Abstract
This article analyses the transformation of the Turkmenistani elite, focusing on the period after the 2006 death of the first president, Saparmyrat Niyazow ("Turkmenbashy"). I argue that the process of elite formation in highly centralized systems, such as that in Turkmenistan, is determined by the character of the first leader, who has a long-lasting impact on the local political culture.
The uniqueness of Turkmenbashy and the political culture he founded were based on his solitude and isolation both from the domestic and outside worlds. Even if such a situation is hardly likely to occur again in the future, his legacy is transferrable to subsequent generations of leadership in the country.
Turkmenbashy's successor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, has followed political tradition as a successful way of holding onto the reins of power, notwithstanding some minor changes due to the new leader's different roots in the traditional structures of Turkmen society.