ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) – Turkmenistan’s new president was sworn in just minutes after his election victory was announced Wednesday, promising some change in the Central Asian nation but also pledging to follow the path of the leader whose death ended more than 15 years of autocratic rule.
Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov – as expected, the overwhelming winner of the country’s first election with more than one candidate – offered conflicting clues about the course of a gas-rich, strategically located country long held in thrall by his predecessor’s personality cult.
Standing rigid on a stage with a chain of medals around his neck, Berdymukhamedov took the oath of office before legislators and foreign leaders eager for signals of the how the former Soviet Union’s most mysterious country will develop following the Dec. 21 death of ruler Saparmurat Niyazov.
“I will continue the work of the past president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Turkmenbashi the Great,” Berdymukhamedov said. He kissed a copy of the Rukhnama, a book by Niyazov – known as Turkenbashi, or Father of All Turkmen – that is required reading in schools across the desert nation.
Berdymukhamedov aid the state will continue to provide free water, salt, natural gas and electricity – commodities that are increasingly expensive in ex-Soviet republics embracing market rules – and to keep gasoline prices low.
But he also repeated calls for change and suggestions of increased openness that he has made since maneuvering into the imterim presidency after the death of Niyazov, who had fostered an all-encompassing cult of personality in his two decades in power and had kept Turkmens largely isolated.
He pledged to allow ordinary Turkmens access to the Internet and promised “development of private ownership and entrepreneurship” as well as education reforms that would include more foreign language study and place more students in college.
Niyazov had kept the country’s economy largely under state control and had reduced compulsory education to nine years instead of 10; Internet access was available only to state officials, journalists and some organizations.
Berdymukhamedov, a former health minister who was responsible for implementing Niyazov’s order in 2005 to close all hospitals outside the capital and fire some 15,000 doctors, also promised more doctors and hospitals in the nation of 5 million.
Berdymukhamedov was sworn in at a session of the People’s Council, the highest legislative body, a few minutes after the head of the Central Election Commission announced he had won Sunday’s election with nearly 90 percent of the vote.
The presidential poll was the first in Turkmenistan – where Niyazov had been proclaimed president-for-life but hinted at eventual elections – with multiple candidates. But all six candidates were from the only legal political party, and Berdymukhamedov has shown no signs of interest in ending the one-party system.
Niyazov remains an overwhelming presence some two months after his death. Statues of him abound, including a golden one in the capital, Ashgabat, that rotates to follow the sun’s path. He renamed months and days of the week after himself and members of his family.
Berdymukhamedov said he would “dedicate my efforts to the legacy” of Niyazov.
His words and actions will be watched closely by Russia and the West, both of which have substantial interest in the country because of its enormous natural gas reserves and its stability and proclaimed neutrality in a contentious region, bordering Iran and Afghanistan and close to Russia and the Caucasus.
Russia, a major buyer and transporter of Turkmen gas, signaled its eagerness to maintain close relations and avoid any Westward shift by lavishing attention on the new president of a country that has faced Western criticism for its human rights record and intolerance of dissent.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov attended the inaguration and was shown on Russia television meeting separately with Berdymukhamedov, and the head of Russia’s state-controlled natural gas monopoly, OAO Gazprom, was also present.
President Vladimir Putin spoke to Berdymukhamedov by phone and sent him a message calling Russia a “reliable friend of Turkmenistan,” the Kremlin said. Putin congratulated Berdymkuhamedov on a “convnvcing victory” he said showed “a high level of trust” among the people.
One woman in Ashgabat, who would not give her name, said she voted for Berdymukhamedov “because he’s the one we know.”
But another voter, Aliye Mehmetova, 50, could not recall the name of the candidate who got her vote.
“What’s his name? … The first one on the ballot,” she said, referring to Berdymukhamedov. A group of women around her also could not come up with the name, saying they voted for “the first one.”
