* In Turkmenistan, the local party apparatus led by Saparmurat Niyazov was renamed the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan and abandoned communist ideology.

Independence came in 1991, as Saparmurat Niyazov, a former local communist party boss, declared himself absolute ruler for life as Turkmenbashi or Leader of the Turkmen and transitioned the newly independent Turkmenistan into an authoritarian state under his absolute control and has thus far resisted the democratization that has influenced many of the other former Soviet Republics.

Other states such as Belarus, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan prohibit re-broadcasting to local stations, making programming difficult for average listeners to access.

From 1920 to 1922, he was in Turkmenistan, where he was one of the leaders of the Bolshevik struggle against local Muslim rebels ( basmachi ) and also commanded the succeeding punitive expeditions against local opposition.

Iran Khodro Diesel Company has almost 80 % of bus and about 70 % of the local market share and exports its products to many countries like Armenia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Guinea, Gambia, Ghana and Venezuela, Egypt.

Of the 193 member states of the United Nations, only 17 are not party to the treaty: Andorra, Angola, Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( North Korea ), Federated States of Micronesia, Haiti, Iraq, Kiribati, Lebanon, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Nauru, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan and Tuvalu.

Election results: Mejlis – DPT 100 %; seats by party – DPT 50 ; note – all 50 elected officials are members of the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan and are preapproved by President Niyazov.

The latest opposition party operates in exile and is named The Republican Party of Turkmenistan ( Türkmenistanyň Respublikan partiýasynyň ).

The Democratic Party of Turkmenistan () is the only legal political party in Turkmenistan.

The only legal party is the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan.

From 1985 it was led by Saparmurat Niyazov, who in 1991 renamed the party to the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, which is no longer a communist party.

The only legal party is the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, though that may change after constitutional reforms enacted on 26 September 2008.

Turkmenistan is a single-party state ; the only political party, the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, is the only party legally allowed to hold power.

The Assembly is a 50 member legislative body officially led by the President of Turkmenistan.

Vadim Mikhaĭlovich Masson, who led the South Turkmenistan Complex Archaeological Expedition from 1946, sees signs of a movement from Central Iran at this time, bringing metallurgy and other innovations, but feels that the newcomers soon blended with the Jeitun farmers.

The discovery of a single tiny stone seal ( known as the " Anau seal ") with geometric markings from the BMAC site at Anau in Turkmenistan in 2000 led some to claim that the Bactria-Margiana complex had also developed writing, and thus may indeed be considered a literate civilization.

Ibrahim Bay led a brief resurgence of the movement when collectivization fueled resistance and succeeded in delaying the policy until 1931 in Turkmenistan, but he was soon caught and executed.

It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and the east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.

No seabed boundary with Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea has been agreed upon and the usage of Caspian Sea water is a matter that remains unsettled by international agreement.

Soon afterward, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia extended official recognition to the regime, while Turkmenistan resumed relations – although the Taliban were not officially recognized by Turkmenbashi as the rulers of Afghanistan.

Turkmenistan was a passing point for numerous migrations and invasions by tribes which gravitated towards the settled regions of the south including ancient Mesopotamia, Elam, and the Indus Valley Civilization.

Modern Turkmenistan was radically transformed by the invasion of the Russian Empire, which conquered the region in the late 19th century.

The Kopet Dag Range is a region characterized by foothills, dry and sandy slopes, mountain plateaus, and steep ravines ; Mount Şahşah ( 2, 912 m ), also known as Mount Rizeh, southwest of Ashgabat, is the highest elevation of the Kopet Dag Range in Turkmenistan.

According to estimates, as a result of desertification processes and pollution, biological productivity of the ecological systems in Turkmenistan has declined by 30 % to 50 % in recent decades.

The type of desertification caused by year-round pasturing of cattle has been termed the most devastating in Central Asia, with the gravest situations in Turkmenistan and the Kazakh steppe along the eastern and northern coasts of the Caspian Sea.

On 28 December 1999, Niyazov was declared President for Life of Turkmenistan by the Mejlis ( parliament ), which itself had taken office only a week earlier in elections that included only candidates hand-picked by President Niyazov ; no opposition candidates were allowed.

