LIVING CONDITIONS, NTRA-SOCIETAL TRUST, AND PUBLIC CONCERNS IN POST-SOCIALIST TURKMENISTAN
Abstract
Turkmenistan’s important role in the regional and world economy, in its post-independence period, is cemented by its large reserves of oil, gas, and other energy resources.1 Yet there is little evidence that this economic potential and the enormous revenues materialized in the population’s improved well-being. Although Turkmenistan is considered to be a lower middle level income country, little progress, if any, has been recorded from the time of its independence, especially in the areas of political and social reform. Its political development is shadowed by the one-man rule of President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov, who claims to be the father of the nation.2 Consequently, no area of social life is beyond the president’s reach. A wide range of presidential orders prohibited smoking, closed rural hospitals,3 renamed the months of the year after the President and his relatives, shortened the educational period,4 introduced the President’s own book into the education curriculum, and prohibited long hair, beards, and car radios.5 There is also a prohibition on opera and ballet because the President considered them to be inappropriate for Turkmen culture
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Local officials claim that the economy is growing in
two digit figures of 17-23% per year. According to the
Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Turkmenistan’s growth rates are estimated at 10-11%, while The
Economist Intelligence Unit estimated the growth in 2003 as
% and 11% in the first half of 2004 (see: N. Badykova,
“Regional Cooperation for Human Development and Human Security in Central Asia” (“Regional Cooperation”), in:
Country Background Studies, Turkmenistan, Washington
DC, 2005, p. 7.
See: M. Lelyveld, “Turkmenistan: Niyazov Becomes CIS’s First ‘President for Life’,” Radio Free Europe,
December, 1999, available at [www.rferl.org/features/
/12/F.RU.99130165913.html].
When, in 1997, the President had to quit smoking due to a heart operation, all public places were ordered to prohibit smoking. When he was operated on for an eye disease by foreign doctors, he ordered for hospitals to be strengthened by closing those in rural areas and relocat-ing the funds to the capital’s hospitals. The President’s argument was that rural residents travel to the capital city to receive treatment anyway. For details see: “Turkmen-istan Shuts Hospitals,” SBS— The World News, 2 March,2005, available at [www9.sbs.com.au], 9 February, 2006;M. Whitlock, “Turkmen Leader Closes Hospitals,” BBC News, 1 March, 2005, available at [www.news.bbc.co.uk/
o/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/4307583.stm], 9 February,2006.
See: “OBSE predosteregaet Ashkhabat ot ekspire-mentov v obrazovanii,” Reuters, 21 April, 2005, available at [www.centrasia.ru]; for more on the book on the life of Pres-ident Niyazov’s mother, see: “Geroi Turkmenistana Gurban-soltan edzhe i zhenshchiny zolotoi epokhi velikogo Sapar-murata Turkmenbashi,” Neitral’nyi Turkmenistan, No. 22,25 January, 2006, available at [www. gundogar.org.doc_
iles/8938488751456289.doc.gz].
See: M. Whitlock, “Young Turkmen Face Beard Ban,” BBC News, available at [www.news.bbc.uk/go/pr/fr/
/2/hi/asia-pacific/3486776.stm].
“The Key Priority—the People’s Needs,” State Information Agency of Turkmenistan, 1 January, 2006, available at [www. Turkmenistan.gov.tm].
Ibidem.
See: V. Volkov, O. Saryev, “Turkmenbashi ekonomit gaz,” Deutsche Welle, 29 January, 2006, available at [www.dw-world.de].
See: “Nastuplenie kholodov vyyavilo ser’yoznye problemy v otopitel’noi sisteme Turkmenii,” Nemetskaia Volna,24 January, 2005.
See: “Sources Says MTS’ Mobile License in Turkmenistan Extended,” 7 November, 2005, available at [www.cellular-news.com/coverage/turkmenistan.php].
See: E. Liubarskaia, “1/6 chast’ sushi: Mnogaya leta velikomu Turkmenbashi ,” Lenta.Ru, 11 April, 2005.
See: “Minsvyazi Turkmenii otkazalo v litsenzii pochtovym sluzhbam DHL, FedEx, ASE ,” Reuters, 11 April, 2005.
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