VZCZCXRO5604
RR RUEHAST RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHMRE RUEHROV RUEHSR
RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #1095/01 2931142
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201142Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7924
INFO RUCNOSC/OSCE POST COLLECTIVE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 2576
RUEHKL/AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR 0013

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 ASHGABAT 001095 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/PPD, EUR/ACE, AND SCA/CEN (TPERRY) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KPAO SCUL SOCI TU TX
SUBJECT: A PRIMER ON THE WRECKING POWER OF THE RUHNAMA 
 
REF: ASHGABAT 0030 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (U) Modern Turkmenistan has come to be defined by President 
Saparmurat Niyazov's first major book, the Ruhnama or "Book of the 
Soul," published in 2001.  The first of two volumes, Ruhnama Volume 
I combines philosophical ruminations and moral dictates within a 
pseudo-historical narrative.  While the ideas expressed in the 
Ruhnama are relatively harmless, the book's popularization has made 
it a primary tool of the megalomania and upside-down logic of 
Niyazov's government.  References to the book have accompanied 
nearly every public action or policy introduced in the past five 
years.  Niyazov's far-ranging "reforms" and the climate of fear he 
has created reach through every sector of life in Turkmenistan and 
have resulted in a dramatic degradation in the social services and 
civil rights afforded to Turkmenistan's citizens.  The Ruhnama's own 
anodyne rhetoric and the Disneyland-esque "culture" Niyazov has 
created out of it perfectly illustrate how Turkmenistan's citizens 
have been forced to live like little children: deprived of the means 
or knowledge to decide their fate, they are entirely dependent on 
the fickle will of a sick father.  End Summary. 
 
EAT, SLEEP, BREATHE -- AND RECITE THE RUHNAMA 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) It has now been five years since the introduction of 
Niyazov's Ruhnama Volume I, a rambling combination of regional 
history, reflections on the meaning of Turkmen ethnicity and 
nationhood, language, and philosophy.  It was originally written in 
Turkmen -- leading many to speculate that it was ghost-written. 
Niyazov's other works include: Ruhnama, Volume 2 - 2004; Turkmen 
Ilim Aman Bolsun (Let My Turkmen People Be Blessed)-2003; Turkmenin 
Bash Eyyamynyn Ruhy (The Spirit of the Five Epochs of the Turkmen 
People) - 2003; Mahribanlarym (My Beloved People) - 2005; Menin 
Ruhubelentlik Baharym (The Spring of My Spiritual Inspiration) - 
2005; Dogan Doganyn Galasy (Brother is Brother's Castle) - 2005; and 
Turkmenistan Bagtym Menin (Turkmenistan, My Happiness) - 2006. 
 
¶3.  (U) The introduction of each book has come with media fanfare 
and the erection of billboards and in-situ shrine-like exhibits of 
the books along roads and in public squares in Ashgabat and the 
regions, in schools, museums, administrative buildings, even private 
homes.  As the Ruhnama now forms the core of all education in 
Turkmenistan, teachers are expected to creatively integrate 
Niyazov's works into their courses -- if they do not receive a 
similar order first from a prescient supervisor or regional 
educational administrator. 
 
¶4.  (U) While most would agree that the Ruhnama is in itself a 
harmless, if badly-written, work, its aggressive popularization 
throughout all sectors in Turkmenistan -- and particularly its use 
in Turkmenistan's schools -- has made it the regime's primary 
brainwashing tool.  From kindergarten, children take classes in the 
Ruhnama, memorizing vast portions of it, watching daily readings 
from it on television, and hearing it broadcast across state radio. 
All public speeches are infused with quotations from the book and 
praise for the Great Leader, most public buildings bear a poster or 
painting or saying praising the Ruhnama.  Billboards around the city 
depict smiling students seated around a glowing Ruhnama, and major 
intersections in the capital are adorned with large advertisements 
of the president's books, usually arranged around an image of 
Ruhnama Volume 1.  Schools receive prizes for their Ruhnama 
exhibits, encouraging them to paint Ruhnama-themed scenes in every 
classroom and hallway so that students never lose sight of the text 
that underlies their education.  As a result of this constant 
audio-visual exposure to the Ruhnama idea, most children can readily 
rattle off portions of the Ruhnama, and in their artwork mimic the 
style and themes in the book.  Arguably, children may go through the 
motions of an ideology without absorbing its meaning; the real power 
of the Ruhnama and its cultural baggage is in the way it is used to 
disguise truly painful policy changes and official behavior. 
 
