A Quiet Violence: Niyazov Destroys More Neighborhoods

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000851

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN (PERRY)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON PREL TNGD PGOV TX
SUBJECT: A Quiet Violence: Niyazov Destroys More Neighborhoods

REF: A) ASHGABAT 679

B) ASHGABAT 387

Sensitive but Unclassified - Please Protect Accordingly.

Summary
--------------


1. (SBU) A large neighborhood across the street from the CHG's
residence has fallen victim to President Niyazov's dream of a
transformed Ashgabat, this time in a particularly brutal fashion.
During the weekend of July 29-30, residents were given just 24 - 72
hour eviction notices before demolition began. Bulldozers started
knocking down the first houses when the time expired. According to
one contact, the rush came because President Niyazov ordered the
city mayor to have the neighborhood razed by "the end of the week."
As a result, estimates of up to 2,500 primary residences were
destroyed. The government is not violating its own laws with the
short-notice evictions, but the action shows the president's
maniacal disregard for the welfare and well-being of a few thousand
now-homeless citizens. End Summary.

Raze First
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2. (SBU) The Ashgabat suburb of Berzengi is located 15 minutes from
Ashgabat's city center at the foot of the Kopet Dag mountains
bordering Iran, and has become a target for Niyazov's "White
Ashgabat" construction frenzy. To accommodate his vision, the city
hakimlik (mayor's office) has been tearing down established
neighborhoods, leaving fields of dwarf pine saplings in the place of
traditional courthouse homes and long-established gardens.


3. (SBU) The most recent example of this process was the demolition
during the weekend of July 29-30 of a neighborhood located just
across the street from the CHG's residence. This neighborhood
(approximately one kilometer squared, but with houses extending an
additional one kilometer to the southern gate of Ashgabat City) was
originally zoned for vacation homes and agricultural plots, but over
the course of two decades, the small vacation homes evolved into
primary residences. Although the land laws did not change, the
neighborhood became an established community of up to 2500 large
homes complete with mature gardens. According to a city hakimlik
employee, President Niyazov ordered the city mayor to have the
neighborhood razed by "the end of the week" during his July 25 trip
to open the new Turkmenistan-Iranian Gowdan-Bagjiran border-crossing
checkpoint. Residents of this community were given two-day eviction
notices and, because homeowners did not have titles to their land or
specific governmental permission to construct permanent dwellings,
residents will not be compensated for their losses. One resident, a
government employee, told Pol Asst that her family knowingly
constructed their house and this was a fair consequence.

In the Wake
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4. (SBU) On July 31, Pol Off visited the congested neighborhood of
shell-shocked residents watching their homes be torn apart by an
army of hired laborers and city workers. The unpaved roads were
blocked by private and public vehicles, and large trucks were
deployed to collect the used construction materials. While some
houses were totally leveled, other houses remained with people
inside the courtyards and car parks disemboweling the furnishings
and organizing construction materials into stacks. (Comment: It
was obvious that some people had better "connections" to stall the
bulldozers while their neighbors were the early targets; the
destructive pattern was mostly one residence after another in
successive order. End Comment.) The scene was one of utter
destruction. A city employee told Pol Asst on July 29 that
government employees were deployed to the area over the weekend to
provide "moral support" to the newly dislocated population. She
clarified that the support was meant to encourage people to pack
their belongings quickly and vacate the premises. One local teacher
reported that teachers from his school were sent to the site to help
clean up the mess the morning of July 29.

Carpetbaggers from the North and East
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5. (SBU) Residents were sitting in front of what used to be their
homes, amid piles of rubble and salvaged construction materials.
There were stacks of house furnishings strewn along the street
sides. Pol Asst was told previously that demolished housing

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materials from desperate Ashgabat residents are priced so low that
people come from Mary and Dashoguz Welayats (regions) to fill their
trucks. Business deals were visibly being conducted throughout the
neighborhood. Pol Off attempted to talk to several neighborhood
residents, but fear and haste were the hallmarks of the
conversations. Two men identified themselves as owners of a house
being demolished, but refused to speak directly to Pol Off and asked
that she "go further down the road where you will find people
willing to talk to you." A weather-beaten husband and wife eating
bread in front of one pile of rubble said they were ready to answer
any question. They planned to sleep on their foundation that
evening to protect (for sale) what little remained of their 18-year
investment. Twice the husband broke out in tears and openly cursed
the president. He asked, "Why should what one person built over 18
years be totally destroyed by another person in one day?"

Thank the Lord
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6. (SBU) In a new twist even local residents found ludicrous, on
August 8, city officials and police gathered at the site of the
demolished neighborhood and conducted an elaborate Turkmen-Islamic
"Huday Yoly" (Sacred Path) celebration, sacrificing a lamb to thank
God for the successful completion of the demolition. Neighboring
residents told Charge, they could not believe their eyes when word
got out that city officials actually were celebrating the
demolition. As one ethnic Russian wag pointed out, "they're just
happy they weren't killed."

More Traditional Demolition
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7. (U) Meanwhile a more traditional demolition continued in the
neighborhood across from the ice palace at the intersection of
Turkmenbashy and Archabil Avenues. Houses and apartment buildings
have been steadily destroyed here for months. Residents of the
apartment buildings apparently received their housing during Soviet
times through their work at the government Geology Agency.
Residents from this neighborhood likely received longer advance
notice and the promise of compensation. Nevertheless, the scenes of
destruction were similar: traffic jams of earthmoving vehicles and
trucks hauling away whatever could be scavenged and residents
staring out of the debris of their former homes.

Comment
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6. (SBU) Demolitions in Ashgabat are not new. For years, monolithic
white marble apartment buildings have sprung up around the old
neighborhoods, and residents knew they would be displaced. While
all agree that the July 29 shock-demolition is technically legal
under Turkmenistani law, however, it nonetheless demonstrated
Niyavov's brand of brutal omnipotence, sacrificing his subjects'
modest traditional daily lives in the quest for a ghoulish vision of
modernism.

BRUSH