Turkmen Chief Sacks Former Ally
Turkmen Chief Sacks Former Ally
Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov has sacked another of the key figures who engineered his rise to power, NBCentralAsia sources say.
Berdymuhammedov dismissed the Prosecutor-General, Muhammetguly Ogshukov, at a session of the State Security Council on March 3.
The president denounced “shortcomings” in the prosecution service”, which mainly consisted of the “unscrupulousness and self-interest of staff”.
From the moment Ogshukov took over as chief prosecutor in April 2006, “the prosecutor’s office relaxed its control and started exceeding its authority”, said Berdymuhammedov, telling the official to his face, “I am firing you for all these things.”
The meeting followed a well-worn path, with the disgraced Ogshukov acknowledging the error of his ways and the president naming his successor, Chary Khojamyradov, until now head of the Supreme Court. The whole performance was shown on the state TV channel Altyn Asyr.
NBCentralAsia observers say Ogshukov’s dismissal was no surprise, and it had only been a matter of time before he was kicked out. He is the latest in a series of officials who helped install Berdymuhammedov – a relative outsider – as president-elect when the late Saparmurat Niazov died in December 2006.
NBCA observers in Ashgabat viewed Ogshukov as a key member of security-sector insiders who took swift action to clear the way for Berdymuhammedov.
“At that moment [following Niazov’s death], it was a request from Ogshukov that got parliamentarians to consent to criminal charges being brought against Niazov’s legal successor,” recalled one observer in Turkmenistan.
He was referring to Ovezgeldy Ataev, who as speaker of parliament would automatically have become acting head of state on Niazov’s death. Instead, Ataev was summarily tried by a closed court and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on what was widely seen as a trumped-up charge.
Then, in late December 2006, security and law-enforcement officials attending a meeting of the Security Council approved a crucial change to the constitution clearing the way for Berdymuhammedov to run for the presidency, something he would previously have been barred from doing in the role of acting head of state. He duly won a national election in February.
“What can Ogshukov say to justify himself now?” asked one local journalist. “He violated constitutional laws, and the president now has to remove all who did so,” the journalist added.
From the start of his presidency, Berdymuhammedov repeatedly used his chief prosecutor as his hatchet-man when he wanted to dispose of unwanted rivals.
The president started his campaign of firing security and law-enforcement officials soon after his inauguration. Security-sector reform provided the pretext for the purge.
In May 2007, the influential Akmurad Rejepov, head of the presidential security service and Niazov’s loyal companion, nicknamed the “eminence grise”.
Rejepov got 17 years in a high-security prison for “corruption and abuse of office”.
Interior Minister Akmamed Rahmanov had been dismissed in April for failing to discipline and lead his men.
By October, Rahmanov’s replacement as interior minister, Hojamyrat Annagurbanov, was thrown out, while the minister for national security, General Geldymuhammed Ashirmuhammedov was removed more gently, ostensibly on health grounds.
In this round of public dismissals, the chief prosecutor Ogshukov was invariably on hand to read out accusatory speeches and long lists of the sins allegedly committed by the disgraced officials.
Ogshukov, who is 43, had worked his way up in the prosecution service before Niazov made him prosecutor general in April 2006.
“He’s done his job so he can leave now,” commented one policeman, adding that of all the top security officials, only Defence Minister Agageldy Mamatgeldyev was left.
“But Berdymuhammedov will find something against him, too,” predicted the officer, suggesting that the current military reforms designed to bring in fresh blood would offer a likely avenue of attack on the minister, who is 62.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment.)
Berdymuhammedov dismissed the Prosecutor-General, Muhammetguly Ogshukov, at a session of the State Security Council on March 3.
The president denounced “shortcomings” in the prosecution service”, which mainly consisted of the “unscrupulousness and self-interest of staff”.
From the moment Ogshukov took over as chief prosecutor in April 2006, “the prosecutor’s office relaxed its control and started exceeding its authority”, said Berdymuhammedov, telling the official to his face, “I am firing you for all these things.”
The meeting followed a well-worn path, with the disgraced Ogshukov acknowledging the error of his ways and the president naming his successor, Chary Khojamyradov, until now head of the Supreme Court. The whole performance was shown on the state TV channel Altyn Asyr.
NBCentralAsia observers say Ogshukov’s dismissal was no surprise, and it had only been a matter of time before he was kicked out. He is the latest in a series of officials who helped install Berdymuhammedov – a relative outsider – as president-elect when the late Saparmurat Niazov died in December 2006.
NBCA observers in Ashgabat viewed Ogshukov as a key member of security-sector insiders who took swift action to clear the way for Berdymuhammedov.
“At that moment [following Niazov’s death], it was a request from Ogshukov that got parliamentarians to consent to criminal charges being brought against Niazov’s legal successor,” recalled one observer in Turkmenistan.
He was referring to Ovezgeldy Ataev, who as speaker of parliament would automatically have become acting head of state on Niazov’s death. Instead, Ataev was summarily tried by a closed court and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on what was widely seen as a trumped-up charge.
Then, in late December 2006, security and law-enforcement officials attending a meeting of the Security Council approved a crucial change to the constitution clearing the way for Berdymuhammedov to run for the presidency, something he would previously have been barred from doing in the role of acting head of state. He duly won a national election in February.
“What can Ogshukov say to justify himself now?” asked one local journalist. “He violated constitutional laws, and the president now has to remove all who did so,” the journalist added.
From the start of his presidency, Berdymuhammedov repeatedly used his chief prosecutor as his hatchet-man when he wanted to dispose of unwanted rivals.
The president started his campaign of firing security and law-enforcement officials soon after his inauguration. Security-sector reform provided the pretext for the purge.
In May 2007, the influential Akmurad Rejepov, head of the presidential security service and Niazov’s loyal companion, nicknamed the “eminence grise”.
Rejepov got 17 years in a high-security prison for “corruption and abuse of office”.
Interior Minister Akmamed Rahmanov had been dismissed in April for failing to discipline and lead his men.
By October, Rahmanov’s replacement as interior minister, Hojamyrat Annagurbanov, was thrown out, while the minister for national security, General Geldymuhammed Ashirmuhammedov was removed more gently, ostensibly on health grounds.
In this round of public dismissals, the chief prosecutor Ogshukov was invariably on hand to read out accusatory speeches and long lists of the sins allegedly committed by the disgraced officials.
Ogshukov, who is 43, had worked his way up in the prosecution service before Niazov made him prosecutor general in April 2006.
“He’s done his job so he can leave now,” commented one policeman, adding that of all the top security officials, only Defence Minister Agageldy Mamatgeldyev was left.
“But Berdymuhammedov will find something against him, too,” predicted the officer, suggesting that the current military reforms designed to bring in fresh blood would offer a likely avenue of attack on the minister, who is 62.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment.)
