Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow (born 29 June 1957) is a Turkmen politician, lawyer and former dentist who is currently the chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan. He previously served as the second president of Turkmenistan from 2006 to 2022, when he entered into a power-sharing arrangement with his son, Serdar, the current president.
A lawyer and former dentist, Berdimuhamedow served in the government of the president, Saparmurat Niyazov, as the minister of health in 1997 and as the deputy cabinet chair in 2001. He became acting president following Niyazow's death on 21 December 2006 and subsequently won the 2007 presidential election. He faced no meaningful opposition and won by an overwhelming margin with 89% of the vote. In 2012, he was re-elected for a second term with 97% of the vote and he was re-elected again in 2017 with 97.7% of the vote. He was among the candidates elected to the People's Council of Turkmenistan on 28 March 2021, as a member from Ahal Region. He reportedly received 100% of votes from the electors. On 14 April 2021, he was unanimously elected chairman of the People's Council, the upper chamber of the Turkmen parliament.
Like his predecessor, Berdimuhamedow headed an authoritarian regime and is the subject of a cult of personality. Rights groups have described Turkmenistan under Berdimuhamedow as one of the most repressive countries in the world, accusing Berdimuhamedow, his relatives, and his associates of possessing and exercising unlimited power over all aspects of public life.
Berdimuhamedow stepped down as president on 19 March 2022, being succeeded by his son, Serdar, who won a snap election deemed as neither free nor fair, making Turkmenistan the first Central Asian country to be ruled by a dynastic system in modern times. The People's Council was subsequently re-formed as the country's top leadership body in January 2023, with Serdar then reappointing his father as its chairman and granting him the title "National Leader of the Turkmen People".
Early years Berdimuhamedow was born on 29 June 1957 in Babarap, in what is now Gökdepe District, Ahal Province, to Mälikguly Berdimuhamedowiç Berdimuhamedow (1932–2021) and Ogulabat Kürräýewna Kürräýewa (1937–2023). He is the only son in a family of six children. Berdimuhamedow’s father worked as a senior Interior Ministry officer in a prison guard detachment. He retired as a colonel of police. Berdimuhamedow's grandfather, Berdimuhamed Annaýew, was a local teacher who served in the Red Army during World War II as part of the 748th Rifle Regiment of the 206th Rifle Division of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. In September 1943, his unit was one of the first to cross the Dnieper River. He was later killed in the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake.
Professional career Berdimuhamedow graduated from the Turkmen State Medical Institute in 1979 and entered a career in dentistry. He also received a PhD in medical sciences in Moscow. By 1992 he had become part of the dentistry faculty at the Medical Institute. In 1995, during the rule of Saparmyrat Nyýazow, he became head of the dentistry center of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry.
Political rise He was appointed to the government as Minister of Health in 1997. In 2001 he was appointed as one of several deputy chairmen of the Cabinet of Ministers (also referred to as Deputy Prime Minister, despite the lack of a Prime Ministerial post in Turkmenistan), in this case responsible for health, science, education, and sports. In April 2004, Nyýazow suspended Berdimuhamedow's salary for three months because healthcare workers were not being paid.
The Health Ministry was responsible for carrying out Nyýazow's order to close all hospitals outside of the national and provincial capitals in 2005.
President of Turkmenistan (2006–2022) Following Nyýazow's death in December 2006, the State Security Council of Turkmenistan appointed Berdimuhamedow acting president. The council stated in its announcement that Öwezgeldi Ataýew, who, as the chairman of the Assembly of Turkmenistan was to have become the acting president, was not appointed "in view of the fact that the prosecutor-general had instituted criminal proceedings against him".
Article 60 of the Turkmen Constitution stipulated that the acting president "may not stand for election to the Presidency", which would have barred Berdimuhamedow from running in the 2007 presidential elections. However, on 24 December 2006, the People's Council voted to remove this provision, making him eligible for the election as one of the six chosen candidates, all members of the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan. Berdimuhamedow was supported by the political elite, and the official results showed him as winning 89% of the vote. Berdimuhamedow's appointment as interim president and subsequent run for president, however, violated the constitution.
In his first presidential trip abroad, Berdimuhamedow visited Saudi Arabia in mid-April 2007. There he performed the Umrah pilgrimage and met with King Abdullah. He then visited Russia and President Vladimir Putin at the end of the same month.
After taking office, Berdimuhamedow reversed several of Nyýazow's more eccentric policies. Internet cafés offering free and uncensored web access opened in Ashgabat, compulsory education was extended from nine to ten years and classes in sports and foreign languages were re-introduced into the curriculum, and the government announced plans to open several specialised schools for the arts. He called for reform of education, health care and pension systems, and government officials of non-Turkmen ethnic origin who had been sacked by Nyýazow were allowed to return to work. He also restored the pensions of 100,000 elderly people whose pensions Nyýazow had slashed in the face of an unspecified budget crisis. Later on, he reopened the Turkmen Academy of Sciences, which had been closed by Nyýazow.
