Serdar Berdimukhamedov has held several important positions in recent years and is currently deputy prime minister. That is the most important post after the president, because the country has no prime minister. The new president will be inaugurated on Saturday.
personality cult
The current president, who has been in power since 2007, is known for building a huge cult around his person. There is a golden statue of him in Ashgabat and in 2013 he is said to have had a video removed showing him during a race falls off his horse† In 2018, he and his grandson released a self-written rap number from.
He also had Ashgabat filled with enormous marble buildings, such as the largest covered Ferris wheel in the world and several large palaces. President Berdimukhamedov gave Ashgabat several entries in the Guinness Book of World Records. For example, the city has the highest free-standing flagpole in the world and the largest building in the world in the shape of a star.
Last month, Berdimuchamedov announced his resignation, because he wants to make way for “a new generation”. He will not completely disappear from the country’s government, because he will remain as parliament speaker.
In recent years, there have been regular rumors about the health of old Berdimuchamedov. In 2019 there was even speculation about his deathafter not being seen in public for weeks. But then state TV broadcast images of Berdimuchamedov bowling, riding and shooting.
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