Turkmenistan readies for father-son succession during polls

Issued on: 10/03/2022 – 04:38Modified: 10/03/2022 – 04:37

9 candidates are contesting the poll, however few doubt that strongman Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s 40-year-old son Serdar — who has pledged to proceed his father’s course — will take over the hermit nation’s high job.

Berdymukhamedov senior, who’s Turkmenistan’s president, chair of the cupboard and senate chief, has been the regime’s high decision-maker for the final 15 years.

The 64-year-old chief introduced final month that he would step down to permit “younger leaders” to control. He has stated nonetheless that he’ll stay in politics as head of the senate, a place that’s second to the presidency.

Berdymukhamedov senior took energy in 2006, after the demise of Saparmurat Niyazov, the so-called “Father of the Turkmen”, whose rule created the blueprint for repression and management cults within the nation of six million individuals.

Each males are feted with golden statues in Ashgabat, a capital metropolis of 1 million individuals dominated by marble-coated buildings.

Elsewhere within the metropolis, statues of Russia and Ukraine’s legendary wordsmiths Alexander Pushkin and Taras Shevchenko stand simply 50 metres (55 yards) aside.

However government-controlled media have utterly blanked the two-week-old battle, Europe’s greatest since World Battle II.

With web sluggish and plenty of overseas information web sites blocked, Turkmen residents flip to satellite tv for pc dishes with a purpose to entry worldwide information, though authorities crack down on them, too.

Oraz, a 66-year-old pensioner who solely gave his first identify, stated he was conscious of preventing in Ukraine.

“We fear for our brotherly nations that lived (for) lots of of years in peace. We hope there will probably be peace once more!” he stated.

‘Father shut by’

State tv’s fawning celebrations of Berdymukhamedov’s hobbies — horse using, songwriting and rally automotive driving to call a number of — have made the strongman a phenomenon on overseas social media, all of that are blocked within the nation.

However Ashgabat residents interviewed by AFP admitted that they know little about his son, whose rise by way of authorities solely started receiving publicity after he received a lawmaker’s seat in 2016.

Civil servant Selbi Nepesova, 39, stated Serdar Berdymukhamedov’s official biography proves he’s “essentially the most skilled” of the candidates, regardless of being youthful than his rivals, most of whom are low-ranking authorities workers.

“Individuals who labored with him know extra about him than us easy folks,” Nepesova advised AFP. “He can have his father shut by.”

Lately he has tried out roles together with deputy overseas minister and a regional governor.

Final yr got here his greatest promotion of all as he rose to deputy chair of the cupboard and a member of the safety council, successfully turning into second-in-command.

Ruslan Myatiev, editor of the Europe-based unbiased Turkmen.information web site, advised AFP that as but unspecified adjustments to the structure promised by the outgoing president might even see larger powers given to the legislature “in case one thing goes mistaken with Serdar”.

The election will not be anticipated to have an effect on the nation’s impartial overseas coverage, which was honed below Niyazov and maintained by Berdymukhamedov.

Turkmenistan historically “retains silence in worldwide crises”, together with over the battle in Ukraine, stated Myatiev, who famous that 270 Turkmen college students had been returning to Turkmenistan on an evacuation flight from Bucharest on Wednesday after fleeing Ukraine.

‘Massive accountability’

Serdar Berdymukhamedov has referred to as his presidential run “an enormous accountability not just for me, but additionally for the complete younger technology introduced up through the years of independence”.

Residents in Ashgabat stated they hoped for optimistic adjustments in an financial system that has struggled to get better from the 2014 oil value crash and stays strongly depending on Chinese language demand for pure fuel.

Guvanch Ilyasov, a 36-year-old businessman, stated he needed an finish to the ban on overseas forex alternate that went into impact after the worth crash.

“It has made life tough for companies that used to purchase merchandise and tools overseas,” Ilyasov stated.

Yulia Krasnova, a 58-year-old pensioner, stated she yearned for normal flights out of Turkmenistan, which had been halted in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic — the federal government has not acknowledged a single case of the illness — and haven’t resumed.

“That is what I’m dreaming of,” stated Krasnova, who desires to go to her daughter and grandchildren in Russia.

© 2022 AFP