in August or September“ „Why is the circus closed“ „I don‘t know, may be restoration work“. Better not ask questions, you might have your head bitten off. In Ashgabat the neolithic marble palaces seem little but Potemkin screens, there are no people in them or around them. New Ashgabat is not for people, there are no shops, cafés, restaurants, markets, fast or slow food. And no people. All that you see in old Ashgabat, but unfortunately the old is being leveled to make way for the new. Our guide told us proudly „All this will disappear.“ There are few netcafés in Ashgabat and one has to show a passport, there is no Facebook access in Turkmenistan and there is a curfew after 23.00. Journalists are banned from entering the country.
As can be gathered from the above, I was not impressed by Turkmenistan, Turkmrenbashi, nor his legacy.