ASHGABAT, Dec 24 2006-Tens of thousands of mourners in black paid their last respects to Turkmenistan's autocratic ruler Saparmurat Niyazov at a lavish state funeral here Sunday, as questions mounted about the future direction of this Central Asian state.
In a carefully-scripted ceremony held under tight security, Niyazov's body lay in state for public viewing at a presidential palace in Ashgabat before later being buried in the ornate golden-domed family mausoleum built for him in his native village of Kipchak outside the capital.
Hundreds of men, many wearing large fur hats and long black coats, crowded outside the mausoleum in Kipchak as an imam intoned the words "Allahu Akbar!" three times over the body in a ceremony that mixed Soviet military style with Islamic ritual in this mostly Muslim country.
In Ashgabat, streets were deserted and all but flower shops were closed as mournful music was played across the city through loudspeakers. Security in the capital and in Kipchak was tight for the proceedings, which were broadcast live on Turkmen television networks.
Niyazov, who ruled the ex-Soviet republic with an iron fist for more than two decades and established a personality cult that pervaded every aspect of life in the country, died Thursday from a heart attack at the age of 66, leaving no successor and no clear plan for choosing one.
His interim replacement, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, has pledged to maintain order in the country of five million people and the top legislative body, the People's Council, made up of more than 2,500 officials, was to meet in emergency session on Tuesday to plan Niyazov's succession.
Niyazov, who referred to himself as the "Great Turkmenbashi", or "Leader of All Turkmens", held Turkmenistan's top Communist Party post in Soviet times and was elected president after the fall of the Soviet Union in the country's first and only presidential elections in 1992 in which he was the only candidate.
At the ceremony in Ashgabat, foreign dignitaries and throngs of tearful mourners filed past Niyazov's body as it lay in state in an open casket.
Funereal cello and violin music -- "Bitter Destiny", a work by a Turkmen composer -- was played constantly in the palace and relayed throughout the capital.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai were among the foreign leaders who filed past the coffin.
A senior US official, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, attended the ceremony, as did Alexei Miller, CEO of Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom which has vital energy links to Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan has the world's fifth-largest known gas reserves and is a crucial link in European energy supplies.
Experts on the region have predicted domestic and international competition for sway over Turkmenistan's vast natural gas reserves, and early signs of that strategic jockeying were evident even as Niyazov was being laid to rest.
Boucher met officials in Ashgabat and said at a news conference afterwards that Washington saw "many opportunities" for expanded cooperation in Central Asia and lent support to a proposed pipeline from Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea that would bypass Russia.
He said the United States wanted to see a peaceful transition of power in Turkmenistan and hoped to impress on the new leadership that emerges in Ashgabat that "there is a possibility for a new beginning" in the country following Niyazov's demise.
"We and many others would like to see respect for human rights and establishment of a political process where everyone can participate," Boucher said.
Tens of thousands of local residents, many in tears, meanwhile waited for hours outside the presidential palace for a last glimpse of their late leader.
"I always had the dream of visiting the Turkmenbashi Palace, to see how he lived," said Alamurat Nepesov, a 44-year-old civil servant, as he waited to enter the palace.
"I never would have thought that it would come true in such a sad way. My head is empty of thoughts, there is only sorrow in my soul."
The late Turkmen leader crushed dissent and established an extraordinary personality cult, renaming the month of January after himself and issuing a volume of philosophical musings, the Rukhnama, that became mandatory reading for schoolchildren and state officials.
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