Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
National Leader of the Turkmen People
Arkadag Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
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Berdimuhamedow in 2017
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| Chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan | |
| Assumed office 14 April 2021 |
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| Preceded by | Position re-established |
| 2nd President of Turkmenistan | |
| In office 14 February 2007 – 19 March 2022 Acting: 21 December 2006 – 14 February 2007 |
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| Vice President | Raşit Meredow |
| Preceded by | Saparmyrat Nyýazow |
| Succeeded by | Serdar Berdimuhamedow |
| Leader of the Democratic Party | |
| In office 4 August 2007 – 18 August 2013 Acting: 21 December 2006 – 4 August 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Saparmyrat Nyýazow |
| Succeeded by | Kasymguly Babaýew |
| 3rd Deputy Chairman of Government | |
| In office 1 March 2001 – 14 February 2007 |
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| President | Saparmyrat Nyýazow Himself (acting) |
| Preceded by | Orazgeldi Aýdogdiýew |
| Succeeded by | Raşit Meredow |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow
29 June 1957 Babarap, Turkmen SSR, Soviet Union |
| Nationality | Turkmen |
| Political party | Independent (2013–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
TDP (before 2013) |
| Spouse | Ogulgerek Berdimuhamedowa |
| Children | 4, including Serdar |
| Parents |
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| Alma mater | Turkmen State Medical Institute |
| Profession | Dentist |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Turkmenistan |
| Branch/service |  Turkmen Ground Forces |
| Rank | General of the Army (since 2007) |
Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow (born 29 June 1957), also known as Arkadag, is a Turkmen politician who is currently the chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan (Turkmen: Halk Maslahaty). He previously served as the 2nd President of Turkmenistan from 2006 to 2022, when he entered into a power-sharing arrangement with his son, Serdar, the current president.
A dentist by profession, Berdimuhamedow served in the government of the president, Saparmyrat Niyazow, as the minister of health in 1997 and as the vice-president 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. 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".
Contents
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. His 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.
His son is president of the National Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan.
In 2020, Berdimuhamedow presided over the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkmenistan. He was among eight world leaders to have received the 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, Iskender 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.
Post-presidency and National Leader
The People's Council of Turkmenistan (Turkmen: Halk Maslahaty) was restored in September 2020. While still serving as president, Berdimuhamedow stood for election from Ahal Province and won a seat on 28 March 2021. He was subsequently unanimously elected chairperson of the People's Council despite that being a violation of the constitution.
On 21 January 2023, Berdimuhamedow's son, as president, reappointed Berdimuhamedow to the chairmanship of the reorganised People's Council (viz.). Via a separate "constitutional law" signed into effect 21 January 2023, President Serdar Berdimuhamedow also appointed his father "national leader" (Turkmen: Milli Lider) of Turkmenistan. This appointment accords the elder Berdimuhamedow the right to speak out on any matter of public interest, as well as immunity from prosecution (which immunity extends also to members of his family), personal protection by national security agencies, and financial support from the government. New laws were quickly promulgated that named the new People's Council the "supreme organ of state authority" in Turkmenistan, making its chairman a supreme leader outranking the president.
Berdimuhamedow visited Moscow in November 2022 at the invitation of the speaker of the Russian upper house, Valentina Matvienko. He subsequently made additional trips abroad and met with visiting foreign delegations. His first foreign visit as National Leader was to the United Arab Emirates in February 2023.
