The 'commanded' holidays of the Turkmen New Year

Students and civil servants forced to participate and rehearse moves for TV filming. Many scandalised by the constraints and humiliation. The fear of losing jobs prevailed over the will to avoid participation. The regime wants to give the world the impression of a happy and boisterous people.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Turkmenistan's TV stations have carefully prepared reports on the New Year celebrations in many cities of the country. They showed popular demonstrations of jubilation in the streets, but for days the authorities forced students and civil servants to rehearse moves for filming, instead of allowing them to work or rest during the holiday. The demands on them were first of all that they look "attractive and well dressed".

As the official communiqués distributed in schools and offices explained, "the New Year celebrations must be attended by young people, elegant girls and women, preferably wearing traditional national costumes". Most of the participants were led by teachers and pedagogical workers, filmed on their way to their workplaces, and then moved 'spontaneously' to the squares of public events.

In the city of Turkmenabad, the main meetings took place around the large New Year's Eve tree, erected in front of the 'White Tent' on the outskirts of the city. Filming began on 27 December and ended on 1 January, with daily repetitions. The journey from the city to the place of celebration was time-consuming and expensive, being off the usual bus routes. Many had to resort to taxis, with an outlay of 10 to 20 manat (-7) per day, all paid for by the figures, who were also obliged to obtain suitable clothes at their own expense.

The government obliged each school and kindergarten to send a minimum of five participants. After lengthy checks and cross-checks, the organisers only decided on the spot who among them - mainly women - would then take part in the filming. In the end, only the most 'attractive' ones managed to appear in the TV reports. Many people were scandalised by such constraints and humiliation, but the fear of losing their jobs prevailed over the desire to avoid the 'commanded festivities'.

Thus, throughout the New Year's Eve and New Year's Eve there were happy crowds strolling around the huge trees in the country's main squares, with the final round of filming between 6 p.m. on 31 December and 2 a.m. on 1 January.

Many school managers tried to leave their employees in the tranquillity of family walls, but the orders from above were unequivocal. On the other hand, families and children who would have gladly partied around the tree were not let near it so as not to spoil the TV reports.

In Turkmenabad at least 100 policemen manned the festive square, leaving only permission to watch from a distance. This practice of "official demonstrations" has been going on for at least a decade now, with the selective obligation to attend the most important ceremonies, in which tens of thousands of children and adults, and a quota of the elderly as well, must parade.

This happens not only on New Year's Eve or major anniversaries, but also at the inauguration of buildings and monuments dear to the government, plantations and new trees, the end of the harvest of cotton, wheat and other agricultural products of great social significance.

The clothes bought with one's own money must be identical for everyone, with special colours for each event, and the hope of being included in the filming depends not only on the mere physical appearance and the decorations worn, but above all on the ability to smile, clap, dance and move on command, to give the whole world the impression of a happy and noisy people, heedless of the difficulties and threats of the present, projected into a future of peace and serenity without worries.