Almost 41% of elected deputies are under 40 years of age. Women represent 26% of the members of the Medžlis. The country remains under the control of the Berdymukhamedov family. Worried about the economic situation, the population resorts to magical solutions to remedy their problems. Discontent with politics and the organs of power.
Moscow () – “About 41% of elected deputies are under 40 years old,” explained Gulmyrat Mjradov, president of the Turkmen Central Election Commission. The official also commented that women make up more than a quarter of Ashgabat’s parliament. Parliamentary and local elections were held in Turkmenistan on March 26, with the electoral authorities announcing the results to the Council of Ministers, reported Turkmen Portal.
Mjradov highlighted the rejuvenation of the parliamentary body: “In our country there is great respect for women, who now make up 26% of Medžlis deputies.” The female share is even higher in the jalk maslakhaty of the velayat, the regional parliaments, where it reaches almost 30%. In the etrapy (municipalities) and in the gengešy (territorial popular assemblies), similar percentages are repeated.
Of the 258 parliamentary candidates, 125 were elected in the last elections: 65 from the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, 18 from the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, 24 from the Agrarian Party and 18 independent candidates from civic lists. In this way, Turkmenistan offers a composite picture of “social” democracy and representative of all categories, although one cannot remotely speak of opposition to the regime of the Berdymukhamedov family, which controls all power structures.
The brand new regional parliaments have already identified the first enemies that must be fought for the good of Turkmen society: fortune tellers and healers. He velayat of Balkan has started to demand some kind of license to practice the “profession”, a decision that was adopted by other local administrations. The measures against fortune tellers and witches had begun to get tougher as the economic crisis of recent years worsened, and now they are trying to curb the anxiety of the population, who resort to magic to solve problems that politics does not seem to address.
In the cities of Maktumkuli and Turkmenbaši, collaborators of the security forces began to carry out extensive checks on the homes of “gadalki”, haruspices and “tebibi” (people’s doctors). According to the correspondents of Radio Azatlyk, officials talk with these people to ask for “clarifications.” Shamans must undergo special controls by state agencies, in order to obtain official permission to continue their activities. The problem, reporters say Azatlyk“is that such a body does not exist in Turkmenistan”, and one of the first tasks of the “young politicians” will be to deal with it.
Esoteric and magical activities are not prohibited by Turkmen law. However, since 2016 an “advertising” law has been in force that prohibits advertising this type of service, including “extrasensory and astrological” services, or any allusion to the activation of “supernatural forces or energies”. In recent times, the police have issued several arrest warrants for “imposing hexes and curses against people” and, more generally, for “negatively influencing the country’s economy”, a reason that is very difficult to prove in court, where fortune tellers usually come off well.
There is no doubt that the different sorcerers, increasingly popular in Turkmenistan, take advantage of the good faith of the population, often seized with despair by the daily difficulties of social life, the huge unemployment rate and the ineffectiveness of the sanitary system. The evil eye against adversaries is increasingly requested, which underlines a latent discontent and conflict that cannot be expressed in public, due to the total control of state agencies.
The young women ask to win the hand of the richest men, in a ruthless competition that destroys the harmony of families: to achieve this, they must pay between 5 and 10 thousand manats (1,000-2,000 euros), much more than the average salary of a person, which assures magicians large profits. For these sums, the girls receive lucky charms, made from soil collected in cemeteries.
