Abstract:

The struggle between Eastern Bloc and Western Bloc countries in the Cold War era did not come into play solely in political, military and technological areas. In addition, another aspect of competition took place between economic systems in this period. The Western Bloc under the leadership of the United States of America endeavored to present the free market economy to the whole world by combining it with liberties while an economy which was based on central planning and in which the state was monopolized was imposed on the Eastern Bloc countries by the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Attempts were made to make the capitalist economic system, which became victorious in this struggle, dominant in Eastern Bloc countries as of the 1990s. As well as economic transformation in this process, Eastern Bloc countries were forced to have political change at the same time. A prescription initially under the name of the Washington Consensus was offered to these countries which were called as transition economies. In the context of this prescription, some countries entered into a rapid reform process whereas some other countries made reforms in a gradual manner. Following the breakdown of the USSR, Turkmenistan was also categorized under transition economies. By virtue of having rich natural resources and not experiencing production losses in the early years of transition, Turkmenistan constantly postponed reforms which were necessary to ensure the transition to free market. Of transition economies, Turkmenistan ranks at the bottom as per data of several basic transition indicators released by international institutions. The aim of this study is to ensure that the concept of transition economy is fully understood and to analyze Turkmenistan in this context.

Keywords: