By Kira Kramer
From 17-27 September the V Asian Indoor and Marshall Arts Games are scheduled to be held in Ashgabat.Turkmenistan intends to host the Games despite the crisis which the country has been experiencing for the past two years due to decreased hydrocarbon prices and the inefficient rule of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
Three months ahead of the Games “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” found out how much the vanity fair lasting for 10 days will cost the government coffers and the country’s residents.
The Asian Indoor and Marshal Arts Games is a sports event held every second year among athletes from Asian countries under the auspices of the Olympic Council of Asia.
The first games were held in 2005 in Bangkok, Thailand.The games were subsequently hosted by Macao (People’s Republic of China) and Hanoi (Vietnam).The IV Games were scheduled to take place in Doha in 2011, but the National Olympic Committee of Qatar announced that it would be unable to host AIMAG due to unforeseen difficulties.
There were no countries willing to host the Games and the Olympic Council of Asia decided that the Asian Games-2009 would be the last to be held.
A decision was also made to merge the Asian Indoor Games and the Asian Martial Arts Games into one contest — the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, which henceforth would be held once in four years.
The first Games of the new format were held in 2013 in Incheon (Korea) and were considered to be a trial event of the forthcoming Asian Games 2014.
In December 2010 Ashgabat was granted the right to host the V Games.From 17 to 27 September athletes from 62 countries, including for the first time Oceania, are expected to participate in a total of 21 sporting events.
As of today Australia refused to compete in the Games with the Australian athletes’ schedules focused on preparations for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
It should be noted that apart from the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games there are Winter Asian Games (also referred to as Asiad for short), which are held under the auspices of the Olympic Council of Asia once in four years as well as the Asian Beach Games and various other regional events.
For instance, Kyrgyzstan hosted World Nomad Games in 2014 and 2016.
The price of the Asian Games
Hosting of even regional Games is a costly event. The construction of the Olympic village launched in 2010 was the most expensive for the Turkmen coffers with an estimated cost of $5 billion.
Apart from several stadiums and sports arenas the Olympic village is comprised of athletes’ accommodation buildings designed for 12,000 beds, two five-star hotels with 450 and 800 beds for sports officials, the information centre for mass media, the entertainment centre featuring the cinema, museum, library, billiards rooms and even a music studio, all connected by a monorail.
Another expense, though indirect, is the construction of the new airport named after Oguzhan, launched in 2013, which, according to some officials, could serve 15 million passengers a year.
Its cost amounted to over $2,23 billion.The airport was opened in September 2016, but in January 2017 mass media reported that the new building had started sinking, several glass windows blew out and power cables broke down.
The fact that the airport was built not for the Asian Games but in the run-up to the Games is witnessed by the fact that it has the same characteristics as the previous airport which “served” only 20 years but was named after Saparmurat Turkmenbashi.
It appears that the change in the name was the main reason behind the construction of the new airport since, following the death of the first President, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has been gradually getting rid of the legacy and personality cult of his predecessor.
Another $120 million will be spent on the opening and closing ceremonies. They will be arranged by the Italian company Balich Worldwide Shows, which was engaged in staging and arranging festive ceremonies for the summer and winter Olympics in Turin-2006, London-2012, Sochi-2014 and Rio-2016.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were invested to purchase buses to service visitors to the Asian Games and in the production of souvenir products.The sport-related souvenir merchandise in the amount of $200 thousand, which was approved by the President in February but which a month later he criticized and demanded it be changed, was destroyed In March.
Also part of the funds was spent on the “updated” alaja (protective amulet) for the horse monument at the country’s main stadium.The previous one was dismantled after it had been criticized by the President.
Thus, Turkmenistan has already spent $5 billion for the Asian Games.If this amount is compared with the expenses of other countries to host the world Olympics, rather than regional Asian Games, Turkmenistan is surpassed only by Russia with over $50 billion spent on the Olympics, UK $14,8 billion, Spain $11,4 billion and China $5,5.
If the cost of the new airport is added to this amount, Turkmenistan will outperform China and will rank the fourth place of honour.
The rationale behind these costs poses questions.According to “Gundogar”, the cost of the Ashgabat airport is three times higher than the new airport in Sochi and seven times higher than the modernization of the international airport in Astana.
As regards actual passenger flow, the old airport building had never serviced more than 2 million passengers in 20 years of operations.The passenger flow in Turkmenistan, which can be entered only by visa, has not increased and for this reason the majority of the airport facilities which, let us recall, are designed for 15 million passengers a year, stands idle.
As regards the Olympic village, the authorities gave assurances that various sports events will be held there after the Asian Games are over.The months of health, so beloved by the President, are unlikely to repay the invested funds and more funds will be needed.
Thus, 1300 people, who need to be paid salaries, will be servicing the Olympic village.
How the funds for the Games were collected
2017 is not the best year for Turkmenistan to host the AIMAG.In 2015 prices for energy resources, the main source of income for Turkmen coffers, plummeted.
Then Russia and Iran terminated Turkmen gas supplies, with China remaining the only importer.The situation was worsened by the food crisis which hit the country in 2016, as demonstrated by the shortage of basic food products.
The economy of Turkmenistan has been incurring serious losses in the past 18 months due to energy price cuts.For this reason, as in all exporting countries, Turkmenistan is faced with constraints.
On the other hand, the structure of the economy and the level of its diversification do not allow Turkmenistan to continue its policy of high expenditure.This has resulted in serious problems with preparations of facilities to the Asian Games-2017, — a Ph.
D.in Economics, expert officer with the Economics Institute under the Russian Academy of Sciences Aza Migranyan believes.
However, Ashgabat cannot refuse to host the Games as Qatar did.
The propaganda machinery of Turkmenistan is staying true to course to create the image of a wealthy state. The refusal to host the Games for economic reasons might destroy this myth and negatively affect the self-esteem of the Turkmen leaders.
In order to somehow replenish the lack of funds, the authorities introduced some restrictions.First of all, this affected the residents.Bank transactions, sale of foreign currency to residents were restricted and a limit of foreign currency amounts which can be spent from bank cards was imposed.
These bans resulted in a black market of foreign currency which emerged in the country in 2017 with the price for the US dollar being twice as much as the official rate.
Then the public sector employees started to make money contributions for the Asian Games.It was reported in 205 that it was proposed that staff members of some government agencies were to “sacrifice” one monthly salary to complete the construction of sports facilities for the Asian Games, and from April to September 2017 20 % of salaries would be retained from employees of the oil and gas sector.
However, there was still a shortage of funds.Then the President ordered his subordinates to contact business people.According to Radio “Azatlyk”, the Prosecutor General Amanmyrat Khallyev and the Interior Minister Iskander Mulikov were authorized to collect money from entrepreneurs.
The Ministers failed to fulfill this task and on 4 May the President dismissed Khallyev, and issued a severe reprimand to Mulikov.
Moreover, the President instructed that cleansings be carried out in law enforcement agencies.On 12 May the Chairperson of the Supreme Court Begench Charyev reported on the outcomes of the anti-corruption inspections among law enforcement officers and public servants which resulted in the dismissal of about 50 staff members of the Public Prosecutor’s office and the Interior Ministry. Video footage featuring the results of the campaign revealed posh houses and apartments of those arrested, as well as bundles of banknotes, gold items and gold bars which had been found during the house searches. All this property was transferred to state ownership.
The abolishment of all benefits for the residents became the climax of cost reduction.
The moral price of the Asian Games
The residents had to pay for the Games not only with cash but forfeiting their own comfort. The authorities first ordered the dismantling of air conditioners from apartment buildings which are located along the so-called “protocol streets” so that the visitors to the Games do not notice multi-storey residential buildings “ruined” by air conditioners.
Later inhabitants in the apartment blocks opposite the sports facility on Turkmenbashi avenue were ordered to move out from their apartments during the Games.They need to find their own temporary accommodation for several weeks.
Furthermore, raids to identify “untrustworthy social elements” have been launched in Ashgabat.Police officers detain women who are engaged in prostitution, the homeless and those suffering from substance abuse and send them to Dashoguz drug abuse clinic where they are usually kept until the Asian Games-2017 come to a close.
People with a criminal record are barred from appearing on the streets during the Games.
Apart from residents, the city will be “cleared” of outdated cars.Road police inspectors are now stopping “Zhiguli” cars and old models of other vehicles and sending them to parking lots.
Additionally, vehicles from the provinces will be denied entry to the capital during the Games and will have to be parked at a specially-designated car park which is being built on the outskirts of the city.
Other groups of residents, including schoolchildren, students and public sector employees will also be engaged in the Asian Games as “free will” volunteers and participants of mass events.
The Asian Games Organization Committee announced that about 10,000 dancers and singers need to be hired for the opening and closing ceremonies alone.Instead of summer holidays, from 1 July schoolchildren and students will be attending rehearsals.
Turkmen “hospitality”
Officially, Ashgabat is convinced that thousands of visitors will arrive for the Games.They should see a beautiful picture featuring the happy life of residents of the neutral state.
Five thousand athletes are expected to attend, as well as members of official delegations, fans, tourists and journalists.The Asian Games Organization Committee said that 600 thousand tickets will be available for sale.
The Games do not reflect the Turkmen “hospitality”, according to which any visitor to the country will be accompanied by specially trained staff of tourist agencies and a representative of special services in civilian clothes to make sure that a tourist does not visit “unwanted” places or take photos of anything except white marble buildings.
In the course of preparations for the Games police officers have been urged to attend English language courses.
The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games is one of the new regional games.Nevertheless, the President of Turkmenistan is treating them as an event of greater significance than the Olympics.
The organizational issues of the Games are raised at weekly Cabinet meetings and every six months various sports conference and horse riding contests are held; 500, 100 day countdowns to the start of the Games are festively celebrated, with 50 day still to be marked. “Months of health” and clean-up campaigns are held in honour of the Games and there is no single representative of any official delegation who was not invited by the President to attend the Games opening ceremony, be it the UN Secretary General or a colleague from Central Asia.
“The Asian Games is not a large-scale but a regional event which is unlikely to enjoy popularity abroad.However, it is the image-shaping project for the President.
He is convinced that it is an event of global significance thanks to which the international community will find out about Turkmenistan and hence, his achievements”, a Central Asia expert Ruslan Tukhbatullin thinks.
The Asian Games-2017 is a matter of personal pride of Arkadag who personally authored the anthem of the Games.Another issue is what will happen to the country with all its budget funds being spent and the resources, not only economic ones, of a small country experiencing a crisis being exhausted after the Games are over.