Communist Party of Turkmenistan

The Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR (Russian: Коммунистическая партия Туркменистана; Turkmen: Türkmenistanyň Kommunistik Partiyasy) was the ruling communist party of the Turkmen SSR, and a part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1985 it was led by Saparmurat Niyazov, who in 1991 renamed the party to the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, which is no longer a communist party. The current Communist Party of Turkmenistan was made illegal during the presidency of Niyazov after independence and remains banned.