Turkmenistan president 'sings own birthday song'

The president of isolated Turkmenistan marked his birthday by singing on national television a love song whose music and words he had penned himself. Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov serenaded Turkmen viewers with the love song "For You, My White Flowers" on a special television show late Saturday celebrating his 54th birthday. Berdymukhamedov was shown in casual clothes, wearing grey slacks, a shirt and green pullover, singing the song to the accompaniment of a guitar which he also played. The song was also shown on a giant screen to a concert attended by 3,500 people in Ashgabat, with the audience standing and applauding the head of state during the song. Berdymukhamedov was himself not present at the concert but the anchor confirmed that the president had written "the words and music himself". State television said his guitar and accordion have now been placed in the national museum as a "national asset and great treasure". Berdymukhamedov is fond of showing off his skills away from politics and in April staged an impressive display of his horsemanship on the back of a rare Akhal-Teke horse. Berdymukhamedov is seeking to very cautiously ease the country out of the isolation of his eccentric predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov who died in 2006. He has cut back on some of the excesses of Niyazov, known as the Turkmenbashi, and last year removed a golden statue of his predecessor in Ashgabat which rotated to face the sun. But observers have noted a budding cult of personality with giant banners of Berdymukhamedov's face hanging on government buildings while critics have complained that stabs at reform have amounted to little more than window dressing.