On 20 November the only son of Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov became an MP for the ruling Democratic Party of Turkmenistan. Serdar Berdymukhamedov’s election to parliament had not been previously announced. The state media had simply mentioned that partial elections would be held in Ahal and Mary Oblasts to replace outgoing MPs. Besides Serdar, the president has three daughters so it appears to many that he is grooming his son for the presidency. The next male from the presidential clan is his 12-year-old grandson who is too young to become a candidate for the highest political office any time soon. It is possible that the president has illegitimate children — Wikileaks published US diplomatic cables in 2009 which referred to an ethnic Russian mistress — but most observers concur that none of them have a political future because of their low status.

Little information is known of Serdar Berdymukhamedov. He is said to have studied at the Russian Diplomatic Academy in 2008-2011 and to have defended a doctoral thesis at the Turkmen Academy of Science. His academic specialisation remains unclear. According to some sources, he worked for a time at the Ministry of Agriculture, but there is data suggesting that his affiliation with the ministry was through a non-profit organisation. Serdar’s ties to agriculture could be more personal because he is believed to be the owner of multiple cotton-growing businesses, as well as a chain of hotels. The presidential family is likely to own properties in the Avaza tourist zone on the Caspian Sea which was designed and built under President Berdymukhamedov’s direct supervision.

In July 2016, opposition Turkmen media reported that Serdar had been appointed by his father to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the time, the president had ordered an administrative reform scrapping the State Agency for the Management of Hydrocarbon Resources where his son had presumably been working. It is rumoured that Serdar took the helm of one of the three newly established departments at the Foreign Ministry possibly with the rank of deputy minister. Government websites rarely post detailed biographies of key officials except for ministers. In any case, Serdar’s appointment would have been logical after three years he spent at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Federation where many post-Soviet leaders have trained their children for high-level diplomatic careers. As an MP, however, Serdar Berdymukhamedov cannot work elsewhere – or so the law says.

Follow this story in Menas Associates’ monthly Caspian Focus publication.