GENERAL OVERVIEW

Azhdar KURTOV

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Azhdar Kurtov, President, Moscow Public Law Research Center (Moscow, Russia)

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The phenomenon of Turkmenistan, which attracts much outside attention, has not yet been adequately explained in most cases. Observers normally tend toward one of two extremes.

The less popular of the two approaches accepts the official propaganda at face value. The totalitarian regime not only suppressed freedom of thought and information—it imposed its propaganda clichés on the media in an effort to justify President Niyazov’s policies and present them as an example to be followed or, at least, envied. On the whole, no propaganda victories were scored.

Another, and much more popular, approach assessed the situation in extremely emotional and politicized terms, mainly because it was the European and American media, as well as those of the post-Soviet states, that supplied information about Turkmenistan. The foreign, and much better developed, media dominated on the information field because there was a lot of interest in certain aspects of the republic’s domestic policies. Their approaches, assessments, and conclusions were predetermined, either directly or indirectly, by the interests of corresponding states. European and North American authors condemned Ashghabad for its undemocratic nature and for suppressing elementary human rights; in so doing, they frequently relied on information supplied by Turkmenian opposition groups scattered abroad, which used biased information to……………….

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