













| Coordinates | 34°5′24″N74°47′24″N |
|---|---|
| |native name | ''Türkmenistan'' |
| Conventional long name | Turkmenistan |
| Common name | Turkmenistan |
| Image coat | Coat_of_Arms_of_Turkmenistan.svg |
| Symbol type | Emblem |
| National anthem | Independent, Neutral, Turkmenistan State Anthem"Garaşsyz, Bitarap Türkmenistanyň Döwlet Gimni" |
| Official languages | Turkmen |
| Languages type | Language of interethnic communication |
| Languages | Russian |
| Capital | Ashgabat |
| Largest city | Ashgabat |
| Government type | Presidential republic Single-party state |
| Leader title1 | President |
| Leader name1 | Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow |
| Area rank | 52nd |
| Area magnitude | 1 E11 |
| Area km2 | 488,100 |
| Area sq mi | 188,456 |
| Area footnote | |
| Percent water | 4.9 |
| Population estimate | 5,110,000 |
| Population estimate rank | 112th |
| Population estimate year | 2009 |
| Population density km2 | 10.5 |
| Population density sq mi | 27.1 |
| Population density rank | 208th |
| Gdp ppp | $31.966 billion |
| Gdp ppp year | 2009 |
| Gdp ppp per capita | $5,971 |
| Sovereignty type | Independence |
| Sovereignty note | from the Soviet Union |
| Established event1 | Declared |
| Established event2 | Recognized |
| Established date1 | 27 October 1991 |
| Established date2 | 25 December 1991 |
| Hdi | 0.669 |
| Hdi rank | 87th |
| Hdi year | 2010 |
| Hdi category | medium |
| Currency | Turkmen new manat |
| Currency code | TMT |
| Country code | TKM |
| Time zone | TMT |
| Utc offset | +5 |
| Time zone dst | ''not observed'' |
| Utc offset dst | +5 |
| Drives on | right |
| Cctld | .tm |
| Calling code | 993 |
| Demonym | Turkmen }} |
Turkmenistan's GDP growth rate of 11% in 2010 ranks 4th in the world, but these figures are subject to wide margins of error. It possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of natural gas resources. Although it is wealthy in natural resources in certain areas, most of the country is covered by the Karakum (Black Sand) Desert.
The Turkmen government operates as a single-party system, which does not meet even the most basic standards of democracy. Turkmenistan was ruled by President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov (called "Türkmenbaşy" — "leader of the Turkmens") until his sudden death on 21 December 2006. Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was elected the new president on 11 February 2007.
Alexander the Great conquered the territory in the 4th century BC on his way to Central Asia, around the time that the Silk Road was established as a major trading route between Asia and the Mediterranean Region.
Approximately 80 years later, Persia's Parthian Kingdom established its capital in Nisa, now in the suburbs of the capital, Ashgabat. After replacement of the Parthian empire by Persian Sassanids, another native Iranian dynasty, the region remained territory of the Persian empire for several centuries.
In the 7th century AD, Arabs conquered this region, bringing with them Islam and incorporating the Turkmen into the greater Middle Eastern culture. The Turkmenistan region soon came to be known as the capital of Greater Khorasan, when the caliph Al-Ma'mun moved his capital to Merv.
In the middle of the 11th century, the Turkoman-ruled Seljuk Empire concentrated its strength in the territory of modern Turkmenistan in an attempt to expand into Khorasan (modern Afghanistan). The empire broke down in the second half of the 12th century, and the Turkmen lost their independence when Genghis Khan took control of the eastern Caspian Sea region on his march west.
For the next seven centuries, the Turkmen people lived under various empires and fought constant inter-tribal wars. Little is documented of Turkmen history prior to Russian engagement. However, from the 13th to the 16th centuries, Turkmen formed a distinct ethnolinguistic group. As the Turkmen migrated from the area around the Mangyshlak Peninsula in contemporary Kazakhstan toward the Iranian border region and the Amu Darya basin, tribal Turkmen society further developed cultural traditions that became the foundation of Turkmen national consciousness.
