Turkmenistan 2016 Country Review http://www.countrywatch.com Table of Contents Chapter 1 1 Country Overview 1 Country Overview 2 Key Data 3 Turkmenistan 4 Commonwealth of Independent States 5 Chapter 2 7 Political Overview 7 History 8 Political Conditions 10 Political Risk Index 24 Political Stability 38 Freedom Rankings 54 Human Rights 66 Government Functions 68 Government Structure 70 Principal Government Officials 75 Leader Biography 77 Leader Biography 77 Foreign Relations 80 National Security 89 Defense Forces 91 Chapter 3 93 Economic Overview 93 Economic Overview 94 Nominal GDP and Components 96 Population and GDP Per Capita 98 Real GDP and Inflation 99 Government Spending and Taxation 100 Money Supply, Interest Rates and Unemployment 101 Foreign Trade and the Exchange Rate 102 Data in US Dollars 103 Energy Consumption and Production Standard Units 104 Energy Consumption and Production QUADS 106 World Energy Price Summary 107 CO2 Emissions 108 Agriculture Consumption and Production 109 World Agriculture Pricing Summary 111 Metals Consumption and Production 112 World Metals Pricing Summary 114 Economic Performance Index 115 Chapter 4 127 Investment Overview 127 Foreign Investment Climate 128 Foreign Investment Index 130 Corruption Perceptions Index 143 Competitiveness Ranking 155 Taxation 164 Stock Market 165 Partner Links 165 Chapter 5 167 Social Overview 167 People 168 Human Development Index 169 Life Satisfaction Index 173 Happy Planet Index 184 Status of Women 193 Global Gender Gap Index 196 Culture and Arts 205 Etiquette 205 Travel Information 207 Diseases/Health Data 216 Chapter 6 222 Environmental Overview 222 Environmental Issues 223 Environmental Policy 223 Greenhouse Gas Ranking 225 Global Environmental Snapshot 236 Global Environmental Concepts 247 International Environmental Agreements and Associations 261 Appendices 285 Bibliography 286 Turkmenistan Chapter 1 Country Overview Turkmenistan Review 2016 Page 1 of 298 pages Turkmenistan Country Overview TURKMENISTAN Turkmenistan is located in central Asia. It was part of the Persian Empire in ancient times. Arabs invaded the region in the eighth century, bringing Islam. Turkic tribes conquered Turkmenistan in the tenth century, followed by the Mongols and the Uzbeks. The area was incorporated into Russian Turkestan in 1881. In 1925 Turkmenistan became a republic within the Soviet Union. It achieved independence upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. After independence, the country was led by the late president Saparmyrat Niyazov until his death in December 2006. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov became president in early 2007 through a public election. Richly endowed with gas and oil resources, the economy of Turkmenistan is based on export of natural gas, oil and oil products, as well as cotton. Turkmenistan Review 2016 Page 2 of 298 pages Turkmenistan Key Data Key Data Region: Commonwealth of Independent States Population: 5231422 Climate: Subtropical desert. Turkmen Languages: Russian Uzbek Currency: Manat Holiday: Independence Day is 27 October (1991), Remembrance Day is 6 October Area Total: 488100 Area Land: 488100 Coast Line: 1768 Turkmenistan Review 2016 Page 3 of 298 pages Turkmenistan Turkmenistan Country Map Turkmenistan Review 2016 Page 4 of 298 pages Turkmenistan Commonwealth of Independent States Regional Map Turkmenistan Review 2016 Page 5 of 298 pages Turkmenistan Turkmenistan Review 2016 Page 6 of 298 pages Turkmenistan Chapter 2 Political Overview Turkmenistan Review 2016 Page 7 of 298 pages Turkmenistan History The Orguz Turks, antecedents of the Turkmen, migrated into the territory of present-day Turkmenistan at the end of the 10th century and beginning of the 11th century. Composed of many tribes, they had begun their migration from eastern Asia in the seventh century and moved slowly toward the Middle East and Central Asia. By the 12th century, they had become the dominant group in present-day Turkmenistan, assimilating the original Persian population as well other invaders who had preceded them into the area. By the end of the 14th century, the Orguz tribes had developed a common language and traditions, and by the next century were recognizable as a single people. Although they often became subjects of a neighboring state, their military skills and pastoral culture enabled them to enjoy a relatively independent existence. Forced into cooperative and defensive alliances, first by the Mongol invasion and then by the Uzbek conquest, the Turkmen nevertheless retained their own strong tribal divisions. However, they failed to establish a lasting state of their own. The Turkmen opposed Russian expansion into Central Asia more vigorously than other nationalities. They defeated a Russian force in 1717, when Peter the Great first attempted the conquest of Central