Turkmenistan

**Turkmenistan** (tɜːrkmɛnɪˈstɑːn, Turkmen: تاۆركمينيستان, *Türkmenistan*), officially the **Turkmen Union**, ~~also commonly referred to as **The Most Important Country**~~, is a landlocked country in Central Asia, bordered by  Kazakhstan to the northwest,  Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast,  Afghanistan to the southeast,  Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ashgabat is the capital and largest city of the country. The population of the country is about 6 million, the lowest of the Central Asian republics. Turkmenistan is one of the most sparsely populated nations in Asia.

The area currently known as Turkmenistan has long served as a thoroughfare for many other nations and cultures. Merv is one of the oldest oasis-cities in Central Asia and was once the biggest city in the world. In medieval times, Merv was also one of the great cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan later figured prominently in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Central Asia. In 1925, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen SSR, but declared its independence in the final stages of WW2 before falling to an Islamist uprising soon after. In 2021 the military staged a coup d'état which lead to the establishment of a democratic government.

Turkmenistan possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of natural gas. Most of the country is covered by the Karakum or Black Sand Desert.

Due to its communist and later Islamist government, Turkmenistan was only accepted into the  United Nations as a full member in 2023. Instead, the country isolated itself along with most other Central Asian countries. After the resignation of President Meredov, a provisional government drafted a new constitution which federalized the country and ensured human rights for the citizens.

## Etymology

The name of Turkmenistan (Turkmen: *Türkmenistan*) can be divided into two components: the ethnonym Türkmen and the Persian suffix -stan meaning "place of" or "country". The name "Turkmen" comes from Turk, plus the Sogdian suffix -men, meaning "almost Turk", in reference to their status outside the Turkic dynastic mythological system. However, some scholars argue the suffix is an intensifier, changing the meaning of Türkmen to "pure Turks" or "the Turkish Turks."

Muslim chroniclers like Ibn Kathir suggested that the etymology of Turkmenistan came from the words Türk and Iman (Arabic: إيمان, "faith, belief") in reference to a massive conversion to Islam of two hundred thousand households in the year 971.

Turkmenistan declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1946. As a result, the constitutional law was adopted on 22 October of that year and Article 1 established the new name of the state: Turkmenistan (*Türkmenistan*/تاۆركمينيستان). A common name for the Turkmen SSR was Turkmenia (Russian: Туркмения), used in some reports of the country's independence.

## History

Historically inhabited by the Indo-Iranians, the written history of Turkmenistan begins with its annexation by the  Achaemenid Empire of Ancient Iran. 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. Oghuz groups in the service of the empire played an important role in the spreading of Turkic culture when they migrated westward into present-day Azerbaijan and eastern Turkey.

In the 12th century, Turkmen and other tribes overthrew the Seljuk Empire. In the next century, the  Mongols took over the more northern lands where the Turkmens had settled, scattering the Turkmens southward and contributing to the formation of new tribal groups. The sixteenth and eighteenth centuries saw a series of splits and confederations among the nomadic Turkmen tribes, who remained staunchly independent and inspired fear in their neighbors. By the 16th century, most of those tribes were under the nominal control of two sedentary Uzbek khanates,  Khiva and  Bukhoro. Turkmen soldiers were an important element of the Uzbek militaries of this period. In the 19th century, raids and rebellions by the Yomud Turkmen group resulted in that group's dispersal by the Uzbek rulers. In 1855 the Turkmen tribe of Teke led by Gowshut-Khan defeated the invading army of the Khan of Khiva Muhammad Amin Khan and in 1861 the invading  Persian army of Nasreddin-Shah.

In the second half of the 19th century, northern Turkmens were the main military and political power in the  Khanate of Khiva. 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."*

### Russian and Soviet rule

 Russian forces began occupying Turkmen territory late in the 19th century. From their Caspian Sea base at Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy), the Russians eventually overcame the Uzbek khanates. In 1879, the Russian forces were defeated by the Teke Turkmens during the first attempt to conquer the Ahal area of Turkmenistan. However, in 1881, the last significant resistance in Turkmen territory was crushed at the Battle of Geok Tepe, and shortly thereafter Turkmenistan was annexed, together with adjoining Uzbek territory, into the  Russian Empire. In 1916, the Russian Empire's participation in World War I resonated in Turkmenistan, as an anticonscription revolt swept most of Russian Central Asia. Although the Russian Revolution of 1917 had little direct impact, in the 1920s Turkmen forces joined Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Uzbeks in the so-called  Basmachi Rebellion against the rule of the newly formed  Soviet Union.

In 1921 the tsarist province of Transcaspia (Russian: *Закаспийская область*) was renamed Turkmen oblast (Russian: *Туркменская область*), and in 1924, the  Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed from it. By the late 1930s, Soviet reorganization of agriculture had destroyed what remained of the nomadic lifestyle in Turkmenistan, and Moscow controlled political life. During World War II, Turkmenistan played a strategic role in the Soviet occupation of  Iran. The longer the war lasted, the clearer it became that the  Soviet Union would lose it. The local government in Ashgabat negotiated a separate peace with the Allies. This would be granted on the condition that Turkmenistan declares itself independent, which it did shortly afterwards.

