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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Turkmen leader restores calendar names |
| 2008-04-25 |
| January is January again in the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan. President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who swept to power in 2006 in his gas-rich Caspian nation, on Thursday reversed a decision made by his autocratic predecessor who renamed the first month of the year after himself in 2003. Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled Turkmenistan with an iron fist for 21 years until his death in 2006, dotted the desert nation with statues of himself and also renamed all other months and days of the week after his mother, national poets and symbols. He declared himself Turkmenbashi, or Head of the Turkmen, and banned opera, ballet and circus during his long rule. Berdymukhamedov, seeking to soften Turkmenistan’s image abroad and open up the long-isolated country, has been reserving some of Niyazov’s most eccentric and unpopular policies. Under his latest reform, all months and days of the week will be given their original Turkic and Russian language names. Under Niyazov’s arrangement which many Turkmen people found confusing, January was called Turkmenbashi, April was named after his mother, September after his spiritual guidance book “Rukhnama”, and Monday was just called “The main day”. “Thousands of citizens have written to ask to return to the Western month names and call the days of the week the way our ancestors did,” parliament speaker Akja Nurverdyeva said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Actually, the reason was simpler: Niyazov fit on a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, thus making calendars easy to hang, but Berdymukhamedov used up an entire roll of butcher paper and there are few houses with walls big enough for that. And poor little February ( with only 28 days) would be dwarfed. |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2008-04-25 14:51 |
| #1 He was a kook of the old school, and in the grand manner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov The Wiki doesn't say the half of it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-04-25 09:16 |