38 Facts About Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow

Gurbanguly Malikgulyyewic Berdimuhamedow was born on 29 June 1957 and is a Turkmen politician and former dentist who is currently the chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow previously served as the second president of Turkmenistan from 2006 to 2022, when he entered into a power-sharing arrangement with his son, Serdar, the current president.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow became acting president following Niyazow's death on 21 December 2006 and subsequently won the 2007 presidential election.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was among the candidates elected to the People's Council of Turkmenistan on 28 March 2021, as a member from Ahal Region.

Gurbanguly 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 in modern times.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is the only son in a family of six children.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow's father worked as a senior Interior Ministry officer in a prison guard detachment.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow's grandfather, Berdimuhamed Annayew, 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.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was later killed in the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow graduated from the Turkmen State Medical Institute in 1979 and entered a career in dentistry.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow received a PhD in medical sciences in Moscow.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was appointed to the government as Minister of Health in 1997.

Article 60 of the Turkmen Constitution stipulated that the acting president "may not stand for election to the Presidency", which would have barred Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow from running in the 2007 presidential elections.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow then visited Russia and President Vladimir Putin at the end of the same month.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow called for reform of education, health care and pension systems, and government officials of non-Turkmen ethnic origin who had been sacked by Nyyazow were allowed to return to work.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow restored the pensions of 100,000 elderly people whose pensions Nyyazow had slashed in the face of an unspecified budget crisis.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow served as president of the National Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan.

In 2020, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow presided over the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkmenistan.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was among eight world leaders to have received the satiric 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".

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow replaced the Interior Minister Mammetkhan Chakiyev with his deputy Ovezdurdy Khojaniyazov on 1 July 2021.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow did not contest the election, which was won by Serdar, establishing Turkmenistan as the first Central Asian country to transfer power dynastically from father to son.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was unanimously elected chairperson of the People's Council despite that being a violation of the constitution.

Via a separate "constitutional law" signed into effect 21 January 2023, President Serdar Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow appointed his father "national leader" of Turkmenistan.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow visited Moscow in November 2022 at the invitation of the speaker of the Russian upper house, Valentina Matvienko.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow subsequently made additional trips abroad and met with visiting foreign delegations.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow took steps to curb Nyyazow's extensive personality cult.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow called for an end to the elaborate pageants of music and dancing that formerly greeted the president on his arrival anywhere, and said that the Turkmen "sacred oath", part of which states that the speaker's tongue should shrivel if he ever speaks ill of Turkmenistan or its president, should not be recited multiple times a day but reserved for "special occasions".

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow gave up his right to rename any landmarks, institutions, or cities, restored the traditional names of the months of the year and days of the week, and announced plans to move the gold rotating statue of Nyyazow from Ashgabat's central square.

In 2015, a golden statue of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow riding a horse atop a white-marble cliff was erected in Ashgabat.

The Turkmenistan Parliament abolished term limits for the presidency in September 2016, which allowed Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow to run for a third term.

In January 2018, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow ordered the impounding of black cars in the capital because he considered the colour white to be "lucky".

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is a known lover of the colour white, living in a white palace and travelling in white limousines.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow had previously lifted weights on camera, and acted as DJ.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow uses the honorific title Arkadag, translating to "protector" in the Turkmen language.

Portraits of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow are displayed in businesses and government offices, and during his presidency were affixed to the front bulkhead of airliners of the national airline.

At least three of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow's grandchildren have studied in Switzerland.

In 2019, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was awarded the highest award of the International Cycling Union for his country's commitment to the sport.

On 20 July 2019, YouTube channel of a Turkmen opposition media outlet published false reports that Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow had died while on holiday at the age of 61.