WHAT'S GOING ON WITH TURKMENISTAN?
- Paul Hansbury
- Aug 30
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 31
Some years ago, I asked a Central Asia analyst in a UK government department what there was a lack of external expertise about. The reply came quickly. 'Turkmenistan!'
It is admittedly one of the most closed and unknown of countries. It was long led by Saparmurat Niyazov, who renamed the days of the week and months of the year on a whim (January was renamed with his moniker, Turkmenbasy or 'leader of the Turkmen'). Niyazov also had a rotating golden statue of himself erected in the capital, Ashgabat.
When Niyazov died in 2006, his successor Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov proved only slightly less of an egomaniac. He tried to hand power over to his son, Serdar, in 2022 and the two endeavoured to run the country in tandem. But the father later manoeuvred to regain more or less full control. In spite of this, Serdar is presently only in his early forties, meaning that the Berdymukhamedov dynasty can be expected to wield power in the country for decades to come.
Unexpected things can happen, of course, but I would not count on a pro-democracy revolution coming any time soon to one of the most tightly controlled states in the world. Indeed, Freedom House ranks Turkmenistan as less free than North Korea. Its 2025 assessment scores Turkmenistan 0 out of 60 for political rights and 1 out of 60 for civil liberties (the single point is for citizens being allowed to own property without excessive state interference).
