Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdymukhamedov was given the rank of Army General on Friday, following in his highly decorated father’s footsteps. The oil and gas rich former Soviet republic has been ruled for more than 16 years by Berdymukhamedov, 41, and his father Gurbanguly who stood down in 2022 and handed power to his son. Parliaments’s decision to give Berdymukhamedov the high military grade comes several days after his father and former leader became “national leader of the Turkmen people” and chairman of a supreme body with broad powers. State media reported Friday that lawmakers had issued a decree “conferring the military rank of General of the Army to the President of Turkmenistan”. Friday is Defender of the Fatherland Day in Turkmenistan marking the establishment of the armed forces. The country’s first president Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in 2006, was an army general and former defense minister. Men in Turkmenistan aged 18 to 27 are required to do two years of military service. The military, which is mainly made up of conscripts, is estimated to have between 30,000 and 40,000 soldiers in its ranks. In October 2022, Serdar Berdymukhamedov attended military exercises for the first time as commander-in-chief, in which Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones were used.