Youth of Ashgabat. Inside View.

If looking at the image you are wondering what is going on then the answer will be that it is the most popular trend among modern Turkmen youth. Teenagers, called “chirachi”, show off themselves on specifically modified Russian cars and mirror condition Turkmenistan’s young generation is in.

In preparation to Asian Games that are to be held in Turkmenistan in 2017 the government pays significant attention to bringing up the generation of future champions by allocating large sums of state budget to promoting sports and development of youth policy. However, this plan seems to have faults at the very beginning.

During the years of repression in the reign of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi the state policy was directed to suppress and force all thinking youth out of the country, especially after the events of 1995, when unofficial student movement held a large protest rally which was brutally put down by police. With government cracking down on non-Turkmen Russian speaking population, not only youth but entire nation of Turkmenistan bore an irreparable loss due to mass immigration. Then the government “paid its attention” to schools educating in Russian - many were reformed to teach completely in Turkmen, the remaining few schools had to have a Turkmen-speaking department. Since Turkmen language itself became popular only after independence there are no adequate school textbooks that would match Soviet level of secondary education. Another blow at education system and youth policy was after government reduced school education period from 10 to 9 years, eventually all subjects were covered superficially at a high pace.

The higher education was no better, all institutes (colleges) and universities were reformed to instruct only in Turkmen. The study period was reduced from 5 to 4 years, with 2 years of study and 2 years of practical training. Due to the fact that every year there are more than hundred thousand school graduates and only forty thousand can enter universities, the limited number of students to be accepted benefited corruption in education. To have a chance to study in Turkmenistan parents should be ready to “make a gift” of $2000 (back in 2000), nowadays that amount starts at $20,000. The average salary in Turkmenistan varies around $200, so people who do not have enough funds or are unwilling to pay the bribe have their children studying abroad or in most cases working at low rank jobs.

Today it is all pretty much the same, except for the study period that was restored to 10 years at school and 5 years at university. But if for the majority of people the corruption is still an insurmountable obstacle, the fact of studying in Turkmenistan does not mean receiving any education at all. Turkmen students spend most of their education time by attending state events, they fill up stadiums, streets and alleys, so during TV broadcast it would seem like half of the city voluntarily attends all events.

In last two years new trend appeared among Ashgabat youth. Supposedly it originated in Hitrovka district of Ashgabat, where inverse ratio of number of unemployed young people and number of policemen led to creation of lawless spots on map of capital.

The main point of a new trend is modification of Russian VAZ car (rarely it would be Toyota), specifically bright xenon headlights are installed, then one or two turns of rear absorbers’ spring are cut off to lower the trunk so the exhaust pipe almost touches ground. If everything is done correct the xenon light from headlamps will beam directly into eyes of approaching car’s driver making him blind for a second or two. The main point of such “tuning” is to represent neglect for others. It is the best example of egocentric idea widespread among Turkmen youth – “Personal comfort and interest are above anything”.

The young people on such cars are called “chirachi” among others of their age and very proud to bear such title. This does distinguish them from other young people who in majority cannot afford themselves a car that cost around $5000. In Turkmen “chira” means “lamp” and “-chi” is similar to English “-er”, like in driver. Another attribute of chirachi is a very loud and powerful sound system with many subwoofers that makes people standing nearby the car go deaf and I am not speaking about the one inside the car.

The average age of those chirachi is 17 and most of them drive cars that were bought for them by rather wealthy parents so their dear boy would not lose his belief that he is special, that he stands above the others and above the law, and thus people strengthen the common idea of egoistic interest being of highest value. (The fact that there are only male chirachi does not mean that young females do not share these ideas; it is just another prove of strong Islamic views existing in Ashgabat and Akhal that girls should not drive cars, at least before getting married. But that is a topic for another article.)

After gaining the independence 20 years ago government never really paid attention to its youth, so nowadays we have 20 year-old people who just left their teens and entered adulthood, who are supposed to adopt the authority from current aging leaders and improve the life of the nation in years to come.

But I would not be laying my hopes on them, because large part of the youth was literally brought up by the streets and TV, and this fact shows itself in lack of simplest manners, total absence of some essential human feelings, in low level of culture. Modern Turkmen youth behaves according to the wild laws it was brought up with and it got used to. They view the life as place where everyone is for himself and where only strongest survives. As a result they generally lack feelings of compassion and mercy for others, lack spirit of true friendship; youth is motivated by egoistic greed and arrogance that is powered by belief that they are pure Turkmen (both presidents mentioned and often imply it) and have authority to treat others as second rate people. The latter is said about Akhal and Ashgabat youth, since they were brought up with the idea of superiority of Tekke tribe among other Turkmen tribes. Young Tekke generation clearly segregates and very often offends people belonging to other tribes. In their slang there is even a contemptuous word “shatlan” or “shat” for Lebap and Dashoguz people, who are easily identified by pronunciation of “s” and “z” sounds.

As a consequence of long-term corruption in the country modern youth does not value knowledge, education, talent or professional skills; in 20 year period they got used to fact that only money and close ties will win the way. As a matter of fact most of the youth dreams about receiving a diploma (does not matter in which field though) and then having a desk job, where they would receive bribes (for things they are supposedly obliged to do by the position) and all the work will be done by their “shatlan” deputies, who have to work hard to make their way in Tekke dominated system.

Modern Turkmen youth lives up in accordance with all principles of consumerism – meaningless modifications of cars just to assert themselves and be called “chira”; buying expensive smartphones, when country’s telecommunications are in poor condition; majoring in something prestigious at universities, such as international relations, and they cannot tell the difference between United Nations and United States. But Turkmen consumerism is abundantly mixed with tribal segregation, often you can hear them calling people of non-Tekke origin second rank or slaves (“gul” in Turkmen), mixed with xenophobia – many Turkmens dislike and sometimes even openly express hatred towards Turks, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Jews, Uzbeks and especially Russians, claiming that they seize their jobs and steal their money.

Young generation of Turkmenistan is not the kind that is willing to change anything; they will not rally for their rights, they will not protest since there is no sense of unity among them. And definitely they are not the ones who would train hard to gain results and earn medals in future games, unless if those medals and records, like cars are bought by parents too.