Turkmenistan, a new Era ?

Independent since the fall of the USSR in 1991, Turkmenistan has become a dynastic dictatorship. For years, the first president, Niyazov, imposed the Ruhnama, a mandatory book that everyone had to learn by heart to get a job or pass their driving test. His successor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, then transformed the capital, Ashgabat, into a surreal white city: dozens of buildings made of Italian white marble, strictly white cars, and a string of world records. Today, with his son Serdar Berdimuhamedov in power, a new chapter begins. The mandatory book has disappeared, and the country is trying to open up. Highly wealthy thanks to its vast gas reserves on the Iranian border, this secular dictatorship now wants to do business with the world. This photo reportage captures the early stages of this opening, caught between outsized architecture and a desire for change.