The Totalitarian Character of the Political System of Modern Turkmenistan: Historical and Political Aspect

Abstract

The article reveals the main features of the modern political system of Turkmenistan, which give us reasons to assert that this system has a totalitarian character. Such signs include the following: strict subordination of all main spheres of activity of Turkmen society, especially the economy, to total control by the state; the formation of a cult of the personality of state leaders; the absence of any opposition and mass media in the country that would provide society with alternative information; a gross violation of human rights; the current foreign policy of neutrality, which over time turned into a policy of isolating Turkmenistan from the outside world. Under the guise of this policy, the ruling circles of Turkmenistan actually conceal information about the real situation in the country from the world community, in particular from international legal organizations.

The above-mentioned characteristics of the political system of Turkmenistan are complemented by the presence in it of the subversive political institution of corruption. The latter has a systemic nature, and Turkmenistan, unlike the rest of the post-Soviet states, has actually abandoned the fight against it.

In addition, the more than thirty-year period of independent development of Turkmenistan testified to the country’s lack of progress towards democratic values. Instead, a regime was formed that is based on other values. There is no real democratic competition in the country, which is mostly replaced by clan competition. And the political process in the state itself is aimed at satisfying the interests of only a certain part of the political top of the country at the expense of the grassroots. All this contributes to the ever greater foreign policy isolation of the country from modern world globalization processes.

The last presidential elections in Turkmenistan generally allow us to conclude that in a number of post-Soviet countries, a peculiar tendency has emerged to transform the position of the country's president into a hereditary one, which is passed from father to son.