The truth is even more bizarre than this. According to Wikipedia, the names of all the months and the days of the week were changed in 2002. But the relevant law was passed on the initiative of Ahmet Calik, a Turkish businessman who was trying to ingratiate himself with the Turkmen President, Saparmurat Niyazov. It clearly worked, because Calik served as Turkmenistan's Deputy Minister of Textiles and Niyazov's envoy for energy sales to Turkey. But (according to Wikileaks) he was dismissed from these posts in September 2004.
Niyazov claimed to have received a prophetic vision where Turkmen ancestors of eminence urged him to lead Turkmens to the "golden path of life". He wrote (or, according to some commentators, had ghost–written) a book entitled the Ruhnama, or Rukhnama – translated into English as 'the Book of the Soul'. The first version was published in the 1990s, soon after Niyazov (previously First Secretary of the Turkmen Communist Party) was appointed as President for Life; but it was soon withdrawn because "it did not fulfill Niyazov's expectations." Preparations for the revised book were underway by April 1999, when Niyazov declared that Mukkadesh Ruhnama would be the second landmark text of Turkmens, after the Quran.
The first volume was finally published in December 2001, and a second in September 2004.
Niyazov adopted the nomme de guerre Türkmenbaşy – "the Leader of Turkmen". This is the name that was given to the month of January in 2002. Other names were taken from the Ruhnama; they included the Turkmen words for 'flag' (February – Turkmenistan's National Flag Day is celebrated on 19 February, Niazov's birthday) and 'independence' (October – the month in which Turmenistan's Independence Day falls). Other months are named after Niyazov's mother, various national heroes, and the Ruhnama itself. The names given to the days of the week were the Turkmen words for 'first day' (Monday), 'young day' (Tuesday), 'favourable day' (Wednesday), and suchlike.
Niyazov's life presidency lasted just over 16 years; he suffered a fatal heart attack in December 2006. The old names of the months and days were restored in July 2008.
In summarising Niyazov's legacy, Wikipedia describes him as "one of the world's most totalitarian, despotic and repressive dictators." It cites Global Witness, a London–based human rights organisation, reporting that "money under Niyazov's control and held overseas may be in excess of US$3 billion, of which between $1.8–$2.6 billion was allegedly situated in the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund at Deutsche Bank in Germany."
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