On 21 February, 2020 President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov arrived in Lebap velayat to open a new mosque in the city of Tukmenabat (formerly, Chardjou).
Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” found out that the elders who greeted the head of state in the mosque had been rehearsing since 14 February, 2020, a week prior to the visit.
Let us recall that approximately at the same time the local authorities in an emergency mode were cleaning up the streets and renovating the buildings located along the main avenues of the city.
The rehearsals were held in Turkmenabat on the territory of the old mosque built under the first President Saparmurat Niyazov. The old people were forced to rehearse for hours and memorize where they were supposed to stand and how to behave in different situations.
On 20 February, a day ahead of President Berdymukhammedov’s visit, the aksakals were brought to the new mosque to rehearse the program again.The rehearsals finished at 11 p.m.
All this time people were not allowed to have a snack or a drink.The imams of the velayat’s mosque and imams of etrap (district) mosques along with carefully selected elders were supposed to personally greet the President.
The elderly from rural areas, who had been trained for a week, were supposed to stand in the back as extras.
During one of the rehearsals one of the elderly men diagnosed with diabetes (the editorial office has his name) lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor.The NSM officer shouted at the elderly people who tried to help him to go back to their places and refrain from moving whatever happened.
Without any stretchers the collapsed man was taken away by the law enforcement officials in civilian clothes.Only on the territory of the mosque medical doctors on duty were allowed to render the first aid.
The old man who “dropped out” was replaced by an alternate.
Despite the rehearsals, for unknown reason only a few elders were left to greet the President. The others were instructed to stay on the second floor of the building. They were allowed to go down only after the TV crews started making a video footage of a sadaka (charity lunch).