09:57 21/12/2006

MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - A senior presidential administration official in Turkmenistan confirmed by phone Thursday that the Central Asian country's leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, has died.

"We can confirm only the fact of the president's death. We are not authorized to give any additional information on the cause of death," he said.

Western agencies said earlier Niyazov died of a cardiac arrest early this morning at the age of 66.

The authoritarian leader, who ruled the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic for 21 years in various posts and styled himself Turkmenbashi (head of the Turkmen people) was president for life.

Niyazov had been suffering from heart problems for several years. In 1997 he underwent heart bypass surgery in Germany. Since then, German cardiologists had traveled to Ashgabat regularly to treat the president.

Add to blog
Send to friend
Share

Add to blog

You may place this material on your blog by copying the link.

Publication code:

<div style="border:1px solid #d3d3d3; padding:17px 0 0px 17px; background:#ffffff; width:510px;"><div style="width:100%; overflow:hidden;"><a target="_blank" href="http://en.rian.ru/world/20061221/57450165.html" style="text-decoration:none;"><img src="http://en.rian.ru/i/eng/logo_sml.gif" alt="RIA Novosti" title="RIA Novosti" style="float:left; margin-right:10px;" border="0" /></a><a target="_blank" href="http://en.rian.ru/world/20061221/57450165.html" style="color:#000000;text-decoration:none;display: block; margin: 0 10px 0 0 ;"><strong style="font:19px Georgia,Arial,sans-serif; line-height:16px; font-weight:bold;"> Turkmen presidential official confirms Niyazov's death</strong></a><p style="font:13px Georgia,Arial,sans-serif; padding:5px 10px 0px 0;"><span style="color:#5590bf;">09:57</span> <span style="color:#5590bf; padding-right:7px;">21/12/2006</span> <span style="font-size:12px;">A senior presidential administration official in Turkmenistan confirmed by phone Thursday that the Central Asian country's leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, has died. 
"We can confirm only the fact of the president's death. We are not authorized to give any additional information on the cause of death," he said.

Western agencies said earlier Niyazov died of a cardiac arrest early this morning at the age of 66. 
<a target="_blank" style="color:#335f86; padding-left:10px; text-decoration:underline;" href="http://en.rian.ru/world/20061221/57450165.html" title=" Turkmen presidential official confirms Niyazov's death">>></a></span></p><div style="padding:6px 0 15px 30px; font:10px Verdana,sans-serif;"><a target="_blank" style="color:#114472; text-decoration:underline;" href="http://en.rian.ru" title="RIA Novosti">Other news of the day</a></div></div></div>

Preview:

Turkmen presidential official confirms Niyazov's death

09:57 21/12/2006 A senior presidential administration official in Turkmenistan confirmed by phone Thursday that the Central Asian country's leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, has died. "We can confirm only the fact of the president's death. We are not authorized to give any additional information on the cause of death," he said. Western agencies said earlier Niyazov died of a cardiac arrest early this morning at the age of 66. >>

Other news of the day