Spectacular opening ceremony for sports meet in Turkmenistan Turkmenistan kicks off a 10-day regional sporting event with a spectacular opening ceremony. The isolated country is hosting the event despite a slew of economic and rights concerns. A record-breaking horse-head sculpture loomed large over a brand new 45,000-seater stadium packed mostly with Turkmen citizens as strongman Gurbanguly Berymukhamedov hailed the opening of the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games as an "historic" event for the Central Asian state and its capital Ashgabat.