1. POLITICS OF TURKMENISTAN
Benedict (Viktor) Gombocz

2. Geography of Turkmenistan
 Location: CentralAsia, bordering the Caspian
Sea, between Iran and Kazakhstan
 Area:
 Total: 488,100 sq km
 Country comparison to the world: 53
 Land: 469,930 sq km
 Water: 18,170 sq km
 Area – comparative: Slightly larger than
California
 Land boundaries:
 Total: 3,736 km
 Border countries: Afghanistan 744 km, Iran 992 km,
Kazakhstan 379 km, Uzbekistan 1,621 km
 Coastline: 0 km (note –Turkmenistan borders
theCaspian Sea (1,768 km)

3. Physical Map of Turkmenistan

4. Religion in Turkmenistan
 TheTurkmens ofTurkmenistan, like their relatives
in neighboring Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran,
are predominantly Muslim.
 According to the CIA Factbook,Turkmenistan is
89% Muslim and 9% Eastern Orthodox; most
ethnic Russians practice Orthodox Christianity.
 The remaining 2% is unidentified.
 A 2009 Pew Research Center report indicated a
higher percentage of Muslims, with 93.1% of the
population ofTurkmenistan following Islam.
 The vast majority ofTurkmens willingly classify
themselves as Muslims and recognize Islam as a
central part of their cultural inheritance.
 Nevertheless, only some advocate a renewal of
Islam’s standing only as a characteristic of national
revival.

5. Religion statistics
 Muslim 89%
 Eastern Orthodox 9%
 Unknown 2%

6. Turkmenistan’s political system:
Overview
 The political system ofTurkmenistan functions in the structure of a presidential
republic; the President serves as both head of state and head of government.
 Turkmenistan has a single-party system, but according to the government, it has
begun a transition to a multi-party system.
 Turkmenistan is occasionally classified as a “reclusive ex-Soviet nation”.

7. Turkmenistan’s political system:
Government
 Capital (and largest city): Ashgabat
 Official languages:Turkmen
 Inter-ethnic languages: Russian, Uzbek
 Demonym:Turkmen
 Government: Dominant-party presidential
state
 President: Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
 Legislature: Mejlis

8. Turkmenistan’s political system: Legal
parties
 Democratic Party ofTurkmenistan (124)
 Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (1)

9. Turkmenistan’s political system: Banned
parties
 Communist Party ofTurkmenistan
 Republican Party ofTurkmenistan
 Turkmen Union of Democratic Forces

10. Turkmenistan’s political system:
Legislative branch
 Under the constitution of 1992, there exist two parliamentary bodies: a unicameral People’s
Council or Halk Maslahaty (supreme legislative body of up to 2,500 representatives, of whom
some are elected through popular vote and of whom some are nominated; convenes at least
annually) and a unicameralAssembly or Mejlis (50 seats, planned to be enlarged to 65; its
members are elected through popular vote to serve five-year terms).
 Elections: People’s Council – most recent were held in December 2008; Mejlis – most recent were
held in December 2008.
 Election results: Mejlis – Democratic Party ofTurkmenistan 100%; seats by party – DPT 50 (note:
all 50 elected officials are DPT members and are preapproved by President Berdimuhamedow.
 In late 2003, a new law was approved that limited the powers of the Mejlis; the Halk Maslahaty
was made the highest legislative organ.
 The Halk Maslahaty can now lawfully dissolve the Mejlis, and the president may now partake in
the Mejlis as its highest leader; the Mejlis may no longer approve or modify the constitution, or
announce referendums or its elections.
 As the president is both the “Chairman for Life” of the Halk Maslahaty and the highest leader of
the Mejlis, the 2003 law produced the result of making him the only authority of both the
executive and the legislative branches of government.

11. Turkmenistan’s political system:
Administrative divisions
 Turkmenistan is split into five provinces (plural –
welayatlar , singular – welayat): Ahal Province
(Ashgabat), Balkan Province
(Balkanabat, previously Nebitdag), Daşoguz
Province (previouslyTashauz), Lebap Province
(previously Charjou Province),Turkmenabat
(previously Charjou), and Mary Province.

