ocr: Officially, Turkmenistan became a multiparty democracy in 1990. Asi in other ex-Soviet states,however, the old communist nomenklatura still controls the political process: the communists renamed themselves the Democratic Party ofTurkmenistan in 1991.The DPT has maintained the communist suspicion ofthe Islamic fundamentalism promotedby Iran. President Niyazov has developed an extreme personality cult. He sustains his popularity with such measures as providing free electricity and water. The main political concern is to prevent the social and: nationalistic contlicts that have blighted other CIS ...
