Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov - The Times Of Central Asia

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Economic Diplomacy

Expanding U.S.–Turkmenistan Ties: Envoy and Business Group Visit Ashgabat

Turkmenistan and the United States are working to deepen their economic and diplomatic relationship, with a top American diplomat and a U.S. business delegation visiting Ashgabat this week. The U.S.-Turkmenistan Business Council had announced a semiannual business mission to Ashgabat on November 4–5, a trip that comes amid a wider effort by the United States and Central Asian countries to expand trade and investment ties with each other. The council is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group led by Eric Stewart, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary for Europe/Eurasia at the Department of Commerce who has founded more than a dozen similar groups focusing on other countries and regions. The trip, which was coordinated with the U.S. government, followed a visit to Ashgabat this week by S. Paul Kapur, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs. On November 3, Kapur and Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov talked about “expanding business ties and identifying new opportunities” for partnership, according to Turkmenistan’s embassy in the U.S. U.S. support for the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) gas pipeline was also discussed, the embassy said. That support was also noted in a Turkmen state media report on Kapur’s meeting with Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the former president who still has a powerful leadership role in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan recently said there was progress in laying the pipeline in Afghanistan’s Herat province, though the overall TAPI project has faced years of delays and challenges in its implementation. While U.S.-Turkmen trade and investment are relatively small, Turkmenistan’s strategic location on Caspian Sea trade routes and the fact that it has some of the largest proven reserves of natural gas in the world make it a potentially important partner for the U.S. Turkmenistan mainly exports energy to China but is aiming to diversify export options, including through projects such as TAPI and the planned Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline.

Marine Research

In Ashgabat, Caspian States Discuss Cooperation on Marine Research

Turkmenistan hosted a meeting of the Caspian Sea littoral states to discuss cooperation on marine scientific research, part of a wider effort by the Central Asian country to promote regional collaboration over the fragile, strategic body of water. Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said delegates discussed a draft agreement about research in the Caspian Sea, where countries want to develop large oil and gas reserves while trying to mitigate the impact on the marine environment. The five littoral states are Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. “The current meeting is expected to facilitate further progress in finalizing the remaining provisions of the draft,” the ministry said, noting that the two-day meeting was scheduled to end on Wednesday. It said the initiative on scientific research was first proposed at a Caspian summit in 2018 by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, then president of Turkmenistan. Berdimuhamedov ceded the presidency to his son, Serdar, in 2022, but remains an influential figure and has the official title of National Leader of the Turkmen people. Turkmenistan also advocated collaboration in the Caspian at an oil and gas conference in the capital earlier this month. Myrat Atajanov, director of Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea Institute, said the region faced the challenge of declining water levels in the sea and the potential risk to offshore platforms, sub-sea pipelines, and coastal infrastructure. “Atajanov stressed that the 2018 Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea provides a framework for cooperation, while finalizing sector boundaries is essential for geological exploration, field development rights and offshore infrastructure planning,” said the Turkmen Energy Forum, an organizer of the oil and gas conference. Turkmenistan wants the demarcation of Caspian Sea sectors of the various countries to be finalized, saying it would provide legal certainty for offshore energy projects and other investment plans. The Turkmen government wants to expand its role as a transit point on the Middle Corridor, a trade network linking China and Central Asia to Europe via rail and Caspian Sea infrastructure. Earlier this year, the Iranian government submitted the 2018 Caspian convention to the Iranian parliament for ratification after a long delay. Unlike the other countries, Iran's parliament had not ratified the deal. Critics in Iran had argued that the agreement would leave the country at a disadvantage in securing its rights to the sea’s resources. However, Iranian officials showed renewed interest in the convention this year, saying it was a way to strengthen regional cooperation and secure Iran’s maritime rights. The development came amid wider geopolitical tension and pressure on other trade routes, although Tehran said its decision to submit the convention to parliament was not connected to the war.

Former Presidents

What Do Former Presidents Do? From Akayev to Nazarbayev, the Fates of Central Asia’s Ex-Leaders

Central Asia has produced remarkably few former presidents who simply retired from public life. In Kyrgyzstan, former leaders have been driven from office, prosecuted, imprisoned, or forced into exile. Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev has followed a different path, largely withdrawing from public view after losing much of his political influence. Elsewhere, some of the region’s founding presidents died in office, leaving no post-presidential career to examine. The Times of Central Asia has previously examined how political succession has developed across the region. The fate of leaders after they leave office reveals another side of that political tradition. The architect of Kyrgyzstan’s early post-Soviet political model was its first president, Askar Akayev, who remained in office until 2005. Akayev introduced democratic institutions in Kyrgyzstan, but gradually tightened the pressure on his opponents as his presidency progressed. His rule was badly shaken by the Aksy shootings in 2002, which followed the prosecution of opposition lawmaker Azimbek Beknazarov and a territorial dispute with China. Akayev’s government had agreed to transfer disputed border territory to China, a decision fiercely criticized by the opposition. In March 2002, demonstrators in southern Kyrgyzstan demanded Akayev’s impeachment. Security forces opened fire during the unrest, killing several people. The shootings became one of the defining political crises of his presidency. In a 2003 referendum, Akayev significantly strengthened presidential powers at parliament’s expense. Economic hardship, unemployment, widespread corruption, and allegations of fraud in the 2005 parliamentary elections eventually helped trigger the Tulip Revolution in March of that year. Akayev had to flee, with rumors at the time claiming that he was smuggled out in the trunk of an official car, wrapped in a carpet. Criminal cases involving corruption were opened against him and members of his family in Kyrgyzstan. The authorities repeatedly sought his extradition from Russia, but were unsuccessful. After leaving Kyrgyzstan, Akayev lived in Moscow and taught at Moscow State University. In 2006, he became a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In August 2021, Akayev reappeared in Bishkek. He unexpectedly flew into the country and was immediately questioned as part of the criminal investigation into corruption surrounding the Kumtor gold mine. Afterward, he said he had come to Bishkek for a week and was prepared to assist investigators. “I came to speak honestly and sincerely about how we built Kumtor, why we built it, and what mistakes may have been made. The investigation will continue,” he said. In 2023, Kyrgyzstan’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced that the criminal prosecution of Akayev had been terminated because the statute of limitations had expired. Tajikistan’s former president Rahmon Nabiyev was also forced from power. The former Soviet politician lost power amid the country’s civil war in 1992. He died at his home in Khujand the following year, at the age of 62, reportedly from a heart attack. According to his wife, Nabiyev spent his final months in Khujand in conditions resembling house arrest and received a pension of just five rubles. While Tajikistan did not repeat the experiment of violently...

State-Controlled Religion

Turkmenistan’s Chief Mufti Replacement Recalls Earlier Dismissals

Only two people in Turkmenistan, the chairman of the Halk Maslahaty (People’s Council) and the president, have what could be considered job security. Everyone else is expendable, at a moment’s notice, and that extends to the country’s top clergy. Turkmenistan has replaced the country’s top mufti, and while the reasons for the sudden move are not clear, the removal process is very familiar for Turkmenistan. Frantic Friday On June 19, the mufti of all Turkmenistan, Yalkap Hojagulyyev, led Friday prayers at the Turkmenbashi Ruhy Mosque in Gypjak, some 11 kilometers from the capital, Ashgabat. Saparmurat “Turkmenbashi” Niyazov was Turkmenistan’s first president. The country’s compliant parliament and Halk Maslahaty bestowed the title of “Turkmenbashi,” meaning head of the Turkmen, on Niyazov. Gypjak was Niyazov’s home village, and when he was alive, he spent $100 million building a mosque that could accommodate 10,000 worshipers. After he died in late 2006, he was laid to rest at the nearby mausoleum built specially for him and his family. The June 19 Friday prayers were attended by a special visitor, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who also paid his respects at Niyazov’s mausoleum. After prayers ended, the top figures from the muftiate, the spiritual board overseeing Islamic affairs in Turkmenistan, and select elders from around Turkmenistan met at the mosque for a discussion. That discussion included the announcement that the muftiate had appointed a new chief mufti. That person was Rahman Gurbanmyradov. Gurbanmyradov, who had been the head mufti for Ahal Region, was not at the meeting in Gypjak. He was saying prayers at the Seyit Jemaleddin Mosque in Ak Bugday District, Ahal Region, for a sadaqah (voluntary giving of charity) organized by Halk Maslahaty Chairman Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. Berdimuhamedov was marking the first Friday of the Islamic year 1448, which started on June 16. Back in Gypjak, senior clerics and elders were also considering what to name the new mosque being built in the newly built city of Arkadag, some 30 kilometers outside Ashgabat. Berdimuhamedov succeeded Turkmenbashi as president and held the office for roughly 15 years. During that period, government officials and state media gave him the title “Arkadag,” or “Protector.” Not surprisingly, when one of the elders at the Gypjak meeting proposed naming the new mosque in Arkadag city the Arkadag Spiritual Mosque, there was unanimous support. Why Hojagulyyev was fired is unclear, though there is speculation that Berdimuhamedov had been angry with the mufti since 2023, when Hojagulyyev brought his wife to make the Hajj at state expense. Hojagulyyev had been the head mufti since 2019. Turkmenbashi Tames the Clergy First President Niyazov is credited with bringing the entire state apparatus under his full control in the first years after Turkmenistan’s 1991 independence. However, it took him longer to achieve the total submission of Islamic clergy. Toward the end of 1999, leading Islamic cleric and scholar Khoja Ahmed Orazgylych criticized Niyazov’s public support for the traditional New Year celebration that included dancing around a Christmas tree." The practice dated back to the...

