What Happened When Turkmenistan's President for Life Died?
© Tim Brakemeier / dpa / Corbis When Saparmurat Niyazov died in 2006 , Turkmenistan lost its so - forebode “ President for Life . ” During his 16 - year reign over this impoverished Central Asiatic country , Niyazov built a formidable cultus of personality around himself , indulging in all manner of loopy dictatorial behavior , include renaming Clarence Day of the week and months of the year after himself and his family line , criminalize gold teeth , and erecting , in the pith of the capital , an enormous , gold - plot statue of himself with outstretched arms that turn out in 360 degrees , so as to always be face the sun ....