About a week ago Russian market, the biggest and most popular bazaar, in Ashgabat was almost burnt.

Unfortunately, no major news pages have reported on this yet.

If anyone wants to share information about what happened, please, do leave a comment. Or drop a line if you are interested to write a post about it (merdjen@neweurasia.net)

Russian bazaar is located in the Ashgabat downtown and next to many governmental buildings and cultural sights. There you can buy anything from delicious watermelons and peaches to warm tamdyr chorek, meats and sweets, fabrics and clothes, shoes and books, etc.

About three or four years ago I met the group of young Korean tourists during the transit stop. They were traveling around Central Asia, they really anticipated the flight to Ashagabat.  All of them were wondering if it is really true that one can get the best hamburgers “shaurma” at the Russian market. It seemed it was their final destination.

UPD. This main part, which is on the picture, was not caught in fire, but the newly built shops and many old ones outside of this section, but still of large area, were all lost…

UPD2. Some people say that it happened, because of the multiple conflicts of interest and share between businesses and fire was not an accident…