Republic of Turkmenistan ( ), also known as
Turkmenia, ) is a country in
Central Asia.
Until 1991, it was a constituent republic
of the Soviet
Union
, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist
Republic
(Turkmen SSR). It is bordered by
Afghanistan
to the southeast, Iran
to the south
and southwest, Uzbekistan
to the east and northeast, Kazakhstan
to the north and northwest and the Caspian Sea
to the west.
Turkmenistan's GDP growth rate of 11.5% (IMF estimate for 2007)
ranks 11th in the world, but official government statistics on
which this estimate is based are widely regarded as unreliable.
Although it is wealthy in natural resources in certain areas, most
of the country is covered by the
Karakum
Desert.
Until recently it was a
single-party
system, that was considered to 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
December 21,
2006.
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was
elected the new president on
February
11,
2007.
History
The territory of Turkmenistan has a long and checkered history, as
armies from one empire after another decamped there on their way to
more prosperous territories. The region's written history begins
with its conquest by the
Achaemenid
Empire of
ancient Persia, as the
region was divided between the
satrapies of
Margiana,
Khwarezm
and
Parthia .
Alexander the Great conquered
the territory in the fourth 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 .
One hundred and fifty
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 seventh century
CE,
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 eleventh 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 twelfth 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 thirteenth to the sixteenth
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,
Khiva
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.
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.
Soviet Union
The rivalry officially concluded with the
Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907.
Slowly, Russian and European cultures were introduced to the area.
This was
evident in the architecture of the newly formed city of Ashgabat, which became the capital. The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia and
subsequent political unrest led to the declaration of the area as
the Turkmen
SSR
, one of the six republics of the Soviet Union in 1924, assuming the borders of modern
Turkmenistan.
A Turkmen man of Central Asia in
traditional clothes, around 1905–1915.
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 Turkmen alphabet was changed from the traditional
Arabic script to
Latin and finally to
Cyrillic. 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 (2/3 of the city's population).
Independence
When the
Soviet
Union began to collapse, Turkmenistan and the rest of the
Central Asian states heavily favored
maintaining a reformed version of the state, mainly because they
needed the economic power and common markets of the Soviet Union to
prosper. Turkmenistan declared independence on 27 October
1991, one of the last republics to secede.
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.
Turkmenistan Reduces Ties To ‘Associate Member'
Radio Free Europe, 29 August 2005 It is the only former Soviet
state (aside from the Baltic states now in the European Union, and
Georgia that withdrew on 18 August 2009) without a full
membership.
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, leaving no heir
apparent and an unclear line of succession. A former deputy prime
minister rumored to be the illegitimate son of Niyazov,
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, became
acting president, although under the constitution the Chairman of
the People's Council,
Ovezgeldy
Atayev, should have succeeded to the post. However, Atayev was
accused of crimes and removed from office.
In an election on 11 February 2007, Berdimuhamedow was elected
president with 89% of the vote and 95% turnout, although the
election was condemned by outside observers as unfair. He was sworn
in on 14 February 2007.
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Politics
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.
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 current President of Turkmenistan is
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who
took control following Niyazov's death in December 2006.
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.
Turkmenistan is among the twenty countries in the world with the
highest perceived level of corruption: the 2008
Corruption Perception Index for
Turkmenistan is 1.8 on a scale of 0 (most corrupt) to 10 (least
corrupt).
Human rights
Although
human rights and
civil liberties are guaranteed in the
Constitution of
Turkmenistan (such as
social
equality,
sex equality, freedom
from
cruel and unusual
punishment and
freedom of
movement), human rights remains a contentious issue in the
country. Other social and economic rights include the
right to work, the
right to rest, and the
right to
education. However, there are
freedom of religion issues.
According to the 2007
Reporters Without Borders World
Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan had the third-worst
restrictions on the
freedom of the
press in the world. Former president Saparmurat Niyazov
enforced a ban on
satellite
dishes and also banned beards, long hair, ballet, opera and
recorded music in Turkmenistan. These restrictions are now being
gradually relaxed by the new president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.
Although there were modest improvements, the government continued
to commit serious abuses, and its human rights record remained
poor.
Administrative divisions
Provinces of Turkmenistan
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).
Climate
It is one of the driest deserts in the world, some places have an
average annual percipitation amount of only 12 mm. The highest
temperature recorded in Ashkhabad is 48.9 °C (120 F°) and Kerki, an
extreme inland city located on the banks of the Amu Darya river,
recorded 51.7 °C (125 °F) in July 1983.
