Page 7 - Small Stans Outlook 2024

1.3 Politics - Turkmenistan
There’s been no sign of meaningful reform in Turkmenistan under Serdar Berdimuhamedov, who will soon enter his third year as president. If anything, the opposite has been the case. But then you have to ask if Berdimuhamedov is really in charge. In a curious internal coup, junior’s father and predecessor
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov arranged a new position for himself – that of “national leader”, which means the president and his administration is answerable to him.
The stench of corruption among the Turkmen elites is as strong as ever. Rotten episodes are regularly exposed by self-exiled Turkmen and foreign press, but the world shrugs and moves on, just as it does with reports of the regime’s egregious human rights abuses.
Just before Christmas, OCCRP told how the government built a state-of-the-art beauty clinic for $51mn, then, just before it was opened, secretly privatised it and sold the facility at a huge discount to a company connected to the president’s family. October brought the sad story of how a Turkmen stand-up comedian who returned home after a long stay in Turkey was beaten to death in Ashgabat. In November, officials prevented the only journalist in Turkmenistan who openly criticises the nation’s tyranny from flying to an awards ceremony in Switzerland.
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, meanwhile, has added a new facet to his personality cult. Forget for a moment the petrostate-fuelled football monster that is Manchester City, and pick up on the ludicrous ascent of Arkadag FC, which, backed by the former president, in 2023 blitzed Turkmenistan’s top league in its debut season, winning every single one of its matches. This, unfortunately, was not a story of pure sporting heart and prowess. Arkadag was permitted to sign most of its rivals’ best players before the start of the season.
At least the gas-rich Turkmen totalitarians lately showed an ounce of international solidarity by agreeing to join the Global Methane Pledge in the
fight against the climate crisis – though, as has been pointed out, Ashgabat has picked the lowest possible hanging fruit in addressing planet-heating emissions, and there are still doubts over whether it will be big enough on implementation.
Of course, if the world energy transition away from hydrocarbons proceeds at the fast pace that climate scientists are urging as essential, Turkmenistan’s
regime – with little else in its economy besides its immense gas resources, as
well as cotton and tomato exports – could eventually find itself living on borrowed time.
7 Small Stans 2023 www.intellinews.com