Broken Dreams in Ashkhabad

an overview of Turkmenistan's post-independence political contradictions

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present a discussion on the main political contradictions (both domestic and international) of post-independence Turkmenistan. As part of a broader effort to understand the social and power dynamics resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union for the countries of Central Asia, we apply a descriptive analysis of some of the principal domestic and foreign policy events involving the Ashkhabad government, as well as the main implications for the lives of Turkmen (and Central Asian) migrants in the Russian Federation, who have chosen to leave their country of origin in search of better economic and educational opportunities. As a result of the present effort, we observe that the Central-Asian country not only became a laboratory for the exercise of a local version of a 'Cult of Personality' of the leader (resembling the phenomenon occurred during the 1930-1950s within Stalin’s Soviet Union), as well as the precarious operationalization on the part of Turkmenistan of its political neutrality in view of an economic dependence from Moscow and, more recently, from China. Furthermore, the present article evidences the difficulties of adaptation and assimilation of Turkmen migrants (and Central Asians more generally) in Russia, due, in part, to a ‘stereotyped’ view about migrants on the part of Russian public opinion.