Turkmenistan

AuthorHakan Can
Pages913-918

Page 913

Official country name: Turkmenistan

Capital: Ashgabat

Geographic description: Located in the southwestern part of Central Asia, and bordered by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and the Caspian Sea

Population: 4,952,081 (est. 2005)

Turkmenistan
LAW ENFORCEMENT
History

Turkmenistan was annexed by Russia between 1865 and 1885 and became a Soviet republic in 1925. It finally achieved its independence on the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. From a historical point of view the Turkmen are descendants of the Oguz Turks of the eighth to the tenth centuries. From an ethnological point of view the Turkmen are the most distinctive of the Turkish peoples of Central Asia. Mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions of the eighth century, they belong to the Oguz tribal confederation that moved west in the tenth century and formed the Saljuq dynasties of Iran and Anatolia. In this sense the Turkmen are more akin to the Ottomans and the Azeri Turks than to the Turks of Central Asia. However, like the Kazakhs, their loyalties are extended to a wider circle, which encompasses clan and tribe, before it reaches the state. Turkmen are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi sect. Conversion of the region to Islam began early and was complete by the tenth century. At the present, around 89 percent of the population is Muslim.

The establishment of Soviet power in Central Asia was determined largely by the events in the main theaters of the Russian civil war. From 1890 to 1917 Turkmenistan was part of Russian Turkistan, a province that included Central Asia and its Muslim nationalities—the Kazakhs, the Uzbeks, the Kyrgyz, the Tajik, and the Turkmen. Within Turkistan, however, the Turkmen had a lesser status. Their lands were defined as the Transcaspian region and were ruled as a military colony. This neglect by Russia's government allowed the Turkmen to maintain their culture, language, and nomadic way of life with little interference. During the early part of World War I most of the area, except Tashkent, was in anticommunist hands, but British withdrawal in June 1919 and the defeat of General Aleksandr Kolchak in Siberia exposed it to penetration by the Communists. In 1922 the Communists founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Two years later they established the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) as a full member of the Soviet Union. Two republics were so formed and admitted to the Soviet Union in May 1925: Uzbek SSR, in the eastern part, and Turkmen SSR, in the

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western part. After reclaiming Turkmen SSR in 1932, Joseph Stalin executed thousands of Turkmenistan's Communist leaders—including the president and the premier—whom he accused of helping the nationalists. Following this incident, the Communist regime in Ashgabat became completely obedient to the central Soviet government in Moscow.

After World War II the Soviets built new plants in central Asian cities, including Ashgabat and Chard Zhou (modern Türkmenabat). A workforce made up of ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians emigrated to Turkmen SSR to take advantage of new jobs in the republic. Most Turkmen, however, remained rural and nomadic. Despite the immigration of factory workers, Turkmen SSR remained one of the Soviet Union's most isolated republics. In spite of the republic's isolation, economic development continued in the region. During the 1970s the Soviet government developed the region's energy resources, including oil and natural gas.

The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev instituted several new policies after coming to power in 1985. Glasnost allowed more open criticism of the Communist Party and of the country's economic system. Perestroika eased government control over many small businesses, which could now set their own wages, prices, and production schedules. Turkmen Communist leaders, however, were slow to adopt these reforms. Annamurad Khodzhamuradov, who became Turkmen SSR's leader in 1986, remained loyal to the Soviet government but never accepted Gorbachev's reforms.

In 1990 Turkmen SSR declared that it would take greater control over local politics and economic policy. The government established the office of president and named Saparmurat Niyazov to the post. On October 27, 1991, Turkmenistan proclaimed its independence from the Soviet Union.

More than a decade after their independence, each of the Central Asian states is on its own particular path of political and economic development. While most have achieved at least partial integration within the international community, one stands out as an exception: the remote former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, on the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea.

Structure and Organization

The national police force, estimated to include 25,000 personnel, is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The force is located in cities and settlements throughout the country, with garrisons in Ashgabat, Gyzylarbat, and Dashhowuz. Police departments do not have an investigative function in Turkmenistan; that role is filled by the procurator's offices in Ashgabat and other cities. The police role is confined to routine maintenance of public order and to certain administrative tasks such as controlling the internal passport regime, issuing visas for foreign travel, and registering foreign guests. The Ministry of National Security (MNB), formerly the Committee on National Security, has the responsibilities formerly held by the Soviet Committee for State Security. The MNB is responsible for ensuring that the government remains in power and exercises wide discretion over issues such as exit visas, Internet access, and personal freedoms. The Ministry of Internal Affairs directs the criminal police, which works closely with the MNB on matters of national security. Civilian authorities maintain effective control of the security forces. The minister of the MNB does not...

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