STATE EDUCATION A COVER FOR RUHNAMA INDOCTRINATION 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶5.  (U) A student's passage from lower to middle to secondary school 
and then into a higher education institution hinges on examinations 
testing the student's memorization of and understanding of the 
Ruhnama.  Pure Ruhnama classes are a basic part of the state 
curriculum for all grades, and even in such ostensibly private or 
semi-private institutions as the Turkmen-Turkish high schools and 
university, the Bashkent Centers (also Turkish-supported) and the 
Russian-language specialized schools in Ashgabat.  Likewise, 
medical, technical and other studies - even driving schools -- all 
 
ASHGABAT 00001095  002 OF 005 
 
 
include a substantial investment of time in Ruhnama studies and 
judge successful completion by the results of a final Ruhnama exam. 
 
 
¶6.  (U) In concert with this expansion of Ruhnama studies has come a 
contraction in the number of hours devoted to other studies, a 
reduction in the number of years of secondary school to nine total, 
reduction of undergraduate classroom studies from four to one or two 
and elimination of all masters-level and higher degrees.  Class 
hours and non-state approved diplomas acquired outside Turkmenistan 
are invalid.  Meanwhile, all subjects -- even the hard sciences and 
math -- are now required to incorporate lessons from the Ruhnama. 
For undergraduate studies, the one to two years of classroom studies 
is followed by a mandatory two to three year practical internship, 
which essentially provides free minimally-skilled labor to state 
institutions.  In mid-2006 Niyazov declared that the practicum at 
the Agricultural Institute would involve working in the fields with 
"students teaching each other." 
 
¶7.  (U) In December 2005 the president announced his intention to 
have a Ruhnama University built in Ashgabat, to accommodate 3,000 
students.  The university, to be completed in 2010, will collate 
international "research" on the book and promote study of the 
Ruhnama internationally.  In a typical broadcast, Watan TV news 
(state television, in multiple languages) carried a report on 
October 2 that "The Ruhnama has spread widely among higher 
educational institutions of Europe.  There are many students who 
regularly read the Ruhnama in libraries or always carry the book 
with them.  The number of people who read the Ruhnama over the 
Internet is unlimited....  It has become a fact that the sacred 
Ruhnama is a guide to all people of the world."  There is a 
government-run internet site for the book at http//www.rukhnama.com, 
and a U.S.-based Ruhnama souvenir shot at http//www.ruhnama.com. 
The government-run site contains a sample Ruhnama quiz including 
questions such as:  If a horse which can gallop when it is fat can 
also gallop when it is thin, it is a good horse. A) true B) false 
 
RUHNAMA PART OF CLASSIC REPERTOIRE OF TURKMEN LITERATURE 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶8.  With the switch from the Cyrillic to the Roman alphabet in 1993, 
President Niyazov has erected another barrier between young people 
here and pre-Niyazov written materials.  Library budgets have been 
cut deeply, as have those of most social services, leaving many to 
sell off or give away their collections.  The National Library of 
Turkmenistan, in Ashgabat, has simply barred off a large section of 
its collection.  As a result, schools and homes face a lack of 
materials to learn about Turkmenistan's history and culture as well 
as about the world outside Turkmenistan.  Niyazov means to fill this 
growing void with the Ruhnama. 
 
¶9.  (U) Some major Turkmen writers, such as the national poet 
Magtymguly and nationalistic tales such as the adventures of Gorogly 
have achieved elevated status under Niyazov's regime while others 
have been pushed aside or vilified.  In one high-profile case that 
began in the mid-1990s, Niyazov publicly denounced Rahim Esenov, 
author of "The Crowned Wanderer," and had the author imprisoned on 
charges of promoting "social, ethnic, and religious hatred" because 
the book depicted Turkmen national hero Bayram Khan as a Shiite. 
The Ruhnama portrays Khan as a Sunni.  Many contemporary authors 
have given up attempts to publish because of such barriers to free 
speech; all recently published works include a breathless prologue 
praising the Ruhnama and Niyazov.  State print media bears several 
airbrushed photos of the president in each issue and an image of the 
Ruhnama above the masthead, as well as daily feature articles on the 
Ruhnama or a Ruhnama-centered event or scientific conference. 
 
CLOSING INFORMATION PATHWAYS ONE BY ONE 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  Because DHL and other non-state express mail services have been 
banned, even well-intentioned grantees have no choice in the books 
they buy to educate children; they must purchase at the local 
bookstore, which sells Ruhnama-infused "textbooks" -- many of which 
have been developed without the aid of those trained in the subject 
field.  Thus Niyazov has also carefully closed gaps that might 
otherwise permit a non-state voice to take hold here.  Internet 
access is also dwindling: since 2005 no new Internet accounts have 
been granted to individuals in Turkmenistan --USG grantees wishing 
to open a resource center to educate the public rely on 
closely-guarded personal accounts they have kept since before 2005. 
Once an account is closed, it cannot be replaced (Note: Turkmen 
Telecom, the only provider of Internet accounts, simply says that 
opening an account "is no longer possible" but does not explain why. 
 End Note.) 
 