Between the 17th and 19th centuries, control of Turkmenistan was fought over by Persian Shahs, Khivan Khans, the Emirs of Bukhara and the rulers of Afghanistan. During this period, Turkmen spiritual leader Magtymguly Pyragy reached prominence with his efforts to secure independence and autonomy for his people.
According to Paul R. Spickard, "Prior to the Russian conquest, the Turkmen were known and feared for their involvement in the Central Asian slave trade. The neighboring rural villages of Persia and Afghanistan were the main victims of Turkmen raids, in which groups of armed men on horseback would carry away captives to be sold in the slave markets of Khiva, Bukhara, and Mari."
At this time, the vast territory of Central Asia including the region of Turkmenistan was largely unmapped and virtually unknown to Europe and the Western world. Rivalry for control of the area between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia was characterized as The Great Game. Throughout their conquest of Central Asia, the Russians were met with the stiffest resistance by the Turkmen. By 1894, however, Russia had gained control of Turkmenistan and incorporated it into its empire.
The new Turkmen SSR went through a process of further Europeanization. The tribal Turkmen people were encouraged to become secular and adopt European-style clothing. The alphabet in use for the Turkmen language was changed from the traditional Arabic script to Latin and finally to Cyrillic (Niyazov later changed the alphabet back to a Latin-based one). However, bringing the Turkmens to abandon their previous nomadic ways in favor of communism was not fully embraced until as late as 1948. Nationalist organizations in the region also existed during the 1920s and the 1930s. The Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 killed over 110,000 people, amounting to 2/3s of the city's population. The nation policies of the Soviet Union, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, actually promoted "the invention of turkmen traditions". Turkmen was enjoying preferable treatment in the Soviet administration and educational system and during the Stalin years the republic become more national in form; Turkmen became the official language for example.
In 1991, Turkmenistan became a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, an international organization of former Soviet republics. However, Turkmenistan reduced its status in the organization to "associate member" in August 2005. The reason stated by the Turkmen president was the country's policy of permanent neutrality.
The former leader of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Saparmurat Niyazov, remained in power as Turkmenistan's leader after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Under his post-Soviet rule, Russian-Turkmen relations greatly suffered. He styled himself as a promoter of traditional Muslim and Turkmen culture (calling himself "Türkmenbaşy", or "leader of the Turkmen people"), but he became notorious in the West for his dictatorial rule and extravagant cult of personality. The extent of his power greatly increased during the early 1990s, and in 1999 he became President for Life.
Niyazov died unexpectedly on 21 December 2006.
In an election on 11 February 2007, Berdimuhamedow was elected president with 89% of the vote and 95% turnout. He was sworn in on 14 February 2007.
After 69 years as part of the Soviet Union (including 67 years as a union republic), Turkmenistan declared its independence on 27 October 1991.
President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov, a former bureaucrat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, ruled Turkmenistan from 1985, when he became head of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, until his death in 2006. He retained absolute control over the country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 28 December 1999, Niyazov was declared President for Life of Turkmenistan by the Mejlis (parliament), which itself had taken office a week earlier in elections that included only candidates hand-picked by President Niyazov. No opposition candidates were allowed.
Since the December 2006 death of Niyazov, Turkmenistan's leadership made tentative moves to open up the country. His successor, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, repealed some of Niyazov's most idiosyncratic policies, including banning opera and the circus for being ''"insufficiently Turkmen"''. In education, Berdimuhamedow's government had increased basic education to ten years from nine years, and higher education had been extended from four years to five. He has also increased contacts with the West, which is eager for access to the country's natural gas riches - but fears were mounting that the government would revert to Niyazov's draconian style of rule.
