ABSTRACT
Turkmenistan was always the least likely candidate for a colour revolution. Ruled by a president for life, it enjoyed none of the conditions that had facilitated regime change in Georgia and Ukraine; there was no free media or civil society, and all opposition was banned. Presidential elections had been abolished for the duration of Saparmurat Niyazov’s lifetime and parliamentary elections involved just one party, that of the president, the ill-named Democratic Party of Turkmenistan. In this chapter we examine the character of the Turkmenistan regime and how from the ashes of the Soviet empire a new totalitarian state was established that sidelined all rival contenders for power and insulated itself from the tide of colour revolution activity that swept through many parts of the former USSR.