Turkmenistan is dominated by a pervasive cult of personality extolling the late president as Türkmenbaşy (" Leader of all Turkmen "), a title he assumed in 1993.

Foreign policy of Turkmenistan is based on the status of permanent positive neutrality recognized by the UN General Assembly Resolution on Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan on 12 December 1995.

However the price growth continued and by November 1996 the total price level in Turkmenistan had increased tens of thousands times in comparison with December 1991.

In 1993 – 1995 Turkmenistan increased monetary base by 20-28 % monthly ; thus prices reacted by a monthly growth of 25 – 43 %. The cash growth in circulation in 1993 – 1995 constituted 47. 8 %.

In the post-Soviet era, Turkmenistan ’ s industrial sector has been dominated increasingly by the fuel and cotton processing industries to the detriment of light industry.

These institutions have the same basic division of responsibility as in the Soviet era, overseen by the Central Bank of Turkmenistan.

The Tejen – Serakhs – Mashhad railroad, built in 1996 by Turkmenistan and Iran, has become a vital link of Central Asian, Russian, and European railroad systems with South Asia and the Persian Gulf.

* Central Asia ( since 19th century ) ( Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Xinjiang )-19th Russian officers and soldiers, tradesmen, religious emigrants, 1920-1930s-industrialization, Soviet education program for Central Asia peoples, 1948, 1960-help for Ashgabat and Tashkent ruined by earthquakes-re-emigration in 1980s

The country with the least degree of press freedom was Eritrea, followed by North Korea, Turkmenistan, Syria, Iran, and China.

* 2006 – Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan ( b. 1940 )

* 1940 – Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan ( d. 2006 )

The last living person to be officially proclaimed president for life was Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan.

President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov, a former bureaucrat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, ruled Turkmenistan from 1985, when he became head of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, until his death in 2006.

The bribes also took the form of luxury European vacations, armored Mercedes vehicles for high-ranking government officials and a birthday gift to the then notorious dictator of Turkmenistan, Turkmenbashi ( Saparmurat Niyazov ), including a golden box and 10, 000 copies of his personal manifesto, Ruhnama, translated into German.

Saparmurat Niyazov, who was ruler of Turkmenistan from 1985 to 2006, is another oft-cited cultivator of a cult of personality.

* Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan ( 1999 ) – died in office 2006.

File: Saparmurat Niyazov. jpg | Saparmurat Niyazov, President for Life of Turkmenistan ( 1999 – 2006 )

On June 4, 2001 Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov ( also known as Turkmenbashi ) authorized a decree that required foreigners to pay a $ 50, 000 fee to marry a Turkmen citizen ( regardless of how they met ), and to live in the country and own property for one year.

The lyrics were written by the first president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov ( also known as Turkmenbashi, ).

* Eric Schultz of the U. S. Embassy in the Turkmenistan met with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov to discuss responses to the September 11th attacks.

Ruhnama ( The Book of the Soul ), is a book written by Saparmurat Niyazov, late President for Life of Turkmenistan, combining spiritual / moral guidance, autobiography and revisionist history ; much of it is of dubious or disputed factuality and accuracy.

In 1997 ( well after independence ), the anthem was changed to " Independent, Neutral, Turkmenistan State Anthem ", the music and lyrics of which were written by President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov.

* Saparmurat Niyazov, president-for-life and dictator of Turkmenistan, gave himself the title Türkmenbaşy (" Leader of all Turkmens ")

During the long rule of president Saparmurat Niyazov large pictures and statues of him could be seen in public places in Turkmenistan.

Saparmurat Niyazov, the recently deceased president of Turkmenistan, ordered the construction of a huge ice palace near the capital city of Aşgabat in April 2004, a remarkable project considering Turkmenistan's climate.

When Turkmenistan became independent in 1991, president Saparmurat Niyazov immediately instigated a return to the Latin script.

Also pointing to high-level government corruption in the drug trade, Turkmenistan ’ s president, Saparmurat Niyazov, publicly declared that smoking opium was healthy.