No more Janaury. Now they have it as Turkmenbashi
Turkmenistan is perhaps the only country, which has all vestiges of monarchy among other countries of the former Soviet Union. All republics of Central Asia do not suffer from abundant democracy, but only people of Turkmenistan call a spade a spade.
The deputies of the local parliament (which is called Khalk Maskhalaty) made a decision to grant lifetime authorities to the president. But the father of all Turkmens, the so-called Turkmenbashi, announced at his speech at the Council of Elders that he did not support the decision of the parliament. President Saparmurat Niyazov also refused from all three honors of the Golden Century decoration, as well as from the title the “Great Writer of Turkmenistan.” As Niyazov said: “I do not want to give this title to myself.”
It seems that the president of Turkmenistan did not like the excessive servility of his people. Although, on the other hand, why should he insist on becoming the “eternal president?” He is doing just fine in this respect. The president said that he would be fulfilling his functions on the ground of the constitutional law, which was passed two years ago. Pursuant to this law, Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov is entitled to rule his state without any limit to the period of his authorities. However, Niyazov promised to get back to the issue of presidential elections in the year 2008. Will anyone remember anything about the president’s promises in six years?
Anyway, the head of all Turkmens gave a present to himself. He decided to rename months and days of the week. January will now be called Turkmenbashi – in honor of the president, February will be called in honor of the Turkmen flag, March will become Navruz, April will be called in honor of the president’s mother – Gurbansoltan-eje, May – in honor of the Turkmen poet Makhtum Kuli, June will be called Oguz – in honor of one of Turkmen military leaders, July – Gorkut, in honor of the Turkmen epic hero Gorkut-Ata, August will change to Alp-Arslan – in honor of the ancient Turkmen commander, September will be renamed in honor of the president’s book – Rukhnama, October will be called Independence. However, the new names for November and December are not known for some reason, maybe Niyazov has not had time to make the new names up.
Days of the week will also be renamed. Monday will become the Major Day, Tuesday – Young Day, Wednesday – Favorable Day, Thursday – Blessed Day, Friday will remain Friday, Saturday will become the Spiritual Day and Sunday – Rest Day.
Wouldn’t it be good to have such a calendar at home? Celebrating New Year on January 1 is rather trivial, but Turkmenbashi 1 – this sounds so good, don’t you think?
Vasily Bubnov
PRAVDA.Ru
Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
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Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/08/09/45435.html
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