Turkmenistan: Map & History

History

Historically inhabited by Indo-Iranians, Turkmenistan's written history begins with its annexation by the Achaemenid Empire of ancient Iran. After centuries of turmoil, over a thousand years later, in the 8th century AD, Turkic-speaking Oghuz tribes moved from Mongolia into present-day Central Asia. Part of a powerful confederation of tribes, these Oghuz formed the ethnic basis of the modern Turkmen population. In the 10th century, the name "Turkmen" was first applied to Oghuz groups that accepted Islam and began to occupy present-day Turkmenistan. There they were under the dominion of the Seljuk Empire, which was composed of Oghuz groups living in present-day Iran and Turkmenistan.

Government and politics

After over a century of being a part of the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union (including 67 years as a union republic), Turkmenistan declared its independence on 27 October 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Saparmurat Niyazov, a former official 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 as President 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.

Economy

The country possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil resources.

Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to economic reform, hoping to use gas and cotton sales to sustain its economy. In 2019, the unemployment rate was estimated to be 4.27%.

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 rose sharply due to increases in international oil and gas prices. The subsequent collapse of both hydrocarbon and cotton prices in 2014 cut revenues from export sales severely, causing Turkmenistan to run trade deficits from 2015 through 2017.

Culture

The Turkmen people have traditionally been nomads and equestrians; even today after the fall of the USSR, attempts to urbanize the Turkmens have not been very successful. They never really formed a coherent nation or ethnic group until they were forged into one by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. Turkmen are divided into clans, and each clan has its own dialect and style of dress. Turkmens are famous for making knotted Turkmen carpets, often mistakenly called Bukhara rugs in the West.