Sudden death of 'father of all Turkmens' leaves power vacuum in central Asia

TURKMENISTAN:The sudden death of one of the world's oddest and most oppressive rulers has thrown into doubt the future of Turkmenistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and possesses the world's fifth- largest reserves of natural gas.

Moscow and Washington, which are keen to exert influence in Turkmenistan and across central Asia, both called for calm after a heart attack killed Saparmurat Niyazov, who subjected his country to 21 years of iron rule and a bizarre personality cult.

Reaction in Turkmenistan to the demise of Mr Niyazov (66) was "comparable to the shock the Soviet Union felt after Stalin's death", said Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of Moscow-based think tank Politika.

It will also prompt a shadowy and potentially vicious power struggle, given the country's strategic importance and the lack of a clear successor.

"It's obvious that a serious war for influence in Turkmenistan will begin between Russia and the United States - and added to that will be serious attempts by Iran and the Islamic world to come into this country's political space," said Eldar Namazov, an analyst in Azerbaijan, across the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan.

Officials said Mr Niyazov's funeral would take place on December 24th, and top officials would convene two days later to discuss the succession and a date for elections.

Mikhail Gorbachev, then Kremlin leader, appointed Mr Niyazov to rule Turkmenistan in 1985 and, when the Soviet Union crumbled, the former engineer declared himself president for life and Turkmenbashi - the "father of all Turkmens".

But despite a steady flow of foreign currency from gas exports, Mr Niyazov spent relatively little on the needs of Turkmenistan's five million people, preferring instead to squander vast sums on self-glorification.

In the centre of the gleaming capital, Ashgabat, a large statue of Turkmenbashi covered in gold leaf rotates on a plinth to follow the sun across the sky; outside the city, he ordered the creation of an ice palace, a huge artificial lake and a forest in the desert.

He also renamed days of the week and months of the year after himself and his relatives, and banned ballet and the circus, moustaches and gold teeth, because they were not part of traditional Turkmen culture; in the nation's schools, a book of Turkmenbashi's musings on life and morality was compulsory reading.

But Mr Niyazov was no benign eccentric.

As ruthless as he was strange, he crushed political opponents and free media, maintained a vast network of agents that kept his people and visitors under close surveillance, and ensured that government ministers never stepped out of line.

"For several years, Niyazov has been regularly purging the elite," said Andrei Grozin of the CIS Institute think tank. "All major figures have been exterminated and the national elite is a grey mass with no political influence." That void could be filled by someone with armed backing from the security forces. Representatives of exiled dissident groups also pledged to return to Turkmenistan.