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Turkmenistan’s new constitution was approved Sept. 26 and included some sweeping changes. The West is hailing the reforms as a major step in making Turkmenistan a more democratic country than the isolated state it has been since the fall of the Soviet Union. However, one of the changes is to disband the top legislative body, called the People’s Council. This is a move by Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhammedov to consolidate power and shows just how secure he feels in his position — something no Turkmen leader has ever felt without support from some larger power.
Since the more autocratic Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov (the “Turkmenbashi”) died in 2006, his successor Berdimukhammedov has slowly chipped away at Niyazov’s legacy and has started opening up Turkmenistan to the outside world. But Berdimukhammedov has avoided opening up the country too quickly and has expended no small amount of energy on balancing the numerous Turkmen factions that could threaten his rule.
Turkmenistan is made up of myriad clans and factions generally divided among five main regions: Ahal, Balkan, Dasoguz, Lebap and Mary. Berdimukhammedov — like Niyazov before him — is from the Ahal clan, which runs the government, though most of Turkmenistan’s population comes from the Mary clan. Each clan has balanced against the other by taking charge of some major function in the country, whether it is the security sector, the government, the energy sector or the enormous drug trade.
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