 
ASHGABAT 00001095  003 OF 005 
 
 
TURKMEN IS THE ROOT OF ALL WORLD LANGUAGES, AND THE RUHNAMA ITS 
DICTIONARY 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶11.  (U) The Ruhnama also is assuming a role as a dclass Turkmen 
"Academie Francaise," closely controlling the development of the 
Turkmen language.  With Turkmen very much in its nascent literary 
stages, instead of expanding the language to meet the needs of a 
modern state, the president is stunting its growth to revolve around 
glorification of his cult-of-personality.  The Ruhnama has both 
introduced new words and reintroduced old-fashioned words into the 
Turkmen lexicon.  According to educated locals, most university 
level academic discussions require Russian due to the lack of words 
in the Turkmen lexicon to describe complex academic themes. 
Moreover, highly educated locals received their education -- 
primarily in Russian -- under the Soviet system.  But government 
pressure on its employees and citizens to learn and use Turkmen, 
especially in official contexts, is growing.  In official meetings 
with Emboffs, interlocutors -- particularly those at the Ministry of 
Education -- will often switch from more comfortable Russian into 
Turkmen in the presence of a high-level supervisor.  In this sense 
host government representatives can take cover behind the official 
language. 
 
¶12.  Meanwhile, the development of, or reinvention of the Turkmen 
language, is a daily process.  Locals report that new Turkmen words 
appear in news broadcasts, for example, and it seems these words are 
either inventions of the regime or are taken from older Turkmen 
literary sources.  The president's new names for the months of the 
year -- such as "Ruhnama" for September -- are now employed in the 
state's English textbooks, so that Turkmen children will learn these 
names as if they are used internationally.  The same is true for the 
president's new names for the days of the week. 
 
¶13.  (U) In concert with this emphasis on the Turkmen language has 
come discrimination -- mostly indirect but still effective -- 
against Russian language, and by extension, Russian language 
speakers.  Teachers without Turkmen language skills have lost their 
jobs throughout the country in wave upon wave of purges. 
 
BURDEN ON TEACHERS GETS PASSED TO STUDENTS 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶14.  (U) In some cases it is clear that these purges are guided 
primarily by budgetary concerns: the cuts precede increases in the 
number of classroom teaching hours and class sizes required of each 
teacher.  But these changes are introduced or justified within the 
context of the Ruhnama.  In August 2006 the Ministry of Education 
announced the end of teacher tenuring and announced that teachers 
would be required to undergo an annual evaluation to keep their 
jobs.  These evaluations include a requirement that teachers publish 
academic "research" works - in official rhetoric this means articles 
that analyze or draw heavily from the Ruhnama.  Teachers and many 
other government employees spend at least an hour of their Saturday 
workday in formal group study of the Ruhnama. 
 
¶15.  (U) The highly-regarded Azadi World Languages Institute has in 
this sense suffered particular abuse as a tool of Ruhnama policy; 
the Institute's teachers are now required to spend hours outside of 
their classroom teaching duties translating the president's books 
and related works into other languages.  The students, meanwhile, 
are often pulled out of class for dancing, singing or other 
preparations for events to honor Niyazov's cult of personality. 
(Comment: Post's second English Language Fellow served at the Azadi 
Institute in 2005-06 and reported high levels of fatigue and stress 
among her fellow teachers and her students -- many of whom were 
eager in theory to improve their education but simply did not have 
any free time or energy left to do so.  End Comment.). 
 
CULTURAL SPHERE AWASH IN PINK AND GREEN 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶16.  (U) These Ruhnama-centric obligations extend to the arts 
institutions of Turkmenistan.  The art favored by the Niyazov regime 
tends toward a bright, static and fantastic style and lays heavy 
emphasis on the historical events, places and people described in 
the Ruhnama.  The colors on the cover of the Ruhnama -- bubblegum 
pink and kelly green -- are presented in loud, glittering glory 
through routines of traditional dance and song, public readings of 
the Ruhnama, and performances of new songs created from quotations 
from the Ruhnama.  Likewise all girls' school uniforms are now 
green.  Most of these presentations are in Turkmen, with some in 
Russian.  Within art schools the same applies; but in late 2005 the 
president announced the closure of art and music programs across the 
country, saying that they were a redundancy -- in effect, another 
budget cut in the education sphere. 
 
