After approximately two decades under the bizarre and repressive rule of the late Saparmurat Niyazov—among other things, he famously had a golden statue of himself built that followed the sun—Turkmenistan announced this week that it wants to become a player in global tourism. President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said his government will spend $1 billion on a Caspian Sea resort “with dozens of hotels, spas, seaside restaurants and glimmering spaceship-like skyscrapers,” according to the BBC’s Natalia Antelava.

The country’s new slogan: “A new era, a new Turkmenistan.”

Straightforward, but pretty dull, yes? Foreign Policy has come up with some other options in remembrance of Niyazov’s rule. They are:

* Turkmenistan: home to more giant golden statues than anywhere else on Earth.
* Come to Turkmenistan and we might rename a month after you.
* Visit sunny Turkmenistan, where one book is all you need.
* Sick of libraries and hospitals? We don’t have those.

This BBC story helps explain those slogans.

The proposed resort marks the latest step toward openness since Berdymukhamedov took over the government in December. “Domestic travel restrictions have been lifted, there are fewer checkpoints, teaching foreign languages is no longer banned and the internet is easier to access,” Antelava writes.

Still, remnants of the old Turkmenistan remain. Antelava writes: “The media is fully controlled by the state, foreign journalists are not welcome, the country has only one party and most people are still afraid to criticise the government.”

Paul Theroux was one of the few Western writers to report from Turkmenistan in recent years. His story, which chronicled life on the ground, ran in the New Yorker a few months ago but, unfortunately, only an abstract is available online.

Related on World Hum:
* Paul Theroux Goes to Turkmenistan
* Ben’s Place: Murgab River, Turkmenistan

Photo by benpaarmann, via Flickr (Creative Commons).