In 2015, work on TAPI began under his government.
In February 2017, he was reelected to a third term as President of Turkmenistan (seven-year term) with nearly 98% of the votes in his favour and with an eligible voter turnout of 97%. In October 2017, he offered a top Turkmen-bred variety of the Central Asian shepherd dog to Vladimir Putin.
Berdimuhamedow served as president of the National Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan.Turkmenistan
In 2020, Berdimuhamedow presided over the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkmenistan. He was among eight world leaders to have received the satiric Ig Nobel Prize in Medical Education "for using the COVID-19 viral pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can". On 10 November of that same year, he unveiled a golden statue of his favourite dog breed, the Central Asian shepherd.
Berdimuhamedow replaced the Interior Minister Mammetkhan Chakiyev with his deputy Ovezdurdy Khojaniyazov on 1 July 2021. Khojaniyazov has little public profile to speak of, but one of his most recent positions, as of May at least, was as deputy head of the Awaza tourist recreation zone. The previous interior minister, Isgender Mulikov, was arrested, sentenced to a lengthy prison term on corruption charges, and shown on state television handcuffed in a prison robe with his head shaved.
In July 2021, Berdimuhamedow ordered the deployment of troops and heavy weapons and armour on the Afghanistan–Turkmenistan border, in order to avoid a spillover of the Afghan conflict into Turkmenistan.
In February 2022, it was reported from Reuters that Berdimuhamedow was planning to resign after an early presidential election on 12 March, fuelling speculation that he would be preparing for his son Serdar to succeed him as the next President. Berdimuhamedow did not contest the election, which was subsequently won by Serdar, establishing Turkmenistan as the first Central Asian country to transfer power dynastically from father to son. Serdar was inaugurated as the next President on 19 March.
Totalitarianism
Upon taking office, Berdimuhamedow eased travel restrictions and reopened libraries in rural areas. He also took steps to curb Nyýazow's extensive personality cult. He called for an end to the elaborate pageants of music and dancing that formerly greeted the president on his arrival anywhere, and said that the Turkmen "sacred oath", part of which states that the speaker's tongue should shrivel if he ever speaks ill of Turkmenistan or its president, should not be recited multiple times a day but reserved for "special occasions". He also gave up his right to rename any landmarks, institutions, or cities, restored the traditional names of the months of the year and days of the week (Nyýazow had renamed them after himself and his mother, among other things), and announced plans to move the gold rotating statue of Nyýazow from Ashgabat's central square.
Despite these changes, Berdimuhamedow's regime remained rigidly authoritarian; indeed, in 2007, he ruled out any move toward Western-style democracy. Freedom House rated Berdimuhamedow's Turkmenistan as one of the most repressive and "closed" regimes in the world. It has ranked Turkmenistan near the bottom of its Freedom in the World rankings since the country's independence, a state of affairs that has continued since Berdimuhamedow took office. In 2017, the country was one of 11 with the lowest aggregate scores for political and civil rights. Human Rights Watch noted that Berdimuhamedow not only has complete control over public life and the media, but presides over a regime that does not tolerate "alternative political or religious expression."
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has ranked Turkmenistan near the bottom of its Press Freedom Index for most of Berdimuhamedow's tenure, as it did under Nyýazow. In 2017, RWB ranked Turkmenistan 178th out of 180 countries surveyed, ahead of Eritrea and North Korea. RWB noted that internet access is heavily censored in Turkmenistan, and that satellite dishes have been removed by government officials.
In 2008, he dismissed Akmyrat Rejepow, the longtime chief of the presidential security detail and one of the main proponents of Nyýazow's personality cult. In 2011, he sang a song on a video posted to YouTube.
In May 2013, he fell off his horse during a race. The fall was censored on TV but leaked online, and mocked on an episode of HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in 2019. Journalists leaving the country following the accident reported that their electronic devices were searched for traces of footage of the incident.
In July 2013, Jennifer Lopez publicly apologised for singing “Happy Birthday!” to Berdimuhamedow during a sponsored concert, stating she was not aware of the human rights issues in Turkmenistan prior to the show. In August 2013, Berdimuhamedow suspended his Democratic Party of Turkmenistan membership for the duration of his presidency, ostensibly to remain "above partisan politics" and "promote a multiparty system."
In 2015, a golden statue of Berdimuhamedow riding a horse atop a white-marble cliff was erected in Ashgabat.
The Turkmenistan Parliament abolished term limits for the presidency in September 2016, which allowed Berdimuhamedow to run for a third term.
In January 2018, Berdimuhamedow ordered the impounding of black cars in the capital because he considered the colour white to be "lucky". Police seized dark-coloured vehicles in Ashgabat and their owners were told they must pay to have them repainted silver or white. The capital, known as the 'City of White Marble', holds the world record for the highest concentration of white-marble buildings. Berdimuhamedow is a known lover of the colour white, living in a white palace and travelling in white limousines. It was later reported that the ban extended to vehicles of all colours except white.