Turkmenistan to omit former leader's name from anthem: official

Turkmenistan is to remove the name of its former all-powerful president from the national anthem in a clean-up of the ex-leader's personality cult, officials said on Sunday.
Starting after commemorations on December 21 marking the second anniversary of the death of Saparmurat Niyazov, otherwise known as Turkmenbashi, a new hymn will be introduced, an official in the culture and media ministry told AFP
The hymn, referring to this desert nation as a "great power" and "creation of the great Turkmenbashi," "repeats the name of the first president four times," the official noted critically. The proposed changes to the anthem, which also includes an appeal to "blind" anyone who casts a malevolent glance on the country, were mooted by the speaker of parliament at a cabinet meeting on Friday.
The speaker, Akdzha Nurbardyeva, explained that changes to the hymn were "necessitated by numerous appeals from the country's citizens and the need for it to comply with commonly accepted international standards".
The offending lyrics are being replaced at a time when President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been dismantling the cult of his predecessor, who among other things erected a gold rotating statue of himself in central Ashgabat.
Rather than the portraits of a beaming Niyazov that used to be displayed on buildings across the city, many building exteriors now bear portraits of Berdymukhamedov - although he has yet to build a full-blown cult around himself.