The Malady Called Turkmenbashi

Earlier this week, we reported on the impressive surgical abilities of Turkmenistan's president. Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov not only rode his dentistry skill to the country's top office three years ago; he also can remove a tumor.

The feat attracted much attention not just at the novelty of a head of state taking time off to perform surgery, but because of whom the president succeeded in 2006. The country's former leader was Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-styled Turkmenbashi, or Leader of the Turkmen. Here was a man with a serious fixation on monuments.

We all had good fun at Turkmenbashi's expense before and after his death in 2006. I did so in this promo for Oil and the Glory last year.



But is this all Turkmenistan is bound for? Being a source of humor to the region and beyond? After awhile, my Turkmen friends certainly didn't think all the fussing was funny, and initially Berdymukhamedov attracted good reports for tearing down some of Niyazov's monuments, and reopening schools and libraries.

But it turns out that the surgery incident was indicative of a problem. Berdymukhamedov seems to have contracted the same malady that afflicted Niyazov.

On Tuesday, we heard that Berdymukhamedov launched a book on Turkmen plants with medicinal uses. Now we are told that he's also an expert on the famed Turkmen horse breed, the Akhal Tekke. His book on the subject is called Akhal Tekke: Our Pride and Glory, according to Daniel Kalder at the Telegraph in London.

The day before yesterday, the president's press service reported that Berdymukhamedov is also a pretty good pilot. He took over the controls of a Sikorsky helicopter in order to get "acquainted with the pace of a season cotton treatment campaign, preparation of land for tillage and harvesting of crops." The Turkmen leader then inspected a construction site from the air before being congratulated on his performance by the head of the country's state airline.

This is a man of the people. Berdymukhamedov's caring reaches even the ordinary tree. As the news service noted, after his official inspection, Berdymukhamedov "issued instructions to government officials to 'carefully examine the state of urban plants and establish proper gardening by providing timely watering of plants.'"

Berdymukhamedov is continuing with at least one of his predecessor's grandiose projects -- "Golden Age Lake," in which he is filling up a 77-square mile desert depression called Karashor with cotton-field run-off.

Quite apart from focusing on such $20 billion ventures while his country is mired in poverty, some people think the project could actually provoke war with neighboring Uzbekistan, which like much of the region has a chronic water shortage.

At the project launch a week ago, Berdymukhamedov turned a shovel-full of earth, then got on a horse and rode away to a waiting helicopter.

There was no word on who piloted it.

Becoming a Central Asian Dictator: Family Helps; So Does Medical Training

We have just a few examples of what it takes to assume control in one of the Caspian's more serious dictatorships. One best way of course is to be the dictator's offspring. But Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov triggered a search for the dentists of current dictators when he rose to Turkmenistan's leadership in 2006 on the sudden death of President Saparmurat Niyazov.

Now, however, the readers of Central Asian tea leaves may have to recast their successor-guessing net. It turns out that surgeons may do as well.

As Turkmenistan.ru reports today, Berdymukhamedov surpassed himself and actually performed cancer surgery on an unidentified patient from the Balkan Velayat province of western Turkmenistan. Well, he did have a bit of assistance -- two German and one Turkmen specialist were on hand with anesthesia and a helping hand.

This news is attracting attention. In Britain, the BBC reports that the tumor, declared benign, was behind the patient's ear. In Taipei, Taiwan News notes that some think that Berdymukhamedov's book on medicinal plants should be adopted in the training of health workers.

In other words, in terms of analysis, this development could shake up politics. In Kazakhstan, for instance, former first son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev is currently on the outs after unfortunately plotting a couple of coup attempts against President Nursultan Nazarbayev; he is on the run and living in exile in Austria. Central Asia's best analysts say this permanently puts the kabbosh on Aliyev's political ambitions. But these experts need to take into account this Central Asian shift: Aliyev is a trained surgeon.

Anyone have a list of the surgeons of Uzbekistan?

Turkmenbashi's Hidden Wealth

A website I hadn't previously heard of -- Gundogar -- poses one of the most self-evidently important questions I've heard recently: Whatever happened to Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov's fortune?

In her excellent piece, Gulnoza Saidazimova frames the stakes -- billions of dollars -- and the players (mainly German institutions) in the as-yet undisclosed location of Niyazov's presumed wealth.

We all know, just as a teaser, that the main reason the ultra-important trans-Caspian natural gas pipeline wasn't built during the 1990s was that Niyazov demanded that a $500 million bribe be deposited into his German bank account by the Western project developers, but was rebuffed.

What about the bribes that were paid? Given the history of the wealth of the world's fallen dictators, and the European banks that protect them, one is led to believe the money won't get back to Turkmenistan soon.