Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ASHGABAT549
2006-05-23 13:25:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Ashgabat
Cable title:  

ICE SKATING IN THE DESERT AND OTHER CELEBRATIONS TO

Tags:  PGOV PHUM SOCI EPET JA FR TX 
pdf how-to read a cable
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
-------

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