A PRIMER ON THE WRECKING POWER OF THE RUHNAMA

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
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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
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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
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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

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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