Turkmenistan

On May 18, 1992 Turkmenistan became the first newly independent republic in Central Asia to ratify a constitution. It is also termed a presidential republic, one that is "based on the principles of the separation of power—legislative, executive, and judicial—which operate independently, checking and balancing one another." The legal system is based on a civil law system, and suffrage beginning at age 18 is universal.

The Law of the Turkmen SR on Language (May 20, 1990) established the Turkmen language as a state language through Article 13. The law contains 36 articles dealing with rights of citizens to choose/use language, and it guarantees protection of such rights, establishing frameworks for operation of the state language in public authorities, enterprises, institutions, in spheres of education, science and culture, and administration of justice. The law also regulates use of language in names and also in the mass media. There is a special chapter for the protection of the state language. Russian is given the status of "the language of interethnical communication."

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 as chairman of the advisory People's Council and the Cabinet of Ministers, Niyazov also appoints the procurator general and other officers of the courts. Experts cite the "cult of personality" that has formed around President Niyazov. 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 of the 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, the center of the government, and the city of Mary, which is the center of a mafia organization that controls the narcotics market and the illegal trade in a number of commodities.

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 politically sophisticated. Nonetheless, clan ties often are reflected in patterns of appointments and networks of power.