* In Turkmenistan, the local party apparatus led by Saparmurat Niyazov was renamed the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan and abandoned communist ideology.

* 2006 – Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan ( b. 1940 )

* 1940 – Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan ( d. 2006 )

The last living person to be officially proclaimed president for life was Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan.

Independence came in 1991, as Saparmurat Niyazov, a former local communist party boss, declared himself absolute ruler for life as Turkmenbashi or Leader of the Turkmen and transitioned the newly independent Turkmenistan into an authoritarian state under his absolute control and has thus far resisted the democratization that has influenced many of the other former Soviet Republics.

President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov, a former bureaucrat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, ruled Turkmenistan from 1985, when he became head of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, until his death in 2006.

Since the death of Saparmurat Niyazov Turkmenistan's leadership made tentative moves to open up the country.

* Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov ( 19 January 1990 – 2 November 1990 )

In January 2006, Saparmurat Niyazov ordered to stop paying pensions to ⅓ ( more than 100, 000 ) of elderly people, cutting pensions to another 200, 000, and ordering to pay the pensions received in the past two years back to the State.

Following the death of President Saparmurat Niyazov in December 2006, there has been much speculation and uncertainty regarding the fate of Turkmenistan's natural resources.

The bribes also took the form of luxury European vacations, armored Mercedes vehicles for high-ranking government officials and a birthday gift to the then notorious dictator of Turkmenistan, Turkmenbashi ( Saparmurat Niyazov ), including a golden box and 10, 000 copies of his personal manifesto, Ruhnama, translated into German.

Ashgabat was also home to the Arch of Neutrality, a 250-foot-tall tripod crowned by a golden statue of late president Saparmurat Niyazov ( also known as Turkmenbashi, or leader of all Turkmen ).

* Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmen politician

Saparmurat Niyazov

Saparmurat Niyazov, who was ruler of Turkmenistan from 1985 to 2006, is another oft-cited cultivator of a cult of personality.

After the August 1991 coup attempt against the Gorbachev regime in Moscow, Turkmenistan's communist leader Saparmurat Niyazov called for a popular referendum on independence.

However, some, such as Rafael Carrera, François Duvalier, Saparmurat Niyazov, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia and Josip Broz Tito have managed to rule until their ( natural ) deaths.

File: Saparmurat Niyazov. jpg | Saparmurat Niyazov, President for Life of Turkmenistan ( 1999 – 2006 )

On June 4, 2001 Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov ( also known as Turkmenbashi ) authorized a decree that required foreigners to pay a $ 50, 000 fee to marry a Turkmen citizen ( regardless of how they met ), and to live in the country and own property for one year.

The lyrics were written by the first president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov ( also known as Turkmenbashi, ).

* Eric Schultz of the U. S. Embassy in the Turkmenistan met with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov to discuss responses to the September 11th attacks.

Ruhnama ( The Book of the Soul ), is a book written by Saparmurat Niyazov, late President for Life of Turkmenistan, combining spiritual / moral guidance, autobiography and revisionist history ; much of it is of dubious or disputed factuality and accuracy.

In 1997 ( well after independence ), the anthem was changed to " Independent, Neutral, Turkmenistan State Anthem ", the music and lyrics of which were written by President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov.

* Saparmurat Niyazov, president-for-life and dictator of Turkmenistan, gave himself the title Türkmenbaşy (" Leader of all Turkmens ")

From 1985 it was led by Saparmurat Niyazov, who in 1991 renamed the party to the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, which is no longer a communist party.

During the long rule of president Saparmurat Niyazov large pictures and statues of him could be seen in public places in Turkmenistan.

In Turkmenistan, the local party apparatus led by Saparmurat Niyazov was converted into the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan.

Saparmurat Niyazov, the recently deceased president of Turkmenistan, ordered the construction of a huge ice palace near the capital city of Aşgabat in April 2004, a remarkable project considering Turkmenistan's climate.

When Turkmenistan became independent in 1991, president Saparmurat Niyazov immediately instigated a return to the Latin script.

Also pointing to high-level government corruption in the drug trade, Turkmenistan ’ s president, Saparmurat Niyazov, publicly declared that smoking opium was healthy.

The DPT was led by former Soviet provincial Party leader Saparmurat Niyazov from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s until his death in 2006.

* Saparmurat Niyazov-President of Turkmenistan from 1990 until his death in 2006.

On 21 October 1995, these two companies signed a separate agreement with Turkmenistan's president Saparmurat Niyazov.

On 28 December 1999, Niyazov was declared President for Life of Turkmenistan by the Mejlis ( parliament ), which itself had taken office only a week earlier in elections that included only candidates hand-picked by President Niyazov ; no opposition candidates were allowed.

After the death of Niyazov, Deputy Prime Minister Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow took over, despite the fact that Öwezgeldi Ataýew, the Chairman of the Parliament of Turkmenistan, would be the next in line in the order of succession ( allegedly because the prosecutor-general had initiated investigations against Ataýew ).

Election results: Mejlis – DPT 100 %; seats by party – DPT 50 ; note – all 50 elected officials are members of the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan and are preapproved by President Niyazov.

Former President Niyazov stated that the neutrality would prevent Turkmenistan from participating in multi-national defense organizations, but allows military assistance.

* A title Niyazov bestowed upon himself during his lifetime term as President of Turkmenistan from 1991 to 2006

* The name of several cities in Turkmenistan renamed by Niyazov, the largest of which is Türkmenbaşy, Balkan Province, formerly known by the Russian name Krasnovodsk.

As in the Soviet era, central planning and state control pervade the system, and the Niyazov government ( in power 1991 – 2006 ) consistently rejected market reform programs.

For these, and other reasons, the US Government has gone on to claim that by the time he died, " Niyazov ’ s personality cult ... had reached the dimensions of a state-imposed religion ".

Niyazov died on 21 December 2006, and two years after his death the reference to Turkmenbashi in the chorus was replaced with the people.