Asia. In the 19th century, when the Russians resumed their expansion into the area, Turkmen cavalry posed determined and prolonged opposition. The Russian conquest of Turkmenia (also known as Turkestan) was not completed until 1885, and the territorial boundary of Russian Turkmenia was not set until a decade later by an Anglo-Russian border treaty. That treaty separated the Turkmen of Russia from the roughly equal number of Turkmen in present-day Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Turkey. Turkmenia became part of Russian Turkestan and was treated by the czarist government as a colonial territory, where Russians and other Slavs were encouraged to settle. A railroad was built, and other features of modernity were introduced. The people of Turkmenia resented losing their grazing land, and in 1916, they joined a Muslim uprising throughout Russia's Central Asian Turkmenistan Review 2016 Page 8 of 298 pages Turkmenistan territory. After the February Revolution of 1917, several political forces competed for power in Turkmenia. The Turkmen were divided between Islamic traditionalists and the more progressive nationalist intelligentsia. At this time, both Bolshevik and White armies sought the loyalty of Turkmenia's ethnic Russian population. A provisional government, established by Turkmen nationalists with the support of the White forces and limited British assistance, was able to maintain itself against the Bolsheviks until mid-1919. Thereafter, Turkmen resistance against the Bolsheviks was part of the general Basmachi Rebellion, which reemerged sporadically until 1931. By 1920, however, the Red Army controlled the territory, and in 1924, the Turkmen Republic was established in accordance with the national delimitation process in Central Asia. The Soviet policy of forced collectivization in the late 1920s and early 1930s was particularly abhorrent to the nomadic Turkmen. It provided the impetus for enhanced national self-awareness and an opposition movement, which in 1928 burst into an open rebellion that lasted until 1932. In response, Soviet authorities arrested scores of native communist leaders and broad segments of the Turkmen intelligentsia. Most perished in the Great Terror of the 1930s. Russians dominated the administration of the republic throughout the 20th century. Efforts to include Turkmen in the government were continually stymied. The Turkmen Republic was a supplier of both cotton and natural gas to the other, more industrialized republics. It was also located in a very remote part of the Soviet Union and was, therefore, somewhat separate from the happenings of the U.S.S.R. and the other republics. Tribal identity was more easily maintained than any kind of national identity, and this prevented any kind of mass movement for autonomy. Unfortunately, this made the Turkmen more prone to manipulation as a whole. A nationalist movement, called "Agzybirlik," created to preserve the Turkmen language and culture, was formed in late 1989 and was subsequently banned in January 1990. The organization remained cohesive, and the movement did succeed in establishing the Turkmen language as the state language. The Turkmen people, however, were highly supportive of the preservation of the Soviet Union, and some protested the coup d'etat in August 1991. Under the rule of Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan became an independent republic on Oct. 27, 1991. Turkmenistan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States in December 1991. Note on History: In certain entries, open source content from the State Department Background Turkmenistan Review 2016 Page 9 of 298 pages Turkmenistan Notes and Country Guides have been used. A full listing of sources is available in the Bibliography. Political Conditions Introduction After independence in 1991, the Communist Party of Turkmenistan changed its name to the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (DPT) but remained the sole party in government. The DPT has been the country's only legal party and all of the seats in parliament are occupied by DPT members. Turkmenistan remains a one-party state, dominated by the president and the president's closest advisors within the cabinet of ministers. Also following the attainment of independence, Saparmurat Niyazov was elected president of the new country in a direct election on June 21, 1992. Niyazov had been head of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan since 1985, and president since October 1990 when the post was created. Running unchallenged, he was elected with a reported 99.5 percent of the vote. In a Jan. 15, 1994 referendum, a reported 99.99 percent of the electorate voted to extend Niyazov's term in office, which had been set expire in 1997, until the year 2002. This measure was undertaken in response to a motion by the leaders