MOSCOW, Dec. 21 -- Saparmurat Niyazov, who wove a bizarre and gilded cult of personality into dictatorial rule as president for life of the energy-rich former Soviet republic Turkmenistan, died early ...

Last week Turkmenistan buried its brutal dictator, Saparmurad Niyazov. His ruthless reign spanned two decades, during which time his policies became increasingly irrational and unpredictable. The long ...

Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has been derided of late for megalomaniacal behavior, including the renaming of months and days of the week. Yet, at the same time, Niyazov has proven himself a ...

In the story, broadcast by state media throughout the country, the German doctors said Niyazov is in excellent health. But in a society in which people have learned to believe the opposite of what the ...

Every time Meder Jumayev looks at his wristwatch, the pensioner is happy to see a familiar face looking back at him. The watch face shows Saparmurat Niyazov, who as ruler of isolated Turkmenistan from ...

ASHGABAT (Reuters) - Turkmenistan's leader Saparmurat Niyazov, who died on Thursday, was absolute ruler of his Central Asian desert state for more than 20 years, enjoying a unique personality cult.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has scrapped a state award named after the mother of the late president in the latest reform to his predecessor's bizarre rule, Neutral Turkmenistan ...

ASHGABAT (Reuters) - Turkmenistan mourned its dead leader Saparmurat Niyazov on Friday but political uncertainty and intrigue gripped the Central Asian country as it prepared to bury the man who had ...

He was, by his own decree, the "Father Of All Turkmen," and his death Thursday leaves an energy-rich, strategically situated swath of Central Asia without an heir apparent - and potentially at the ...

However, it is still unclear whether its previously secluded economic and political system will be able to handle increasing revenues from gas and oil exports. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in ...

The post-Soviet government of the Republic of Turkmenistan retains many of the characteristics and the personnel of the communist regime of Soviet Turkmenistan. The government has received substantial ...

Turkmen state television is usually filled with happy faces, people singing and dancing, seemingly enjoying hard and sometimes unpaid work in a field under the hot sun. There are, of course, also the ...