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Turkmenistan Builds Largest Mosque in President's Village
ASHKHABAD, July 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov's village is to become the site of the largest mosque in this former Soviet state, news reports said Wednesday.
An agreement was reached between French company, Bouygues, and the President on the construction of the 7,000-square meter (yard) mosque, the Neutraly Turkmenistan newspaper reported.
Construction of the mosque, which will accommodate up to 10,000 people, is to start in October at Gipchak, where Niyazov lived with his grandfather after being orphaned in a devastating Ashkhabad earthquake in 1948.
The announcement comes after Niyazov ordered the closure of the country's only Islamic religious school or Madrassa last month on the grounds that it "confused" children.
The authorities have granted legal status only to Sunni Muslims and the Russian Orthodox Church in this mostly Muslim, but mainly secular state.
Nation-building efforts in Turkmenistan have concentrated mainly on fashioning a personality cult around Niyazov, who is president for life in this mostly desert nation of five million people.
Bouygues has already built the largest mosque in the country at Geok Tepe as well as a presidential palace.
Turkmenistan is made up mainly of desert and has the smallest population of the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia. It was also the poorest republic within the Soviet Union.
Turkmenistan is the most ethnically homogeneous of the Central Asian republics, with the vast majority of its population consisting of Turkmens. There are also Uzbeks, Russians and smaller minorities of Kazakhs, Tatars, Ukrainians, Azerbaijanis and Armenians.
In contrast to other former Soviet republics, it has been largely free of inter-ethnic hostilities. However, strong tribal allegiances can be a source of tension, according to the BBC online archives.
Real power is concentrated in the hands of President Niyazov, whom the parliament has granted presidency for life. Having forced the main opposition activists out of the country, he has developed a personality cult unrivalled in Central Asia.
Niyazov underwent major heart surgery in 1997, after which he quit smoking, ordered all his ministers to do likewise and banned smoking in public places.
When Niyazov started to go bald after the operation he resorted to Chinese herbal remedies, he said, to save his people from the "unpleasantness" of having a bald leader.
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