This is getting ridiculous: Ashgabat builds Olympic village without Olympics
Business and Economics, Turkmenistan7 Comments
Turkmenistan's flag, Olympics-style, by neweurasia's Schwartz (CC-usage).
Can the Olympic Games be held without winning the Olympic bid for hosting the games? Well, at least the government’s official newspaper, Turkmenistan the Golden Age, seems to believe so. It claims that, with the planned construction of the new Olympic village set to begin this month in Ashgabat, that capital is going to be “the city of Olympic records”.
The Olympic Village will start operation in 2014. It will be centered around a huge stadium and ice hockey palace, expected to be the largest sports complex in all of Central Asia. According to the government’s own calculations, just this part of the village alone will cost almost $2 million $2 billion and will occupy 157 hectares. Yet, neither Ashgabat, nor any other Turkmen town, are on any of the official candidate lists for summer or winter Olympic games during the next 28 years. This is certainly a very strange twist in the Berdimuhammedov regime’s plans for modernization.
The rationale behind this project is a vague one: to promote in general Turkmen sportsmen’s participation in international sports competitions, as well as to hold sports events involving foreigners. On the one hand, this is indeed consistent with Berdimuhammedov’s attempts to bring athleticism back to Turkmen society, including using sports as a countermeasure to drug addiction and building stadiums in every province, not to mention an ice palace, a hippodrome, and various other facilities. On the other hand, which nation would actually send its sportsmen to Turkmenistan, our isolated and totalitarian nation?
I think this village is either driven by Berdimuhammedov’s penchant for grandiose construction projects, or an absurd cash cow for his friends in the construction industry. The new building of the National Institute of Sports and Tourism, which oversees the humongous Avaza project in addition to the Olympic village, will cost $80 million! “Imagine how many new houses and apartments, rail and bus stations, could be built for that money,” says a friend of mine, alluding to Ashgabat’s notorious urban planning problems.
Author’s note: By the way, Almaty in Kazakhstan lost its bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games to Sochi, Russia; it was a Non-Finalized Candidate City. Meanwhile, Baku lost to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Olympics, having missed the IOC shortlist and being disqualified in June 2008.
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Having read the article mentioned, there’s no clear connection between this building project and the actual International Olympics. While the name of the various buildings of the complex revolve around the Olympics, I don’t think anyone is supposed to think they actually expect the Olympics to just show up. This article seems to want to be more sensationalist than necessary.
Why not try and find out where the funds are coming from? Or how the use of public funds on a sports complex is being rationalized (is it being rationalized at all?) when the education and health infrastructure might make better use of the funds?
Neweurasia.net seems to be striving for relevance and ‘wow’ stories, and this just isn’t one of them, I think. It’s a story, but I’m not sure the point to make is that “Oh, how dumb the Turkmen government is, it thinks it can call the Olympics by building some stadiums.” If they were so stupid, I’m not sure they’d hold onto power so well.
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Schwartz Reply:
October 3rd, 2010 at 10:00 pm
@Michael Hancock, thanks for the comment. Please note Annasoltan’s reply below. To add to what she says, we’re not trying to point out how “dumb” the Turkmen government is. Whatever the motives behind this latest construction project, we can be certain that they are not in the least bit stupid. Foolish perhaps, wasteful certainly, but stupid? To the contrary.
Also, I’m not sure what you mean by saying that neweurasia is “striving for relevance” and the “wow” factor. If you’ll forgive my defensiveness, actually, the English site is often accused of being too cerebral and irrelevant (just ask your boss at Registan). ;-)
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Hi,
The official newspaper does make a connection by stating that “Ashgabat is going to be the city of Olympic records,” as this post states. The government, however, hasn’t explained why it chose to name the sports complex “Olympic”. So you cannot claim that it is just a coincidence and has nothing to do with the Olympics. To me, it seems that Ashgabat is throwing an eye to international (sports) events as a way to improve its reputation worldwide.
You are saying that if the government were so stupid it would not be in power today. First of all, I believe it is not a question of being stupid or not. In my opinion, they hold to power because they are too powerful and the citizens fear them. If I were to believe you, dictators would hold to power forever, because they are not so stupid. That would mean that the cause for the supporters of democracy would be pretty much lost or hopeless. But, look at the fate of some of the worst dictators such as Saddam, Ceausescu and Honecker and a few others. They are no longer in power today and their systems have been dismantled. They were not too smart, were they?
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[...] Annasoltan writes that the government of Turkmenistan has decided to construct “Olympic village” in Ashgabat, the capital city, to promote sports and to hold sports events involving foreigners. [...]
I am looking at it from a neutral point of view. Of course it is remarkable that Annasoltan writes about this issue and many other issues. However, some research will certainly help. The selection of sources (1 government web-page, 1 wikipedia, and 5 neweurasia.net posts!?) is really poor. Her justifications are too simplistic. So much going on about whole Olympic city idea on Turkmen press right now that it will be relatively easy to incorporate wider government perspective into this blog. Then we will all know are they dumb or not. There is also a possibility of talking to real people on the ground (and I am aware of the threats) to show contrasting views. Actually, any post in this blog will benefit from those things I think.
This quality of material is certainly acceptable for a personal blog. However, once Eurasianet puts it here and claims that ‘Her output is substantial and reliable’, ( http://www.digitalicons.org/issue03/annasoltan-3-1/) then there should be some better research involved. Please, see it as a constructive criticism.
And also, Turkmen media reported that it will cost $ 2 billion (not $2 million). Also, it is not ‘a twist in the Berdimuhammedov regime’s plans for modernization’. These plans were there since Beijing Olympics. Entire project suits very well current trends in Turkmenistan. In general, ‘sensationalist than necessary’ point in the first comment is actually very relevant.
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[...] October, I reported on the Turkmen government’s intentions to build an Olympic Village despite the fact that the country has not been shortlisted for the Olympics during the next 28 [...]
I am not here to justify what the tm government does. However, I think this kind of articles are a bit too much exaggeration. Because, as far as I know Turkmenistan is to host 2017 Asian Games. Anyone can search it on Google. So there is some reason behind this particular construction. Of course, anyone can argue the cost or any other issues. But my point is sometimes this kind articles are just too much!
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