Turkmenistan (tūrkmyĕ'nyĭstän') , republic (2005 est. pop. 4,952,000), 188,455 sq mi (488,100 sq km), central Asia. It borders on Afghanistan and Iran in the south, Uzbekistan in the east and northeast, Kazakhstan in the northwest, and the Caspian Sea in the west. Ashgabat (Ashkhabad) is its capital and largest city.
Land, People, and Government
The desert lands of Kara Kum occupy 90% of Turkmenistan's total area; the population is concentrated in oases at the foot of the Kopet Dag Mts. in the south and along the Amu Darya, Murgab, and Tejen rivers. In addition to the capital, Turkmenbashi (Krasnovodsk), Chärjew, Nebitdag, Dashhowuz, and Mary are the major cities and industrial centers. Part of the Kara Kum Canal crosses the desert, furnishing water for irrigation and hydroelectric power.
The Turkmens (or Turkomans) make up over 75% of the population; the remainder are Uzbeks (9%) and Russians (7%), as well as smaller groups of Kazakhs, Tatars, Ukrainians, and Armenians. The Turkmens are a Turkic-speaking people who are largely Sunni Muslims. Unlike other Central Asian groups, they still retain tribal and clan divisions. They are descendants of the medieval Oguz tribes (to which the Seljuk and Osmanli Turks also belonged). Executive power in Turkmenistan is concentrated in the presidency. There is also an elected parliament. The country has five administrative divisions known as weloyats.
Economy
The republic's numerous mineral resources include rich deposits of oil and natural gas on and off the Caspian Sea coast. In the late 1990s, pipeline projects running from the E Caspian gas fields through Iran and Turkey to Europe were under consideration with both Russia and Western consortiums. Other resources include coal, sulfur, salt, phosphate, iodine, lignite, clays, and building stones such as limestone and gypsum. More than 90% of the cultivated land is irrigated. Cotton, grown along the canal and in the Murgab and Tejen oases, is the chief crop; wheat, barley, corn, millet, sesame, vegetables, melons, wine grapes, and alfalfa are also cultivated. The diversion of water from the Aral Sea for irrigation is drying up the sea and reducing the flow of freshwater in the region. Karakul sheep (which provide wool for the region's famous carpets), cattle, horses, and camels are raised, and silkworms are bred. Turkmenistan's industries include oil refining, fish canning (along the Caspian), meat processing, and the production of petroleum products, chemicals, textiles, and building materials. The country has numerous hydroelectric stations. The Trans-Caspian RR is the main transportation route. In 1996, an important rail link between the border city of Sarakhs and Mashhad, Iran, was opened.
History
Originally a part of the kingdom of ancient Persia (see Merv), Turkmenistan passed under Arab domination in the 8th cent. In the 11th cent., it was ruled by the Seljuk Turks (see Khwarazm). Jenghiz Khan conquered the region in the 13th cent., as did Timur (Tamerlane) in the 14th cent. After the breakup (late 15th cent.) of the empire of Timur's successors, the Timurids, Turkmenistan came under Uzbek control. In the early 19th cent., the Turkmens became subject to the khanate of Khiva. In 1869, Russian military forces founded Krasnovodsk (now Turkmenbashi) and began to conquer the Turkmens, whose fierce resistance to Russian encroachment was broken in 1881 with the conquest of the Dengil-Tepe fortress. The Russians then established the Transcaspian Region, which in 1899 became part of the governate general of Russian Turkistan.
Harsh Russian administration provoked revolts by the Turkmens. During the Russian civil war sporadic fighting flared between the Transcaspian provincial government and Bolshevik troops. The Red Army took Ashgabat in July, 1919, and Krasnovodsk in Feb., 1920. The Transcaspian Region was renamed Turkmen Region in 1921; the following year, it became part of the Turkistan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which in 1924 incorporated the Turkmen districts of the former Bukhara and Khorezm republics. Turkmenistan formally became a constituent Soviet republic in 1925. Large numbers of Turkmens still live in Iran and Afghanistan.
A referendum for independence from the Soviet Union was passed in Oct., 1991, and Turkmenistan became a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Dec., 1991. Saparmurat Niyazov (elected Oct., 1990) became president and has become the object of a pervasive personality cult. He was reelected unopposed in 1992 and in 1994 won a referendum extending his term until 2002. The former Communist party retained much of its hold on power, and opposition leaders were restricted and harassed. There was, however, some movement toward privatizing the economy and progress in attracting foreign investment. In 1994, Turkmenistan became the first Central Asian republic to join NATO's Partnership for Peace program; the following year, the country signed a package of 23 bilateral agreements with Russia. A natural-gas pipeline to Iran opened in 1998. In Dec., 1999, the parliament voted to permit Niyazov to serve as president for life. Niyazov was uninjured in an attempted assassination in 2002. In recent years his despotic government has imposed increasing restrictions on personal as well political freedoms. Turkmenistan changed the status of its membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States to that of an associate member in 2005.
