From rotating gold statues of himself, to renaming the months in honour of his family, Saparmurat Niyazov's rule was authoritarian and eccentric

Guardian, UK/December 21, 2006

As one of a series of measures to establish a personality cult, Saparmurat Niyazov had a gold statue of himself put on top of a building in the capital, Ashgabat. The statue revolves so it always faces the sun.

Niyazov, who was appointed president for life in 1999, changed the names of the months in honour of members of his own family. His father died in the second world war and the rest of his family was killed in an earthquake that levelled Ashgabat in 1948. Niyazov was raised in an orphanage and later in the home of distant relatives.

Dissidents are sent into internal exile, forced out of their homes or detained in psychiatric hospitals. Torture is common. The media are tightly controlled, the state keeping a firm grip on access to the internet.

Niyazov outlawed ballet and opera and banned men from listening to car radios; he also banned the use of recorded music at weddings and other public events. When he gave up smoking after major heart surgery in 1997, all his ministers had to follow suit, and he banned smoking in public places.

He tapped the country's vast wealth from gas for outlandish projects including a huge manmade lake in the Kara Kum desert, a vast cypress forest to change the desert climate, an ice palace outside the capital, a ski resort and a 130ft pyramid. He built central Asia's largest mosque, called Spirit of Turkmenbashi, at a reported cost of more than £60m.

Earlier this year, the eccentric leader announced he would provide citizens with natural gas and power free of charge until 2030.

Young men were banned from having beards or wearing long hair. Citizens were also ordered to get gold teeth extracted.

Turkmens were supposed to take spiritual guidance from his book, Rukhnama (which translates as Book of the Soul), a collection of thoughts on Turkmen culture and history. The book is required reading in schools, where children must pledge allegiance to him every morning.

Secondary education was reduced in Turkmenistan by one year, prompting human rights groups to complain of a deliberate attempt to dumb down the population to prevent dissent.

A 2002 alleged assassination attempt against Niyazov sparked a severe crackdown, leading to dozens of arrests. A former foreign minister, Boris Shikhmuradov, was named as the man behind the alleged plot and sentenced to life in prison after a Stalinist-style show trial, broadcast on television. The trial included a taped confession in which he said he was a drug addict and had hired mercenaries for the attack.