Turkmenistan the Golden Age: Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov at his inauguration.

When President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov took his oath of office after his landslide 97 percent election win, what did he swear to?

I can't seem to find a precise description of this in the official media or wire services — does anyone know?

There's obviously the scene where he is kissing the Turkmen flag — that's in the state media. Then there's this photo above where he stands before two books.  I'm betting that one of them is the Constitution of Turkmenistan, and the other is the Koran. I'm figuring they've ditched the Ruhnama.

In his inauguration in 2007, Berdy put his hand on the Constitution — Turkmenistan is a secular state. He then bowed to the Koran as a sign of respect to its traditions — this was deliberate. And I think he then either kissed or bowed to the Ruhnama, which is an amalgam of state cult ideology and religion.

Now it seems he only has these two books. Which is at his left hand and which is at his right?

The Ruhnama is usually shown with a green and pink colour cover, so I'm guessing what we're seeing here are the Koran and the Constitution.

RFE/RL's Turkmen Service has a video clip showing some more elements — Berdy both kisses the flag and holds it to his forehead. Then, he goes to the podium and holds up a little green book with a picture — is that him? Is that his certificate of presidency…or something? He is already wearing a large green medal with the 16-sided star of Oguz Khan that is Turkmenistan's state symbol.

Then, one of those elder folks in the large hats like the guards in Wizard of Oz come up to shake his hands. That's supposed to signify that the elders of the country are the ones who support/chose him — he works for "the people" as signified by those wise men. But unfortunately, the clip shuts off before we see what he does with which book…