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Turkmenistan
Government and Politics
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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