Academy of Sciences

Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhamedov Awarded Academic Titles

Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhamedov has been awarded the title of professor in economic and political sciences and elected as an academician of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan. The announcement was made by the state-run Golden Age. The award ceremony took place at the Academy of Sciences on the eve of Science Day, observed annually in Turkmenistan on June 12. According to the official statement, Berdimuhamedov received the professorship for his “outstanding contributions to scientific-production, innovation-industrial, socio-economic, and scientific-technical transformations,” as well as for promoting modern science and expanding international cooperation. The academy also said his election as an academician reflected his role in socio-economic development, the modernization of healthcare, support for science and education, the introduction of new technologies into the economy, and raising Turkmenistan’s international standing. The 44-year-old president has now followed a path similar to that of his father, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the country’s former president, who is widely known by the title Arkadag, or “Protector.” Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov holds titles including Doctor of Medical Sciences, Doctor of Economics, professor, and academician of the Academy of Sciences. The elder Berdimuhamedov has authored more than 60 books covering topics ranging from medicine and philosophy to culture, spirituality, Akhal-Teke horses, Alabai dogs, and sports. Serdar Berdimuhamedov has so far published four books. President Berdimuhamedov graduated in 2001 from the Turkmen Agricultural University named after Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan’s first president, with a degree in engineering technology. Between 2008 and 2011, he served as counselor-envoy at Turkmenistan’s embassy in Russia while studying international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of Russia’s Foreign Ministry. In August 2014, he defended his PhD-equivalent dissertation at the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, and in July 2015 received a Doctor of Technical Sciences degree.

Diplomacy

Turkmenistan Highlights International Outreach at Cabinet Meeting

A recent Cabinet meeting in Turkmenistan highlighted contacts with many countries and international organizations, reinforcing a perception that the tightly managed nation is taking more steps, however limited, to engage the world. Appearing via video link, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov presided over the May 1 meeting of ministers who covered economic growth, oil and natural gas production, scientific research, and other national priorities in a review of the year so far. But international outreach was a big part of the high-level discussion in an energy-rich Central Asian country often defined as opaque and restrictive. An account of the meeting by the Turkmenistan State News Agency (TDH) ticked off statistics: 220 delegations visited Turkmenistan this year, 400 delegations from Turkmenistan visited other countries, 711 negotiations and other meetings occurred in the country with foreign states and international agencies, and 57 more international documents were added to Turkmenistan’s legal code. “The development of diplomatic relations through foreign embassies is one of the important directions of the foreign policy work of neutral Turkmenistan,” said the report, referring to the country’s policy of non-alignment and not getting involved in the internal affairs of other countries. “Work on promoting relations with the countries of the Middle East is also ongoing,” it said. Iraq opened its embassy in Ashgabat in March, 17 years after Turkmenistan and Iraq established diplomatic relations in 2009. On May 4, Rashid Meredov, Turkmenistan’s foreign minister, spoke by telephone with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi about regional security, Caspian issues, and other matters, according to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry. The ministry’s statement did not mention the Iran conflict or uncertainty surrounding the ceasefire with the United States. Turkmenistan’s international campaign is consistent with a pattern seen across Central Asia, where governments have sought to diversify their trade and diplomatic ties while maintaining close relations with the region’s major powers, Russia and China. Turkmenistan, however, still exports most of its natural gas to China, its largest trading partner. At the same time, Turkmenistan is intensifying efforts to integrate into the global trading system, with officials reaffirming plans to move towards membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is the last post-Soviet republic to start WTO accession talks. Turkmenistan’s leaders are also working on their international profiles. Berdimuhamedov attended an ecological summit of regional leaders in Kazakhstan last month. His father and predecessor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, traveled to the U.S. in February, China in March, and Austria in April. This month, he is due to travel to the Russian city of Kazan. Although government transparency is limited in Turkmenistan, father and son appear to run the country through a power-sharing arrangement. Outsiders are getting more glimpses of Turkmenistan. The capital, Ashgabat, hosted an international tourism conference in April. This month, the Reuters news agency reported on a trip there after being given what it said was “rare access” to travel in the country. It remains unclear, however, whether any efforts to engage with the outside world will materially change daily life in Turkmenistan, where people...