Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow

Berdimuhamedow was born on 29 June 1957 in Babarap, in what is now Gökdepe District, Ahal Province, to Mälikguly Berdimuhamedowiç Berdimuhamedow (1932–2021) and Ogulabat Kürräýewna Kürräýewa (1937–2023). He is the only son in a family of six children. Berdimuhamedow’s father worked as a senior Interior Ministry officer in a prison guard detachment. He retired as a colonel of police. Berdimuhamedow's grandfather, Berdimuhamed Annaýew, was a local teacher who served in the Red Army during World War II as part of the 748th Rifle Regiment of the 206th Rifle Division of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. In September 1943, his unit was one of the first to cross the Dnieper River. He was later killed in the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake.

Professional career

Berdimuhamedow graduated from the Turkmen State Medical Institute in 1979 and entered a career in dentistry. He also received a PhD in medical sciences in Moscow. By 1992 he had become part of the dentistry faculty at the Medical Institute. In 1995, during the rule of Saparmyrat Nyýazow, he became head of the dentistry center of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry.

Family

According to a cable from the U.S. embassy in Ashgabat, Berdimuhamedow is married and has three daughters (two legitimate, Oguljahan Atabaýewa and Gülşan Amanowa, and one illegitimate) and one son, Serdar Berdimuhamedow, the current president of Turkmenistan.

One of his sons-in-law, Yhlasgeldi Amanov, reportedly headed the Turkmen State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources in London and was reportedly later assigned to the Turkmenistan Embassies in Berlin and London, and as of 23 November 2019 was Turkmenistan's consul general in Dubai. According to the diplomatic cable, the other son-in-law is also a diplomat, with a prior posting in Paris, but later assigned to Brussels. However, other sources indicate that the identities were reversed in the diplomatic cable, and that the Atabayevs were posted to London and Berlin, not the Amanovs.

Daughter Oguljahan is vice president and executive director of the Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow Charitable Fund for Children.

According to the same leaked cables, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has a mistress, Marina, a Russian nurse, whom he supposedly met earlier in his dentist career. They have a daughter together. Berdimuhamedow's wife has been living in London since 2007. Serdar served in the Armed Forces and the Assembly of Turkmenistan, and held a series of high government posts, leading to appointment as a deputy chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers before his election to the presidency. At least three of Berdimuhamedow's grandchildren have studied in Switzerland. According to a biography of Berdimuhamedow's father, Malikguly, published in 2012, Berdimuhamedow has five sisters.

On 18 April 2021, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow's father, Mälikguly Berdimuhamedow, reportedly died at the age of 89. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow's mother, Ogulabat Berdimuhamedowa (née Kürräýewa), died in April 2023 at the age of 86.

The Berdimuhamedow family makes extensive use of a fleet of five VIP-configured Boeing airplanes.

He was appointed to the government as Minister of Health in 1997. In 2001 he was appointed as one of several deputy chairmen of the Cabinet of Ministers (also referred to as Deputy Prime Minister, despite the lack of a Prime Ministerial post in Turkmenistan), in this case responsible for health, science, education, and sports. In April 2004, Nyýazow suspended Berdimuhamedow's salary for three months because healthcare workers were not being paid.

The Health Ministry was responsible for carrying out Nyýazow's order to close all hospitals outside of the national and provincial capitals in 2005.