Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow became the president of Turkmenistan in 2006 after the death of Saparmurat Niyazov. He won the election in 2007 and quickly gained diplomatic support. Rumors suggest he may be Niyazov’s illegitimate son, and the elections have been criticized as bogus.
Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow is the president of Turkmenistan. He has held that position since late 2006, when he took over as interim president following the death of Saparmurat Niyazov. Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow officially won the election in early February 2007 and was sworn in as full president.
Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow was born in the 1950s in what is now Ahal Province, then under the auspices of the Turkmen SSR, as part of the Soviet Union. Lui attended medical school in the 1970s and pursued a career in dentistry.
In 1995, Berdimuhammedow joined the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry under President Saparmurat Niyazov, as head of the dentistry center. He progressed rapidly and in 1997 was appointed Minister of Health. Four years later he was appointed deputy prime minister.
In 2004, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow had his salary suspended for three months by the president, out of solidarity with lower-level health workers, who were not paid by the government at the time due to budget problems.
President Niyazov died suddenly in late 2006 and Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow was put in charge of the commission for organizing his funeral. Many people saw this as a sign that he would be the person chosen to replace the president. Sure enough, not long after, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow was appointed acting president by the State Security Council.
When Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow was appointed interim president, there was a provision in the constitution that forbade an interim president from running for president in an open election. This was intended to prevent someone from being appointed undemocratically and then using their status in office to hold on to power. However, not long after appointing Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow as interim president, Turkmenistan’s People’s Council voted to remove that provision, removing any obstacles to his bid for the presidency.
In the open elections, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow stood as one of six candidates, all members of the same party, the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan. He was widely supported by various factions of the elite in Turkmenistan and the government’s official election results show that he won more than 89 percent of the popular vote.
After assuming the presidency in his own right, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow quickly began to shore up diplomatic support internationally. He met with Vladimir Putin of Russia soon after his election and also traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet King Abdullah. While in Saudi Arabia, he also visited a number of Islamic holy sites in Medina.
A number of rumors and speculations have arisen around Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow. Some people have suggested that, due to his visual resemblance to President Niyazov, he may in fact have been the former president’s illegitimate son. Others have suggested that this was a blatant propaganda move to establish a sense of continuity and legitimacy for his presidency. Many in the media also criticized the elections in which Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow won the presidency, with the International Crisis Group going so far as to call them blatantly bogus.
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