Honours
Domestic awards
- 1994 – Star of President Order
- 2016 – Medal «Türkmenistanyň Garaşsyzlygynyň 25 ýyllygyna» (25 Years of Turkmenistan's Independence)
- 2019 – «Hormatly il ýaşulusy» (Honorary Elder of the State)
- 2021 – «Türkmenistanyň ussat halypa seýsi» (Master Equestrian of Turkmenistan)
- 2022 – Skillful Diplomat of Turkmenistan
Foreign awards
- 2007 –
Saudi Arabia: Order of King Abdulaziz - 2007 –
United Arab Emirates: Order of Zayed - 2007 –
Uzbekistan: Order of Distinguished Service - 2008 –
Kazakhstan: Medal "10 years of Astana" - 2010 –
Tajikistan: Order of Ismoili Somoni - 2011 –
Bahrain: Order of Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa - 2012 –
Turkey: First Class of the Order of the State of Republic of Turkey - 2013 –
Serbia: Order of the Republic of Serbia - 2014 –
China: Honorary Professor, Beijing Medical University - 2014 –
Azerbaijan: Order of Sheikh-ul-Islam - 2015 –
South Korea: Honorary Doctorate, Sungkyunkwan University - 2015 –
Japan: Honorary Doctorate, University of Tsukuba - 2016 –
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan: Gazy Mohammad Akbar Khan Medal - 2016 –
Pakistan: Honorary Doctor of Political Science, Quaid-i-Azam University - 2016, 2017 –
Moldova: Order of the Republic - 2017 –
Gagauzia: Order of Gagauz-Yeri - 2017 – Kazakhstan: Order of Dostyk
- 2017 –
Russia: Order of Alexander Nevsky - 2017 – Russia: Order of Dyslyk
- 2018 –
Malaysia: Certificate of Award "for development of mass media", Asia-Pacific Broadcasters Association - 2022 – Kazakhstan: Order of the Golden Eagle
- 2022 – Russia: Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"
Supranational
- 2022 –
Organization of Turkic States: 2022 Supreme Order of Turkic World
Personal life
Family
According to a cable from the U.S. embassy in Ashgabat, Berdimuhamedow is married and has three daughters and one son. One of his sons-in-law, Yhlasgeldi Amanov, headed the Turkmen State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources in London, was later assigned to the Turkmenistan Embassies in Berlin and London, and as of 23 November 2019 was Turkmenistan's consul general in Dubai. The other son-in-law is also a diplomat, with a prior posting in Paris, but later assigned to Brussels.
According to the same leaked cables, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has a mistress, Marina, a Russian nurse, whom he supposedly met earlier in his dentist career. They have a daughter together. Berdimuhamedow's wife has been living in London since 2007. His son, Serdar Berdimuhamedow, is the current president of Turkmenistan. Serdar served in the Armed Forces and the Assembly of Turkmenistan, and held a series of high government posts, leading to appointment as a deputy chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers before his election to the presidency. At least three of Berdimuhamedow's grandchildren have studied in Switzerland: Kerimguly, Ogulbäbek, and Aýgül. According to a biography of Berdimuhamedow's father, Malikguly, published in 2012, Berdimuhamedow has five sisters: Durdynabat (born 1960), Gulnabat (born 1962), Mähri (born 1964), Guljamal (born 1969), and Oguljamal (born 1974).
On 18 April 2021, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow's father, Mälikguly Berdimuhamedow, reportedly died at the age of 89. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow's mother, Ogulabat Berdimuhamedowa (née Kürräýewa), died in April 2023 at the age of 86.
Hobbies
During his spare time, he writes books that are popular in Turkmenistan according to Turkmen propaganda. Aside from writing books, he is known for writing songs, DJing and engaging in health activities.
In 2019, Berdimuhamedow was awarded the highest award of the International Cycling Union (UCI) for his country’s commitment to the sport.
Health
On 20 July 2019, the YouTube channel of a Turkmen opposition media outlet announced that Berdimuhamedow had reportedly died while on holiday at the age of 61. He was said to have been on leave since 15 July. These reports were published by multiple Russian media outlets on the next day. The Turkmen Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Shadurdy Mereov, and the Kyrgyz Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied these claims on 21 July. According to Chronicles of Turkmenistan, Berdimuhamedow went to Germany because his mother was receiving medical treatment there, and her condition was critical.
See also
In Spanish: Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow para niños
- Politics of Turkmenistan
- FK Arkadag
