Turkmenistan. The President gives way to his son Serdar Berdymoukhamedov

After Gurbangouly Berdymoukhamedov, in power for fifteen years, the Turkmen are preparing to elect, without their opinion being asked, his son Serdar for a term as President which promises to be long.

Monday, February 14, he was unanimously nominated candidate for the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan presidential election on March 12. Might as well write that he is elected. In this former Soviet republic of Central Asia bordered by a Caspian Sea rich in hydrocarbons, the opposition exists only in prison or in exile. Unique suspense: will Serdar do better than dad, re-elected in 2017 with 97.27% of the vote?

Serdar, 40, ran a state-owned non-alcoholic beer company in his youth, before branching out into international relations when his father, dentist to the first president of independent Turkmenistan, succeeded him on his death in 2006.

In short, Serdar’s CV is as dull as his austere suits and it contrasts with the countless achievements of his father, who is also a fan of green jogging. A bit as if, in a regime where the cult of personality borders on delirium, where the golden statue of Gurbangouly on horseback sits enthroned in the center of the capital Ashkabad, there was no place for Serdar, nor for his two sisters, except as sons of the “great man”.

A suprise

Gourbangouly’s decision to relinquish power at the age of 64 is therefore a surprise. Just like the dynastic choice. Even when Serdar became an MP in 2016, many continued to bet on a regime baron or the all-powerful intelligence services.

Everything changed in 2021 when Berdymoukhamedov junior took over the presidency of the national association of Akhal-teké horses, these thoroughbreds which are the pride of the Turkmens and occupy a central place in the regime’s propaganda. His official trips to the two godfathers of the regime, in Russia then to beijinghave completed convincing that dad had chosen his successor.

1981. Born in Ashkabad.

2011. Graduated in Moscow in international relations.

2016. Elected deputy.

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