The politics of Turkmenistan take place in the framework of a presidential republic, with the President both head of state and head of government. Under Niyazov, Turkmenistan had a single-party system; however, in September 2008, the People's Council unanimously passed a resolution adopting a new Constitution. The latter resulted in the abolition of the Council and a significant increase in the size of Parliament in December 2008. The new Constitution also permits the formation of multiple political parties.
The former Communist Party, now known as the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, has been the only one effectively permitted to operate. Political gatherings are illegal unless government sanctioned.
According to Reporters Without Borders' 2006 World Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan had the 3rd worst press freedom conditions in the world, behind North Korea and Burma. It is considered to be one of the "10 Most Censored Countries". Each broadcast under Niyazov began with a pledge that the broadcaster's tongue will shrivel if he slanders the country, flag, or president.
Turkmenistan is divided into five provinces or ''welayatlar'' (singular ''welayat'') and one capital city district. The provinces are subdivided into districts (''etraplar'', sing. ''etrap''), which may be either counties or cities. According to the Constitution of Turkmenistan (Article 16 in the 2008 Constitution, Article 47 in the 1992 Constitution), some cities may have the status of ''welaýat'' (province) or ''etrap'' (district).
| Division !! ISO 3166-2 !! Capital city!! Area !! Pop (2005)!! Key | |||||
| ! Ashgabat City | Ashgabat | | | 871,500 | ||
| Ahal Province | TM-A | Anau | | | 939,700 | 1 |
| Balkan Province | TM-B | Balkanabat | | | 553,500 | 2 |
| Daşoguz Province | TM-D | Daşoguz | | | 1,370,400 | 3 |
| Lebap Province | TM-L | Türkmenabat | | | 1,334,500 | 4 |
| Mary Province | TM-M | Mary, Turkmenistan>Mary | | | 1,480,400 | 5 |
At , Turkmenistan is the world's 52nd-largest country. It is slightly smaller than Spain and somewhat larger than the US state of California. It lies between latitudes 35° and 43° N, and longitudes 52° and 67° E.
Over 80% of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert. The center of the country is dominated by the Turan Depression and the Karakum Desert. The Kopet Dag Range, along the southwestern border, reaches 2,912 meters (9,553 ft) at Kuh-e Rizeh (Mount Rizeh).
The Great Balkhan Range in the west of the country (Balkan Province) and the Köýtendag Range on the southeastern border with Uzbekistan (Lebap Province) are the only other significant elevations. The Great Balkhan Range rises to at Mount Arlan and the highest summit in Turkmenistan is Ayrybaba in the Kugitangtau Range – . Rivers include the Amu Darya, the Murghab, and the Tejen.
The climate is mostly arid subtropical desert, with little rainfall. Winters are mild and dry, with most precipitation falling between January and May. The area of the country with the heaviest precipitation is the Kopet Dag Range.
The Turkmen shore along the Caspian Sea is long. The Caspian Sea is entirely landlocked, with no access to the ocean.
The major cities include Aşgabat, Türkmenbaşy (formerly Krasnovodsk) and Daşoguz.
The country possesses the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil resources. In 1994, the Russian government's refusal to export Turkmen gas to hard currency markets, and mounting debts of its major customers, in the former Soviet Union, for gas deliveries, contributed to a sharp fall in industrial production, and caused the budget to shift, from a surplus to a slight deficit. Half of the country's irrigated land is planted with cotton, making the country the world's tenth-largest producer of it.
Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to economic reform, hoping to use gas and cotton sales to sustain its economy. In 2004, the unemployment rate was estimated to be 60%;Privatization goals remain limited.
Between 1998 and 2002, Turkmenistan suffered from the continued lack of adequate export routes for natural gas and from obligations on extensive short-term external debt. At the same time, however, the value of total exports has risen sharply because of increases in international oil and gas prices. Economic prospects in the near future are discouraging because of widespread internal poverty and the burden of foreign debt.
President Niyazov spent much of the country's revenue on extensively renovating cities, Ashgabat in particular. Corruption watchdogs voiced particular concern over the management of Turkmenistan's currency reserves, most of which are held in off-budget funds such as the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund in the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, according to a report released in April 2006 by London-based non-governmental organization Global Witness.
