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| Central Asia |
| Niyazov's car shot up... |
| 2002-11-25 |
| A gunman opened fire Monday on a car carrying Turkmenistan President Saparmurad Niyazov, injuring one of his bodyguards. The attack took place in the morning in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat. The attacker fired from a truck on the president's with a machine gun. The president was not injured. Damn. One of Niyazov's bodyguards was seriously wounded and taken to a hospital. Niyazov later called an emergency Cabinet meeting to discuss the apparent assassination attempt. At that meeting, the president said two ex-government ministers — a former foreign minister and a former agriculture minister — had organized the attack. Both men are now part of the opposition, ITAR-Tass said. Shooting his car up is a pretty good indication they oppose him... Niyazov, who is known as Turkmenbashi — "Father of All Turkmen" — rules his impoverished but energy-rich Central Asian nation with an iron hand and |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #8 Gee, that last one puts new meaning in the phrase "Sit on it and rotate." |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-11-26 07:34:58 |
| #7 From the BBCNews article... "A giant golden statue of the president, revolving on top of a tower so that it always faces the sun, has been built in the centre of Ashgabat." ...I truly have no words. |
| Posted by: Tripartite 2002-11-26 01:47:09 |
| #6 Paging Gulbuddin Hekmatyar...Paging Gulbuddin Hekmaytar... |
| Posted by: Brian 2002-11-25 21:55:32 |
| #5 He also renamed all the life-stages...named the one he's in after himself, of course. Called it the most important one. Something about wisdom... |
| Posted by: Tripartite 2002-11-25 18:52:36 |
| #4 He named one after his Mom. Or was it two? One was her name, and the other was just "Mom." |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-11-25 14:33:39 |
| #3 Well, he didn't name all the months after himself. |
| Posted by: John B. 2002-11-25 13:55:11 |
| #2 this is the guy who renamed all the months of the year after himself, right? |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-11-25 13:48:05 |
| #1 In the USSR, even the Chechens looked down on the Turkmen...said they were too backward. |
| Posted by: Tripartite 2002-11-25 13:39:21 |