Turkmenistan will use the 20th anniversary...

Ashgabat"s iconic Arch of Neutrality was unveiled in December 1998. The 75-meter structure is a large tripod topped by a golden statue of former President Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-styled Turkmenbashi, leader of all the Turkmen.

The 20-meter statue, rumored to be made of pure gold, rotates in order to always face the sun.

The Turkmen government first considered dismantling and removing the Arch in May 2008.

In a resolution, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ordered work to dismantle the Arch of Neutrality in Ashgabat and to design and build a Monument of Neutrality in the south of the capital.

Under Niyazov, who took power in 1990 and died in 2006, gas-rich Turkmenistan forged a determinedly independent path, staying further from Moscow"s influence than any of its neighbors in former Soviet Central Asia.

After a dispute over gas supplies halted exports to Russia in early 2009, Ashgabat looked to China and Iran as markets, and

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