Geography
Map of Turkmenistan
Dust Storm Over Turkmenistan
At , Turkmenistan is the world's 52nd-largest country.
It is slightly
smaller than Spain
and somewhat
larger than the US state of California
.
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 Ashkhabad
, Türkmenbaşy
(formerly Krasnovodsk) and Daşoguz
.
Economy
Natural gas
HQ of the Ministry of oil and gas of
Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world to Russia, Iran and the
United States in natural gas reserves. The Turkmenistan Natural Gas
Company (
Türkmengaz), under the
auspices of the Ministry of Oil and Gas, controls gas extraction in
the country. Gas production is the most dynamic and promising
sector of the national economy. Turkmenistan's gas reserves are
estimated at 8.1-8.7 trillion cubic meters and its prospecting
potential at up to 21 trillion cubic meters.
Oil
Most of Turkmenistan's oil is extracted by the Turkmenistan State
Company (Concern)
Türkmennebit
from fields at Koturdepe, Balkanabad, and
Chekelen near the Caspian Sea, which have a
combined estimated reserve of 700 million tons. The oil extraction
industry started with the exploitation of the fields in Chekelen in
1909 (by
Nobel brothers) and Balkanabad in the
1930s, then production leaped ahead with the discovery of the
Kumdag field in 1948 and the Koturdepe field in 1959. Big part of
the oil produced in Turkmenistan is refined in Turkmenbashy and
Seidi refineries. Also, oil is exported by tankers through Caspian
Sea to Europe via canals.
Energy
Turkmenistan is a net exporter of electrical power to Central Asian
republics and southern neighbors. The most important generating
installations are the Hindukush Hydroelectric Station, which has a
rated capacity of 350 megawatts, and the Mary Thermoelectric Power
Station, which has a rated capacity of 1,370 megawatts. In 1992
electrical power production totaled 14.9 billion
kilowatt-hours.
Agriculture
Half of the country's irrigated land is planted with
cotton, making the country the world's tenth-largest
producer of it. It 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.
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%; the percentage of
the population living below the poverty line was thought to be 58%
a year earlier.
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. 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.
Demographics
Most of Turkmenistan's citizens are
ethnic Turkmens with sizeable minorities of
Uzbeks and
Russians.
Smaller minorities include
Kazakhs,
Tatars,
Ukrainians,
Armenians,
Azeris, and
Balochis.
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).
Language
Turkmen is the
official language of Turkmenistan (per the
1992 Constitution),
although
Russian still is widely
spoken in cities as a "language of inter-ethnic communication".
Turkmen is spoken by 72% of the population, Russian 12%,
Uzbek 9%, and other languages 7%.
Religion
Islam is the dominant religion in Turkmenistan
(89% of the population); the 9% of the population that adheres to
the
Eastern Orthodox Church
are ethnic
Russians; the remaining 2%
religion is reported as unknown. Islam came to the Turkmen
primarily through the missionary activities of
sheikhs. These sheikhs 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.
Culture
Turkmen girl in traditional
dress.
Education is universal and mandatory through the secondary level,
the total duration of which was earlier reduced from 10 to 9 years;
with the new President it has been decreed that from the 2007 -
2008 school year on, mandatory education will be for 10
years.
Mass Media
There are a number of newspapers and monthly magazines published in
Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan currently broadcasts 5 national TV
channels through satellite. There are no commercial or private TV
stations. Articles published by the state controlled newspapers are
heavily censored and written to glorify the state and its
leader.
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 as of
August 2007 there were 64,800 internet users in Turkmenstan or
roughly 0.9% of total population.
See also
Further reading
- Bradt Travel Guide: Turkmenistan by Paul Brummell
- Historical Dictionary of Turkmenistan by Rafis
Abazov
- Lonely Planet Guide: Central Asia by Paul Clammer,
Michael Kohn and Bradley Mayhew
- The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central
Asia by Peter Hopkirk
- Tradition and Society in Turkmenistan: Gender, Oral Culture
and Song by Carole Blackwell
- Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan by
Adrienne Lynn Edgar
- Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle
East, and the Caucasus by Robert
D. Kaplan
- Unknown Sands: Journeys Around the World's Most
Isolated Country by John W. Kropf
- Rall, Ted. "Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle
East?" New York: NBM Publishing, 2006.
- Theroux, Paul, "Letter from Turkmenistan, The Golden Man,
Saparmyrat Nyyazow’s reign of insanity" New Yorker, 28 May 2007
References
External links
- Government
- General information
- Other
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