Saparmuryat A. Niyazov (b.1940) has been president of Turkmenistan since December 1991. Outstanding representatives of culture and literature of Turkmenistan include Abdulhekin Qulmukam Medoghli, a writer, researcher and political activist who was killed in 1937 during one of Stalin's purges, and the poet and thinker, Maktum Kuli, who first envisioned an independent Turkmenistan. The country has established the Makhtumkuli International Prize in his name and awarded it to President Niyazov.
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