Police inspect toilets for use of president’s photos as toilet paper
Police issued warnings that such behavior could have serious consequences.
This is the same country that earlier this year banned black cars because its president loves white.
After news started going around that people were using bits of newspaper with the president’s face on them as toilet paper, police and landfill workers were ordered to look for evidence.
Detention
According to a recent article in Fergana, a Moscow-based news site known for its credible coverage of Turkmen affairs, it all started at the end of last year, when several children in the northern city of Dashoguz were detained and tried for damaging portraits of president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
In one case, students at the city’s school no. 45 trampled on a photo of the president, and in another, children at another school used a pen to draw a mustache and beard on a portrait of Berdymukhammedov.
Those incidents didn’t involve butt wiping, but they did prompt an investigation which eventually revealed that the use of newspapers with the president’s face on them as toilet paper was quite common.
Dismissal
While inspecting another Dashoguz school for similar defiling of the president’s photos, police found bits of newspaper – some of which had Berdymukhammedov’s face on them – used as toilet paper in the school toilet.
The director was fired, and an ample investigation into this practice began. It has reportedly led to the dismissal of several civil servants.
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