ASHGABAT 00001095  004 OF 005 
 
 
 
¶17.  (U) The host government is currently engaged in a construction 
campaign of massive, luxurious marble-covered structures whose 
effect is to glorify the regime.  Recently completed structures in 
Ashgabat include two new drama and music theaters, a huge children's 
drama theater, a puppet theater, and a new art museum and adjoining 
art institute.  Construction has begun on similar new drama theaters 
in Turkmenabat and Mary, with plans for one in each regional 
capital.  Meanwhile the government bulldozed the Pushkin Theater, 
the country's only Russian-language cultural institution, forcing it 
to move to a less conspicuous location within Ashgabat -- a former 
trade union hall.  While the destruction of the theater was 
explained as a city beautification move, it also permits the regime 
to make a statement about the worth of Russian or non-Turkmen 
culture. 
 
FIRST THE BIBLE, THEN THE KORAN -- AND NOW THE RUHNAMA 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶18.  (U) The Holy Ruhnama rivals the Koran in Turkmenistan's 
grandest national mosque, at Gypjak near Ashgabat, and now takes 
pride of place in the mandatory Ruhnama rooms in every mosque 
throughout the country.  The smallest village mosque will have a 
copy of the book if not a room or corner dedicated to it.  Usually 
accompanied by a large picture of the president, these rooms and 
corners defile a traditional mosque, as Islam generally frowns upon 
realistic depictions of animate objects in religious architecture. 
Bookshelves within both the Gypjak and Gokdepe Mosques contain 
copies of both the Ruhnama and Koran, on separate shelves.  The 
entrance to and dome of the Gypjak mosque is inscribed with 
quotations in Turkmen from the Ruhnama -- a further violation of 
Islamic tradition.  (Comment: During Friday prayers during Ramadan 
2005, Emboff observed that only a few cleaning ladies were sitting 
contemplatively in the Gypjak Mosque, whereas the Gokdepe Mosque 
twenty minutes away was about two-thirds full of worshipers.  End 
Comment.) 
 
THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE TO STAYING IN BUSINESS 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶19.  (SBU) The Ruhnama has not only intruded upon social services, 
media and religion but has given impetus to an anti-business 
environment that crushes the least sign of personal initiative   As 
with every other area of life in Turkmenistan, the Ruhnama is used 
as a gate by the country's power structures to control who and what 
receives a license to operate, and then controls every detail of 
that operation.  However, the gate system only works in one 
direction: business and diplomatic entities in Turkmenistan may 
believe that by paying public obeisance to the Ruhnama they achieve 
some cover for their work.  It is common practice for aspiring 
investors to pay tribute to the Ruhnama by presenting Niyazov a 
translation into the language of the company's home country, or by 
sending a letter of praise for publication in state media.  In early 
September, Malaysian gas company Petronas presented Niyazov with a 
copy of the Ruhnama in Malay.  The Ambassador of the United Arab 
Emirates meanwhile promised an Arabic translation of Ruhnama Volume 
¶2.  (Comment:  Thus Turkmenistan has acquired dozens of translations 
of the book and then uses these translations -- regardless of their 
quality -- to teach foreign languages to students at the Azadi World 
Languages Institute.  End Comment.)  Foreign companies, witnessing 
the arbitrary fashion in which Niyazov awards multi-million dollar 
construction contracts, for example, believe that such moves may pay 
off in a lucrative business deal. 
 
¶20.  (SBU) While companies continue to pursue this behavior, the 
dismal experience of such entities as the Turkish embassy 
demonstrate that this tactic is of limited utility. 
Turkish-sponsored cultural events often feature a song or other 
tribute to the Ruhnama and President Niyazov.  Turkish Ambassador 
Haki Akil (close-hold) has said to the Charge that the Turkish 
embassy must congratulate the president on Ruhnama-focused events 
such as Ruhnama Day in order to protect Turkish business interests 
in Turkmenistan.  Despite frequent such displays of loyalty to the 
cult of personality, Turkish interests in Turkmenistan -- 
particularly in the education sphere -- continue to contract 
[REFTEL] and host government bills to Turkish companies continued to 
go unpaid or are paid late. 
 
COMMENT: MORE BAD BOOKS, MORE BRAINWASHING 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶21.  (SBU) Niyazov is clearly using the Ruhnama to dumb down the 
population of Turkmenistan and to make them helpless.  Down the 
road, should these policies run to their conclusion, the young 
people of Turkmenistan will have grown up without basic medical 
training; without accurate or even basic knowledge of world history, 
 
ASHGABAT 00001095  005 OF 005 
 
 
geography, world politics or their own heritage; without 
opportunities to develop good business practices; without even the 
confidence to suggest their own opinion.  Fear is rampant in 
contemporary Turkmenistan and opportunities for self-improvement are 
few.  In this context, the positive impact of post's work to provide 
basic training, Internet access, books and movies and newspapers a 
roof under which they can express their opinions, and simply a 
reality check and source of hope, cannot be overestimated. 
 
¶22.  (U) Dushanbe minimize considered. 
 
BRUSH