1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Chapter 4 Nation-building and sporting spectacles in authoritarian regimes Turkmenistan’s Aziada-2017 Slavomír Horák Introduction Since gaining independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkmenistan has been governed by two presidents: Saparmyrat Niyazov, or “Turkmenbashi,” (r. 1986–2006) and Gurbanguly Ber- dimukhamedov (r. 2006–). Both men emphasized sport and healthy living as foundational in the country’s post-Soviet state- and nation-building. Turkmenbashi mostly emphasized healthy lifestyles rhetorically, through official state speeches; however, he was rarely an active participant himself. He initiated the development of several sporting facilities and complexes in the reconstruction of the capital city, Ashgabat, in the 1990s and early 2000s, including his eponymous Olympic stadium and the “Leader’s Health Path” (Serdaryn Saglyk Ýoly). The latter, a 30-kilometer system of trails on the slopes of Ashgabat’s Köpet Dagi mountains, was where gov- ernment representatives, public workers, and students were often forced to participate in mass walking exercises, or “ascents” (Šír 2008). In contrast to his predecessor, Turkmenistan’s second president, Ber- dimukhamedov, promoted sport with more than words and public cere- monies. For him, healthy living and sport were not only foundations of state- and nation-building, but one of the main triumphs of his so-called “Great Renaissance” period. Berdimukhamedov introduced this official designation, essentially demarcating his reign as a special period in Turkmen history (Polese and Horák 2015). In presiding over this “epoch” or era, his slogan, “The health of the nation – the wealth of the home- land!” (Il saglygy – yurt baýlygy!), quickly became the central tenet of the country’s nation-building propaganda. Celebrated today as the founder of sport and physical education reforms in the early 2000s, Berdimukhamedov portrays himself as an example of living a healthy lifestyle. His demonstrative involvement in various sport- ing activities serves as both a form of self-adulation and the regime’s effort to reinforce his wide-reaching personality cult (on this theme more generally, see Koch, Chapter 7 this volume). And, yet, looking beyond the 04 893 Critical ch04.indd 48 25/7/16 13:19:55