12. Turkmenistan’s political system:
Foreign policy
 Turkmenistan’s foreign policy is based on the standing of a lasting positive neutrality
recognized by the UN General Assembly Resolution on Permanent Neutrality of
Turkmenistan on 12 December 1995.
 Articles on the foreign policy ofTurkmenistan as a neutral nation:
 Regional Strategy of Ashgabat
 Neutral Factor ofTurkmenistan
 TheWorld RecognizedTurkmenistan’s Neutrality 9YearsAgo

13. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
 Born in Babarab on 29 June 1957.
 2nd and current President ofTurkmenistan
since 21 December 2006.
 Dentist by occupation; served in the
government under President Saparmurat
Niyazov as minister of health from 1997 until
he served as Deputy PM from 2001.
 Became acting president after Niyazov’s death
on 21 December 2006; won the subsequent
February 2007 presidential election.
 Faced no significant opposition in that vote,
winning by an overwhelming margin.
 Won re-election with 97% of the vote during
the February 2012 presidential election.
 Uses the honorific name Arkadag, meaning
“Patron”.

14. Democratic Party of Turkmenistan
 Ruling political party inTurkmenistan.
 Founded in 1991; was created subsequent to the Soviet Union’s demise as a successor party
to the Communist Party of theTurkmen SSR.
 Was led by ex-Soviet provincial Party leader Saparmurat Niyazov from the collapse of the
Soviet Union early in the 1990s until he died in 2006.
 Current President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is its leader.
 The old party’s institutes and standards were successfully unaltered in the process, as was
the old guard.
 Has faced restricted and irregular challenges s from alternative political parties in the past,
though it has never faced a major challenge due to the authoritarian nature of
Turkmenistan’s politics.
 Opposition parties are by and large defeated before they make any important grounds in
public opinion.

15. Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs
 Political party inTurkmenistan.
 Was founded on 21 August 2012 as the country’s first opposition party.
 Party leader Ovezmammed Mammedov was elected to the Assembly of
Turkmenistan on 10 June 2013, during a by-election held for five empty seats.

16. Communist Party of Turkmenistan
 Formerly the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, theTurkmen SSR’s governing
communist party, and a part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
 Was led by Saparmurat Niyazov from 1985; in 1991, he renamed the party to the
Democratic Party ofTurkmenistan, itself no longer a communist party.
 The current Communist Party ofTurkmenistan was expelled during Niyazov’s presidency
following independence, and it remains expelled.

17. Republican Party of Turkmenistan
 One of numerous political parties that have been banned withinTurkmenistan.
 Leaders of the expel-based RPT include Nurmuhammet Hanamow, who went into exile in 2002 and
Annadurdy Hajyýew, who sister Ogulsapar Myradowa perished in aTurkmen prison in September 2006.
 Latest opposition party; functions in exile.
 Due to restricted opposition inTurkmenistan, it was forced to form and function outsideTurkmenistan.
 There are two big groupings ofTurkmen in exile.
 The first are opposition, or dissidents, normally of a democratic nature; the second are exiledTurkmen
politicians, frequently former superior officials who were blamed for Saparmurat Niyazov’s claimed
attempted murder in November 2002, reformists of unreliable stripes.
 With Saparmurat Niyazov’s death on 21 December 2006, some believed the circumstances might change,
perhaps opening for the extension of various parties within the country, but these expectations were
never seen, since Niyazov’s successor , Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, did not make any major reforms to
the political structure; the Democratic Party ofTurkmenistan remains one of the only two legal parties
(the other being the only opposition party, Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs), and Niyazov’s cult of
personality has vanished.

18. Turkmen Union of Democratic Forces
 Turkmen political party that was founded inVienna, Austria, on 23 November 2003.
 Ex-Foreign MinisterAwdy Kulyýew, ex-ambassador toTurkey Nurmuhammet Hanamow, ex-
central bank chief Hudaýberdi Orazow, and ex-DeputyAgriculture Minister SaparmuratYklymow
are among the founding members.
 The deceased president Saparmurat Niyazov, observing the party’s establishment, said on
television, “It's a pity that many states that pretend to be democratic give them the floor. But
shouldn't these states extradite criminals and terrorists?”.
 He also described theTUDF as “cowards and traitors who stole that much money that it did not fit
their pockets. All of them are thieves, terrorists and fugitives, but if they are not guilty, we will not
persecute them. Let them face the court here and then open their parties inTurkmenistan.”

19. Ashgabat

20. The End