ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Turkmenistan's president has ordered the removal of a tower topped by a golden statue of his eccentric, dictatorial predecessor.
President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov said in a decree publishedJan. 18in a state newspaper that the work on taking down the monument will begin in March.
The tower, called the Arch of Neutrality, comprises a 230-foot (70-meter) white tile-clad tripod crowned by a statue of Saparmurat Niyazov that rotates to face the sun.
The decree said the monument will be renamed and reassembled at a new site on the outskirts of the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat.
Niyazov, the country’s first post-independence leader, died unexpectedly in late 2006. He ruled the energy-rich former Soviet nation for 21 years and developed an elaborate personality cult.
