Removal
On 18 January 2010 Niyazov's successor as president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, signed a decree to begin work on dismantling and moving the arch. There were reports that the arch would be dismantled as early as 2008, but the president did not approve the move until 2010. The dismantling was officially said to be a move to improve urban design in Ashgabat but is seen as part of Berdimuhamedow's campaign to remove the excesses of the personality cult that Niyazov had created in his two decades at the head of one of the world's most authoritarian regimes. Niyazov also named cities and airports after himself, ordered the building of an ice palace and a 40-metre (130 ft) tall pyramid, but the gold-plated statue has been described as the most notorious symbol of his legacy.
Berdimuhamedow has replaced the arch with a 95-metre (312 ft) tall "Monument to Neutrality" which is located in the suburbs. The president appointed Turkish construction firm Polimeks to carry out the demolition of the arch and the construction of the new monument. The removal of Niyazov's golden statue was completed on 26 August 2010, although it then became part of the new Monument to Neutrality. However the statue no longer rotates.
Read more about this topic: Neutrality Arch
Famous quotes containing the word removal:
“Anyone who seeks for the true causes of miracles, and strives to understand natural phenomena as an intelligent being, and not to gaze at them like a fool, is set down and denounced as an impious heretic by those, whom the masses adore as the interpreters of nature and the gods. Such persons know that, with the removal of ignorance, the wonder which forms their only available means for proving and preserving their authority would vanish also.”
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