According to the decree of the Peoples' Council of 14 August 2003, electricity, natural gas, water and salt will be subsidized for citizens up to 2030; however, shortages are frequent. In addition car drivers are entitled to 120 litres of free petrol a month. Drivers of buses, lorries and tractors can get 200 litres of fuel and motorcyclists and scooter riders 40 litres free. On 5 September 2006, after Turkmenistan threatened to cut off supplies, Russia agreed to raise the price it pays for Turkmen natural gas from $65 to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters. Two-thirds of Turkmen gas goes through the Russian state-owned Gazprom.
The ''CIA World Factbook'' gives the ethnic composition of Turkmenistan as 85% Turkmen, 5% Uzbek, 4% Russian and 6% other (2003 estimates). According to data announced in Ashgabat in February 2001, 91% of the population are Turkmen, 3% are Uzbeks and 2% are Russians. Between 1989 and 2001 the number of Turkmen in Turkmenistan doubled (from 2.5 to 4.9 million), while the number of Russians dropped by two-thirds (from 334,000 to slightly over 100,000).
According to the CIA World Factbook, Muslims constitute 89% of the population while 9% of the population are followers of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the remaining 2% religion is reported as ''non-religious.'' However, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center report, 93.1% of Turkmenistan's population is Muslim. Islam came to the Turkmen primarily through missionary activities. Missionaries were holy men and they often were adopted as patriarchs of particular clans or tribal groups, thereby becoming their "founders." Reformulation of communal identity around such figures accounts for one of the highly localized developments of Islamic practice in Turkmenistan.
In the Soviet era, all religious beliefs were attacked by the communist authorities as superstition and "vestiges of the past." Most religious schooling and religious observance were banned, and the vast majority of mosques were closed. However, since 1990, efforts have been made to regain some of the cultural heritage lost under Soviet rule.
Former president Saparmurat Niyazov ordered that basic Islamic principles be taught in public schools. More religious institutions, including religious schools and mosques, have appeared, many with the support of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Turkey. Religious classes are held in both schools and mosques, with instruction in Arabic language, the Qur'an and the hadith, and history of Islam.
President Niyazov wrote his own religious text, published in separate volumes in 2001 and 2004, entitled the Ruhnama. The Turkmenbashi regime required that the book, which formed the basis of the educational system in Turkmenistan, be given equal status with the Quran (mosques were required to display the two books side by side). The book was heavily promoted as part of the former president's personality cult, and knowledge of the Ruhnama is required even for obtaining a driver's license.
The history of Baha'i Faith in Turkmenistan is as old as the religion itself, and Baha'i communities still exist today.
Internet services are the least developed in Central Asia. Access to internet services are provided by the government's only ISP company "Turkmentelekom". It is estimated that in 2010 there are 80,400 internet users in Turkmenistan or roughly 1.6% of total population.
