Turkmenistan: Now Safe for Clowns

There has been a shift in policy in Turkmenistan.

Late on Sunday, state television announced his plans to reopen an opera house, resume circus shows and build a cinema in the capital Ashgabat.

“Today a new period is starting in our country which we have called an era of great renaissance,” Berdymukhamedov said in televised remarks, his speech interrupted by applause.

Turkmenbashi, of course, banned ballet, opera, and circuses because they were alien to Turkmen culture. Many consider this choice to have been further evidence of Niazov’s eccentricity. But in my book, anything that keeps the clowns (apparently universally reviled and alien to any culture except perhaps France’s) at bay counts as sound policy-making.