Turkmenistan President Berdymukhamedov unveils 19-ft golden statue of his 'favourite dog'

Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on Tuesday, November 10, unveiled a 19-ft long gold statue of his favourite dog breed, Alabai, in the capital city of Ashgabat. As per reports, the golden statue is mounted on a pedestal and it has a wraparound LED display screen that shows footage of real Alabais. 

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Dog statue inaugrated 

The status unvieling video from the ceremony quickly when viral on social media. "Turkmenistan. The leader of this state, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, solemnly opened a monument for his favorite dog," tweeted Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut. As per reports, this is not the first time that the Turkmenistan President has honoured the breed. In 2019, he dedicated a book to Alabais. 

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In a separate development, amid the global pandemic, Turkmenistan has given permission to the World Health Organisation to perform independent testing for the virus in the country. As per reports, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Turkmenistan’s leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov conducted a teleconference on August 7.

While the teleconference which was broadcasted on Turkmenistan’s state TV channel did not mention the rising cases of pneumonia, WHO’s Europe director Hans Kluge who was also part of the call later tweeted saying that Turkmenistan had agreed to led WHO conduct independent virus testing in the country. 

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(Image Credits: Twitter/@poczobut)