Turkmenistan

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Country in central Asia, bounded north by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, west by the Caspian Sea, and south by Iran and Afghanistan.

Government
Under the 1992 constitution, Turkmenistan has a one-party presidential political system. The president, who is directly elected for a five-year term, is head of state and government (prime minister) and appoints the council of ministers. The president was approved as president for life by the legislature in 1999. There is a directly elected 50-member working parliament, the Majlis, which is elected for five years, and a supervisory supreme national assembly, the People's Council (Khalk Maslakhaty), comprising 65 elected representatives from the districts, the 50 Majlis members, members of the council of ministers, and local council and judicial heads. All candidates at elections must belong to the ruling Democratic Party of Turkmenistan.

History
The principal Turkmen tribes are the Tekkes of Merv and Attok, the Ersaris, the Yomuds, and the Gokluns, all speaking varieties of a Turkic language and descended from the Mongol invaders who swept across Asia in the 13th century. Arabs brought Islam to the area from the 7th century.

Conquered by Tsarist Russia 1877–1900, the region became part of the Turkestan Soviet Socialist Autonomous Republic in 1921, and a constituent republic of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1925. The tribal Turkmen people were encouraged to become secular and abandon nomadism, and the Soviet-built Kara Kum canal brought millions of acres of desert to life, although living standards remained very low.

Independence achieved
Turkmenistan's nationalist movement was more muted than in other former Soviet Central Asian republics. In August 1990 Turkmenistan's supreme soviet (legislature) declared its ‘sovereignty’; Communist Party leader Saparmurad Niyazov was elected president. However, in the March 1991 USSR constitutional referendum the population voted to maintain the Union, and the attempted conservative communist coup in Moscow in August 1991 against the reform communist Mikhail Gorbachev was initially supported by President Niyazov. In the October 1991 referendum there was an overwhelming (94%) vote in favour of independence, which was duly declared.

Turkmenistan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in December 1991. It was admitted into the United Nations in March 1992 and received US diplomatic recognition. In February 1992 Turkmenistan had joined the Economic Cooperation Organization, founded by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey in 1975.

A new constitution was introduced in May 1992, but the republic's political system remained dominated by communists, led by Niyazov. The republic, with its strict, secular leadership, succeeded in avoiding the religious and interethnic violence experienced by neighbouring Tajikistan during the early 1990s. A personality cult was developed around Niyazov, whose presidential term was extended by five years by referendum.

Economic reform and the cult of Turkmenbashi
Turkmenistan was less severely affected by the dissolution of the USSR than many other republics due to its abundant natural resources. Following independence, Niyazov changed his policies and Turkmenistan pursued a programme of cautious economic reform. In 1997 private land ownership was legalized and Turkmenistan encouraged foreign investment, creating seven free economic zones for the purpose. About half the population, however, remained unemployed and living below the poverty line in the mid 2000s.

Niyazov governed in a dictatorial manner, keeping firm control over political and religious opposition. He presented himself as a promoter of traditional Muslim Turkmen culture and called himself ‘Turkmenbashi’, ‘leader of all ethnic Turkmen’.

Green stands for the forests and agriculture. Gold symbolizes the country's mineral wealth. Blue represents the sea. Effective date: 30 June 1964. >>