Nation-Building and Personality Cult in Turkmenistan : The Türkmenbaşy Phenomenon.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Niyazov's Turkmenistan: yet another mystery wrapped in an enigma? -- 1 What is a personality cult? -- Personality cults and charisma -- A variety of contexts -- 2 Qadhdhafi's Libya: a 'maverick state' -- An 'accidental state' -- In Nasser's footsteps -- Nation-building and leader-building -- The 'Green Revolution' and the 'State of the Masses' -- The nation beyond the nation: Qadhdhafi's pan-Arab nation-building -- Islam as a marker of 'Arabness' -- Reclaiming the past: a lineage of heroes -- Twists and turns: the 'politics of contradiction' -- 3 Turkmenistan: from 'tribal society' to modern nation? -- The rise of modern Turkmenistan -- The irresistible rise of S.N. -- A dificult 'triple transition' -- In search of legitimacy: the quest for a national ideology -- 4 Niyazov's personality cult as a unifying tool for nation-building -- The Turkmen Kaaba -- A portrait of the ruler as a hero and as an ideologue -- De-tribalization and re-tribalization -- Re-writing history: the 'Golden Age' -- Nationalist pedagogy: inventing new traditions, revising the old ones -- Everyday pedagogy of the nation -- The leader as the incarnation of justice -- 'Turkmenbashizing' time: the nationalization of carpets and melons -- 'Turkmenbashizing' space -- Mobilizing the arts -- Religion as an instrumentum regni -- Banning everything 'foreign' -- Rukhnama vs. The Green Book: an exercise in nationalist myth-making -- Foreign policy: the leader as a peacemaker -- Is there life after the 'founding fathers'? -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.

This book offers a thorough analysis of why this personality cult developed in Turkmenistan in a way that has not been seen in other newly developed Central Asian countries. In assessing the Türkmenbaşy phenomenon, this book explains the causes and origins of the personality cult by drawing a comparison with Qadhdhafi's Libya.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.