Bayram Balci, " Fethullah Gülen’s Missionary Schools in Central Asia and their Role in the Spreading of Turkism and Islam ," Religion, State & Society, Vol. Change swept through Turkmenistan. Saparmurat Niyazov (säpär´mōōrät´ nēyä´zôf), 1940–2006, Soviet and Turkmen political leader, president of Turkmenistan (1991–2006). This puts it in the top 10 of most censored countries. Leader of Turkmenistan from 1985 to 2006, first as First Secretary of the Communist Party, then President (For Life), he led his country through an epic time. Saparmurat Niyazov’s cult of personality and leadership was used as base for the film, “The Dictator.” According to the 2017 World Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan ranked is 178 th out of 180 with only North Korea and Eritrea below it. Niyazov, Saparmurat A. 2 (2004): 62-66. Violators of new law to be punished by fines or corrective labor. The country's constitution guarantees religious freedom. “Strategic Partnership in the Ideals of Peace and Humanism.” U.N. The President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, has told his people that reading his book on morality would make them smarter and could help them go to heaven. The 10% Russian minority are mostly Atheists and Christians. 2, 2003 Annotation: In an oblique defense of his policies, Niyazov paints his country as a paragon of international cooperation and peace-loving neutrality. Chronicle 41, no. Turkmenistan Tightens Religion Law. The current president has instituted some cautious reforms, but Turkmenistan is still far from international standards. Former foreign minister Shikhmuradov, in a telephone interview with Keston News Service Nov. 6, charged that all decisions about religious affairs are made personally by Turkmenistan's president-for-life, Saparmurat Niyazov, thus making religion no different from any other aspect of life in Turkmenistan. Under the late president, Saparmurat Niyazov (r. 1990-2006), Turkmenistan had one of the worst human rights records in Asia. The main religion in the country is Sunni Muslim. Numerous reforms transformed it from a backwater Soviet Republic into the glorious nation we know today. On the walls of the mosque in Gypjak; an inscription above the main arch reads: ‘ Ruhnama is a holy book, the Koran is Allah’s book.’” Hundreds of parking spaces under the mosque, gigantic structures, splendour, fountains and yet the legacy of the infamous ruler is most of the time completely empty. The Mausoleum to Saparmurat Niyazov the first president of Turkmenistan next to the Türkmenbaşy Ruhy Mosque. The former president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, is probably best known for his strange laws, banning everything from lip-syncing to smelly dogs in the capital city. Domestically, he describes the Gulenists served as advisors to Saparmurat Niyazov Researchers studying the Gulen Movement noted that Gulen’s followers were intimately involved with Niyazov’s regime. First President Saparmurat Niyazov “in direct violation of sharia…ordered that passages from his Ruhnama book be inscribed alongside passages from the Koran. Saparmurat Niyazov was a great man. 31, No. An engineer and member of the Communist party, he worked in the electrical power industry and held party positions in what was then the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR.