Opposition prepares for 'flour' revolution in Turkmenistan

Moscow, Dec 27 (UNI) Turkmenistan's United Democratic Opposition leader, Avdy Kuliyev, currently based in Norway, today said the opposition was dispatching a trainload of flour to Turkmenistan to carry out a 'flour' revolution in the former Soviet republic of Central Asia.

''The opposition is going to dispatch to Turkmenistan a trainload of flour to support the republic's starving people,'' RIA Novosti news agency quoted Mr Kuliyev as saying on telephone.

He said the leaders of opposition movements, who fled overseas to escape persecution in Turkmenistan by Saparmurat Niyazov, could follow the train and return to the country.

''This will be the start of our 'flour' revolution,'' Mr Kuliyev, who was the Foreign Minister in Mr Niyazov's government in the early 1990s, said adding that the opposition's intentions were peaceful.

He said Turkmenistan was suffering from a constant lack of bread and flour, which are the main products for the most residents, living in the dire economic conditions.

Mr Niyazov, Turkmenistan President-for-Life, died at 66 of heart failure last Thursday. During his authoritarian rule, he erected his golden statues, named a meteorite in his name, and decreed that his quasi-Islamic precepts, under the title of Ruhnama, be the nation's guiding principal.

The Turkmen opposition borrowed the name in association with the 'orange revolution' and 'rose revolution' in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine, which brought West-leaning governments to power in 2003 and 2004.

Yesterday, it nominated Khudaiberdy Orazov as a presidential candidate. Mr Orazov is wanted in Turkmenistan on embezzlement charges.

UNI XC LL VC1759