Turkmenistan: Difference between revisions

Turkmenistan's history can be summed up as continually being taken over by other armies on their way to bigger and brighter targets, culminating in its annexation by the Soviet Union in 1924, thus turning it into the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR). It declared independence in October 1991, which was recognized two months later as part of [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]].

 

 

Fortunately [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|(for the West)]], that "for-life" part didn't last. Nizayov died of a heart attack on 21 December 2006, and was succeeded by [[Overly Long Name|Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow]] in an election two months later. Ironically, Berdimuhamedow previously served as a dentist whose pension was taken away by Nizayov before he died; Berdimuhamedow returned the favor by restoring pensions to 100,000 affected doctors. To this day, Turkmenistan still qualifies as a [[People's Republic of Tyranny]], being a single-party state (and that one party used to be the Communist Party), but Berdimuhamedow has taken steps to dismantle Nizayov's cult of personality and replace it with his own.