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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Turkmenistan
Index
The post-Soviet government of the Republic of Turkmenistan retains many
of the characteristics and the personnel of the communist regime of Soviet
Turkmenistan. The government has received substantial international
criticism as an authoritarian regime centering on the dominant power
position of President Saparmyrat Niyazov. Nevertheless, the 1992
constitution does characterize Turkmenistan as a democracy with separation
of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
Centers of Political Power
In 1994 members of the former Communist Party of Turkmenistan continued
to fill the majority of government and civic leadership posts, and much of
the ideologically justified Soviet-era political structure remained
intact. Besides serving as head of the Democratic Party (as the
reconstituted Communist Party of Turkmenistan is called) and chairman of
the advisory People's Council and the Cabinet of Ministers, Niyazov also
appoints the procurator general and other officers of the courts. In
criticizing Turkmenistan's political leadership, experts have cited the
single-party system, strict censorship, repression of political dissent,
and the "cult of personality" that has formed around President
Niyazov. Niyazov's name has been given to streets, schools, communal
farms, and numerous other places; his portrait and sayings receive
prominent public display; the country's mass media give him extensive
exposure that always characterizes him in a positive light; and a law "Against
Insulting the Dignity and Honor of the President" is in force.
At the same time, Western and Russian criticism generally has revealed
misunderstandings and stereotypes of the political and social dynamics of
the region that dilute the authority of such evaluations. Beneath the
surface of the presidential image, political life in Turkmenistan is
influenced by a combination of regional, professional, and tribal factors.
Regional ties appear to be the strongest of these factors; they are
evident in the opposing power bases of Ashgabat, center of the government,
and Mary, which is the center of a mafia organization that controls the
narcotics market and illegal trade in a number of commodities. Although
both areas are settled primarily by Turkmen of the Teke tribe, factions in
Ashgabat still express resentment and distrust of those in Mary for
failing to aid the fortress of Gokdepe against the 1881 assault that led
to Russian control of the Turkmen khanates (see Incorporation into Russia,
this ch.).
Political behavior also is shaped by the technocratic elites, who were
trained in Moscow and who can rely on support from most of the educated
professionals in Ashgabat and other urban areas. Most of the elites within
the national government originate from and are supported by the
intelligentsia, which also is the source of the few opposition groups in
the republic.
Tribal and other kinship ties rooted in genealogies play a much smaller
role than presumed by analysts who view Turkmen society as "tribal"
and therefore not at a sophisticated political level. Nonetheless, clan
ties often are reflected in patterns of appointments and networks of
power. Regional and clan ties have been identified as the bases for
political infighting in the republic. For example, in the early 1990s
power bases pitted the Mary district chieftain Gurban Orazov against the
Ashgabat millionaire and minister of agriculture Payzgeldi Meredov, and
the Teke clan's hold on power through Niyazov conflicted with the Yomud
clan's hold on the oil and gas industry through minister Nazar Soyunov. In
July 1994, Niyazov removed both Meredov and Soyunov from office on the
basis of evidence that the two ministers had misappropriated funds
obtained from the sale of state-owned resources. To correct such problems,
a Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations was formed to handle exports and
imports, and a Control and Revision Commission was established to review
contracts with foreign firms.
According to a law passed in December 1992, all permanent residents of
Turkmenistan are accorded citizenship unless they renounce that right in
writing. Non-residents may become citizens if they can demonstrate that
they have resided in Turkmenistan for the past seven years and that they
have some knowledge of the Turkmen language. Dual citizenship with certain
other former Soviet republics is permitted. The CIS summit held in
Ashgabat in December 1993 resulted in an accord on dual citizenship
between the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan, allowing Turkmenistan's
400,000 ethnic Russians to achieve that status.
In May 1992, Turkmenistan became the first newly independent republic
in Central Asia to ratify a constitution. According to the constitution
and to literature printed by the government, Turkmenistan is a democratic,
secular, constitutional republic based on law and headed by a president.
It is also termed a "presidential republic," one that is "based
on the principles of the separation of powers--legislative, executive, and
judicial--which operate independently, checking and balancing one another."
Data as of March 1996
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