VZCZCXRO5154
RR RUEHAST
DE RUEHAH #0549/01 1431325
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 231325Z MAY 06 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7359
INFO RUEHKV/AMEMBASSY KIEV 0471
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0239
RUCNOSC/OSCE POST COLLECTIVE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCJ2/HSE/CCJ5//
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC//J5/RUE//
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000549 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN (PERRY) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI EPET JA FR TX
SUBJECT: ICE SKATING IN THE DESERT AND OTHER CELEBRATIONS TO 
MARK MAGTUMGULY DAY (MAY 18) 
 
 
ASHGABAT 00000549  001.4 OF 002 
 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU)  GOTX marked the May 18 holiday of Resurrection, 
Unity and Magtumguly Poetry with the expected pomp and 
wastefulness of a grand musical concert and the opening of 
Turkmenistan's first ice skating rink.  At the concert, a 
Japanese delegation presented President Niyazov with a 
Japanese translation of his Ruknama sequel, extolling the 
virtues of the book.  At the ice rink, a group of French 
champion ice-skaters and local children performed a 
spectacular show for parents, GOTX representatives and the 
diplomatic community.  While event participants expected 
President Niyazov at both ceremonies, Niyazov attended only 
the concert, leaving over a thousand children, bussed in to 
line the highway to the ice rink for five hours under the 
scorching midday sun, nothing to show for their efforts but 
dehydration and sunburn.  Dozens of families also lost their 
homes when a neighborhood opposite the rink was razed in 
less than 48 hours to prepare for Niyazov's aborted visit. 
End Summary. 
 
Choreographed Adulation 
----------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Following an early morning wreath-laying ceremony 
at Independence Park and the downtown Magtymguly statue, 
Turkmenistan's May 18 Day of Resurrection, Unity and 
Magtumguly Poetry celebration began in earnest with a noon 
musical and theatrical concert at Rukhyet Palace.  Arriving 
90 minutes early in accordance with presidential security 
procedures, PolEconOff feared he had misread the invitation 
when he walked into a packed, 1,000-plus seat auditorium 
with spectators standing, chanting and waving hundreds of 
Turkmenistani flags.  On inspection, the mass adoration was 
nothing but the practice run for the fully choreographed 
"standing, thunderous ovation" that greeted Niyazov on his 
entrance and which was reported later in the government- 
owned newspaper Neutralnyi Turkmenistan.  To complete the 
staged scene, security forces also pre-positioned two young 
girls with bouquets, who stood frozen like statues for 90 
minutes near Niyazov's audience-center throne, with security 
guards looking on. 
 
¶3. (SBU) To start the concert, a Japanese delegation 
presented Niyazov a Japanese translation of the second 
volume of his Ruknama.  Calling the first Ruknama 
"invaluable," delegation member Professor Yushaki Sasaki of 
the Science Academy Foundation of Tokyo said he had read the 
original Ruknama seven times and planned on reading the 
second volume ten times.  Niyazov thanked the delegation for 
the book and in an extemporaneous speech noted the high 
level of Turkmen-Japanese cooperation.  Japanese companies 
Itochu Corporation and JGC, among others, were renovating 
the Turkmenbashy and Seidy oil refineries, he said.  Niyazov 
also announced plans to open a Japanese language department 
in Turkmenistan. 
 
¶4. (U) The concert included a mixture of music, song, and 
dance productions with lyrics by Turkmen poet Magtumguly and 
President Niyazov, who, according to the newspaper 
Neutralnyi Turkmenistan, "continues the high poetic 
tradition" of Turkmenistan and blesses the country and its 
people with his "inspiring artistic gifts." 
 
Waiting in the Desert 
--------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) GOTX also opened on May 18 the much-anticipated $21.5 
million "Ice Palace."  The ice rink, officially named the 
"National Olympic Sports Palace," is the second 'Olympic' 
facility GOTX has built; GOTX opened a 30,000-seat track and 
field complex in 2000.  An Olympic pool complex is also 
under construction.  The venues are part of $2 billion of 
"humanitarian projects" that GOTX has built over the last 
several years.  Niyazov's portrait graces the building's 
white marble facade. 
 
¶6. (SBU) GOTX bussed in over a thousand school children and 
 
ASHGABAT 00000549  002.4 OF 002 
 
 
others to greet Niyazov along the highway to the ice rink. 
One embassy employee said her daughter, who is in the 6th 
grade, stood beside the road in the scorching midday sun for 
five hours without water or shelter.  When the opening 
ceremony came and went without Niyazov's arrival, the girl's 
class walked approximately 30 minutes to the nearest public 
center, where the girl was able to call her mother to pick 
her up.  The Embassy employee said her daughter went to the 
event thinking she would be allowed to see the opening 
ceremony and the visiting French ice skaters, but in the end 
she and her classmates had left seeing nothing.  GOTX also 
demolished over the course of 48 hours a neighborhood facing 
the ice rink in preparation for Niyazov's aborted visit. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Closer to the Ice Palace, troupes of young children 
practiced karate, gymnastics, and traditional dance as they 
waited for Niyazov's arrival.  PolEconOff observed dance 
instructors applying stage make-up to darken the faces of 
children who would be standing close to Niyazov.  When word 
apparently came that Niyazov would not attend the opening, 
parliamentary leaders, the mayor of Ashgabat, and a managing 
director of Bouygues, the French construction firm that 
built the rink, cut the ribbon to inaugurate the facility. 
 
Skating in the Desert 
--------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Bouygues flew in a ten-person team of French 
champion figure skaters to perform at the opening, and over 
100 Turkmenistani children, all new to the sport, took to 
the ice as well.  The children performed laudably for their 
little training, executing geometric figures on the ice with 
minimal spills to the joy of many parents in the crowd. 
(Note: Not all parents apparently made it into the 1,000- 
seat stadium.  PolEconOff observed one mother, who had been 
denied entrance, in tears outside the building. End Note.) 
A very young Turkmen hockey team then cautiously slapped 
around a puck at center ice before the group of French 
professional skaters, featuring the 2006 World silver 
medalist, took over for the main event. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The ice skating rink is expected to be popular 
with the public when it opens for regular operations in 
September.  Niyazov has already instructed all GOTX 
ministers to learn how to ice skate.  When viewed 
objectively, there is no reason why a country rich in oil 
and gas revenues should not have such a facility.  But when 
viewed relative to what the country has cut or suppressed in 
areas like education, civil society, human rights and free 
enterprise development in Ashgabat and beyond, the ice rink 
turns into yet another lurid example of the mismanagement 
and megalomania of Niyazov's highly manufactured and 
choreographed white city.  End Comment. 
 
BRUSH