Extraordinary And Plenipotentiary Diplomatist July 19 Edition . | Page 55

BOOKMARK
DEMOCRATIZATION IN
KYRGYZSTAN
AND TURKMENISTAN
T
he present book seeks to
conduct an in-depth analysis
of the problems of democratic
transformation and human rights of
the political system of Kyrgyzstan
and Turkmenistan, in their transition
from a socialist system to a liberal
democratic system. The research
will focus on the study of post-
Communist developments and the
problems of democratization in
the newly independent states of
Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.
Democratization has been a
major global phenomenon. The term
democratization refers to political
changes moving in a democratic
direction. The character of such
movement is from less accountable to
a more accountable government or less
competitive (or non-existent) elections
to free and fair competitive elections
and from severely restricted to better
protected civil and political rights.
Since the disintegration of the former Soviet Union
in 1991 the independent republics of Kyrgyzstan and
Turkmenistan have emerged on the map of the world. After
attaining independence, these republics geared up their eff orts
to establish political regimes according to the wishes of their
people. This can be visualized from the fact that in 1992 and
1993 new constitutions were adopted in Kyrgyzstan and
Turkmenistan. These constitutions provide for a presidential
system with separation of powers between executive,
legislative and judicial branches. The new Constitutions of
these republics also give importance to human rights and
profess sovereignty, democracy and secularism as their
fundamental principles. However, in practice, these rights
and liberties are only on paper and
in both these states, the political
rights and civil liberties have been
denied to their citizens. The elections
in these republics are not free and
fair but are rigged. The opposition
enjoys limited freedom, particularly
in Turkmenistan. The judiciary is
also controlled by the President. The
media in these republics also enjoy
limited freedom. Additionally, there
are challenges of ethnicity, economic
development, Authoritarianism and
Islamic fundamentalism, Gender
Inequality, etc. The governments of
both these republics are not respecting
the human rights of people. The
situation in Turkmenistan is even
more serious. The citizens of these
republics like other states of Central
Asia are denied their basic human
rights. Human rights groups operated
in a hostile environment in both
these countries and are faced with
continuous government pressure to curtail their activities.
Thus, we must keep in mind the fact that it may take
suffi cient long time for establishing a stable democratic
process since these republics got their independence only
twenty-fi ve years back which is a very short period for
achieving the targeted development of democracy in a country
or region of the world. Overall the book is very informative
and covers all the major issues of Democratization from
institution building to Constitutionalism to Judiciary. 
* Author is an Assistant Professor of Political Science
at Ramlal Anand College University of Delhi is a renowned
academician and a prolifi c researcher.
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 7 • July 2019, Noida • 55