In other personnel changes, Mukhammetgeldy Serdarov has been replaced as Finance and Economy Minister by Serdar Jorayev, and Shakhym Abdrakhmanov was dismissed as the deputy prime minister with the portfolio for oil and gas sector affairs and replaced by former presidential advisor Ashirguly Begliyev. Then again, by slotting Industry and Construction Minister Baymyrat Annamammedov into that freshly vacated seat, Berdymukhamedov was hardly signaling any change in course. President Berdymukhamedov may have been heading off criticism when he seized upon the opportunity of the Cabinet meeting to fire Charymyrat Purchekov, the deputy prime minister with the portfolio for construction, along with the power sector and industry. Breakneck-speed construction has regularly been cited as one of the cornerstones of economic growth in Turkmenistan, but it is quite possible this theme may be downplayed in future in light of the human toll that the culture of hasty, slapdash building appears to have taken in Turkey. Perhaps one slight surprise is that government statisticians chose to claim that the construction sector had grown by only 0.3 percent – a modest figure given that a whole new city, Arkadag, has appeared in the space of the last year. In Turkmenistan, these figures are abstract and impossible to verify to the point of meaninglessness. The plan is to grow the economy by 6.5 percent in 2023, partly through the creation of 3,000 new jobs in “modern enterprises.” Thus it was that the public learned that the country’s gross domestic product had expanded by 6.2 percent in 2022. President Berdymukhamedov (the younger) devoted relatively little time to the ongoing situation in Turkey at the February 10 Cabinet meeting, much of which was given over to the traditional unveiling of bogus economic performance figures. Turkmen.news has reported that the remains of at least four people have been returned home. So it was particularly eye-catching that Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who has served as the public face of Turkmenistan’s condolence-paying, on February 8 admitted that some Turkmen citizens had died in Turkey. Turkmen state news media does not as a rule report on the fact of accidental deaths of its own citizens caused by car crashes, industrial disasters, natural calamities and the like. Rather than loosen their grip for the duration of this crisis, by allowing use of some banned instant messaging apps, for example, the authorities are only intensifying their controls, Turkmen.news reported. In addition to the communication problems caused by the disaster itself, people in Turkmenistan must also contend with the government’s suffocating internet censorship, which makes keeping in touch with friends and relatives a challenge. There have been numerous reports of people from neighboring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan either having been killed or being pulled from the rubble following the quake.īut as Amsterdam-based Turkmen.news has reported, it is a little more complicated for Turkmens. Turkey is also home to a large community of Turkmen nationals, so there is bound to be concern that some of them have been caught up in the cataclysm. So it is that the aid will be given at the behest of a shadily funded charitable foundation named after the former president, Berdymukhamedov’s father, Gurbanguly, who now styles himself the “National Leader.”Ī planeload of humanitarian aid, consisting of medical specialists, drugs, and unspecified fabric products, was sent by the government in Turkmenistan on February 7, one day after the earthquake. State television reported on February 10 that President Serdar Berdymukhamedov had signed a decree to provide assistance to children in particular.īut even in these desperate moments, the regime in Ashgabat could not hit pause on the self-promoting megalomania. Turkmenistan was no exception in reaching out a helping hand to Turkey following a cataclysmic earthquake that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
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