Category:Central Asian countries Category:Iranian Plateau Category:Landlocked countries Category:Modern Turkic states Category:Member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Category:Russian-speaking countries and territories Category:Single-party states Category:States and territories established in 1991 Category:Member states of the United Nations
ace:Turkmènistan af:Turkmenistan als:Turkmenistan ang:Turcmenistan ar:تركمانستان an:Turkmenistán arc:ܛܘܪܩܡܢܣܛܐܢ roa-rup:Turcmenistan frp:Turcmènistan as:তুৰ্কমেনিস্তান ast:Turkmenistán az:Türkmənistan bn:তুর্কমেনিস্তান zh-min-nan:Turkmenistan be:Туркменістан be-x-old:Туркмэністан bcl:Turkmenistan bar:Tuakmenien bo:ཏུརཀ་མེ་ནི་སུཏན། bs:Turkmenistan br:Turkmenistan bg:Туркменистан ca:Turkmenistan cv:Туркмени ceb:Turkmenistan cs:Turkmenistán co:Turkmenistan cy:Turkmenistan da:Turkmenistan de:Turkmenistan dv:ތުރުކުމެނިސްތާން nv:Tʼóokmen Bikéyah dsb:Turkmeńska et:Türkmenistan el:Τουρκμενιστάν es:Turkmenistán eo:Turkmenio ext:Turkmenistán eu:Turkmenistan ee:Turkmenistan fa:ترکمنستان hif:Turkmenistan fo:Turkmenistan fr:Turkménistan fy:Turkmenistan ga:An Tuircméanastáin gv:Yn Turkmenistaan gag:Türkmenistan gd:Turcmanastàn gl:Turcomenistán - Türkmenostan gu:તુર્કમેનિસ્તાન hak:Thú-khû-man-sṳ̂-thán xal:Йомудин Орн ko:투르크메니스탄 hy:Թուրքմենստան hi:तुर्कमेनिस्तान hsb:Turkmenistan hr:Turkmenistan io:Turkmenistan ilo:Turkmenistan bpy:তুর্কমেনিস্তান id:Turkmenistan ia:Turkmenistan ie:Turkmenistan os:Туркмени is:Túrkmenistan it:Turkmenistan he:טורקמניסטן jv:Turkmenistan kn:ತುರ್ಕಮೆನಿಸ್ತಾನ್ pam:Turkmenistan ka:თურქმენეთი ks:तुर्कमिनिस्थान csb:Turkmenistan kk:Түрікменстан kw:Pow Turkmen rw:Turukimenisitani ky:Түркмөнстан sw:Turkmenistan kv:Туркменистан ht:Tirkmenistan ku:Turkmenistan lad:Turkmenistan la:Turcomannia lv:Turkmenistāna lt:Turkmėnija lij:Turkmenistan li:Turkmenistan ln:Turkmenistáni lmo:Turkmenistan hu:Türkmenisztán mk:Туркменистан ml:തുർക്മെനിസ്ഥാൻ mr:तुर्कमेनिस्तान arz:توركمينيستان mzn:ترکمنون ms:Turkmenistan mn:Туркменистан nah:Turcmenistan na:Turkmenistan nl:Turkmenistan ja:トルクメニスタン pih:Terkmenistaan no:Turkmenistan nn:Turkmenistan nov:Turkmenistan oc:Turcmenistan mhr:Туркменистан uz:Turkmaniston pa:ਤੁਰਕਮੇਨਿਸਤਾਨ pnb:ترکمانستان ps:تورکمنستان pms:Turkmenistan nds:Turkmenistan pl:Turkmenistan pt:Turquemenistão crh:Türkmenistan ro:Turkmenistan qu:Turkminsuyu rue:Туркменістан ru:Туркмения sah:Түркменистаан se:Turkmenistan sa:तुर्कमिनिस्थान sco:Turkmenistan sq:Turkmenia scn:Turkmenistan simple:Turkmenistan ss:IThumekhi sk:Turkménsko sl:Turkmenistan szl:Turkmyńistan so:Turkmenistan ckb:تورکمانستان sr:Туркменистан sh:Turkmenistan su:Turkménistan fi:Turkmenistan sv:Turkmenistan tl:Turkmenistan ta:துருக்மெனிஸ்தான் tt:Төрекмәнстан te:తుర్కమేనిస్తాన్ th:ประเทศเติร์กเมนิสถาน tg:Туркманистон tr:Türkmenistan tk:Türkmenistan udm:Туркмения bug:Turkmenistan uk:Туркменістан ur:ترکمانستان ug:تۈركمەنىستان vi:Turkmenistan vo:Turkmenän fiu-vro:Türkmenistan war:Turkmenistan wo:Turkumenistaan wuu:土库曼斯坦 yi:טורקמעניסטאן yo:Turkmenistan diq:Tırkmenıstan bat-smg:Torkmienėstans zh:土库曼斯坦
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.