### Independence

The young Turkmen state was not at all prepared for the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1945 after the wake of the war. Suddenly one had to pay customs duties at the new borders with  Kazakhstan and  Uzbekistan, which had also only just become independent, and led to a slump in the economy. The fact that Turkmenistan has never existed in this form as a nation put a great strain on the relationship between the people and their government, as many Turkmens rejected the mere existence of the  Turkmen SSR. The communists showed what progress looks like, but at the high cost of wiping out centuries-old traditions and culture, something that has angered many conservative Turkmen. What little faith is left in the Turkmen SSR was taken after the Ashgabat earthquake in 1948, when the public felt the communists had done too little to contain the crisis.

### Islamic State

#### Counter-Revolution

The Islamist Movement was founded by Ceykob Dzhoraeva. He originated from a nomadic family whose lifestyle was completely destroyed by the agrarian reforms under Stalin. Traumatized, he now campaigned for the liberation of his homeland from the  Soviet Union and its ideology, communism. In order to gain as many potential followers as possible, he used Islam and took its interpretation to the extreme. From then on, Dzhoraeva was constantly harassed and arrested, but as communism became increasingly unpopular, he took advantage of Turkmen dissatisfaction to present his Islamism as a better alternative. When the Supreme Soviet tried to pass a law that would allow people to work longer for the same wages, crowds took to the streets and stormed all government buildings in Ashgabat. The  Turkmen SSR was officially dissolved and Dzhoraeva appointed head of a provisional government.

As soon as he was in power, the country was radically transformed. The  Islamic State of Turkmenistan was proclaimed and he declared himself Deputy, Head of state of Turkmenistan, Allah's representative on earth and Muhammad's descendant. The Cyrillic alphabet introduced under the Soviets was abolished and replaced by old Arabic script. Ashgabat, destroyed by the earthquake, was rebuilt and Sharia law was introduced. In order to finance major projects, Dzhoraeva improved relations with western countries. That and the fact that the state should have good relations with  Iran brought a lot of resistance in his own ranks. Oppositionists like Serdar Petrova called for a stricter interpretation of Islam. The deputy gradually isolated himself from his own movement until he was deposed in 1957.

#### Radicalization

Compared to communist totalitarianism, the order introduced by Dzhoraeva was still partially liberal. This was about to change with the takeover of Petrova and his successor Toprak Ashyrova. With the counter-revolution of 1950, the NKVD was abolished. Just eight years later, the Ministry of National Security (MHM, Turkmen: *Türkmenistanyň Milli howpsuzlyk ministrilgi*) was established under Petrova. Most Central Asian nations had at this point been inspired by the counter-revolution in  Turkmenistan and have also become Islamic States, with the notable exception of  Kyrgyzstan.  Uzbekistan wanted to achieve unification of the Central Asian states under its leadership, with the Kyrgyz being a thorn in its side as their non-Islamic government would never submit to what they saw as a fanatically Islamist reign of terror. In response, the Uzbeks and its allies tried to intimidate and isolate  Kyrgyzstan internationally.

 Turkmenistan and its Islamic allies consisted primarily of Turkic-speaking countries, and as such they would soon be referred to as the "Turkish sect" by the West. These countries have become ever closer, but more and more isolated from the world. The Ashyrova doctrine declared war on modernity and set the goal for  Turkmenistan and the entire Islamic world: a social return to the golden age of Islam. Radical Islamism even went so far as to erase non-Islamic countries from the map alltogether and tell the population that only through Islam it would be possible to build state structures that could protect all people. The infidel barbarians are not able to do this themselves and would envy the Muslims for it.

#### Recession

During the Cold War,  Turkmenistan made secret deals with its neighbors to sell Central Asian resources to the Democrats or Fascists. In this way, the sect countries were able to isolate themselves from abroad but stay afloat financially. With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of fascism, the great powers were able to take care of smaller problems once again. The fact that Ashgabat maintained good relations with  Egypt, which is still fascist and also isolated internationally, did not help them and later even became their undoing. Suddenly the Islamists' methods were internationally condemned and their trade with them despised.

For the Turkmen, this meant a decline in living standards, an ailing economy and a severe recession. The youth rejected the strict interpretation of Islam and called for a stronger role for the nation state as a factor in identity. The ruling class understood that the only way to save the Islamic State that their parents built was through reforms and concessions. Islam's dominance in  Turkmenistan began to wane. At the beginning of 2011, protests broke out in  Egypt which finally ended fascism on the Nile. Since  Turkmenistan had previously cooperated closely with the Egyptians, the Turkmen were allowed to travel to  Egypt. The Arab Spring, as the revolution will soon be called, also became popular in  Turkmenistan, where there were increasing calls for democratization. These demonstrations were quickly dissolved, but a few small concessions were granted, such as less oppressive press censorship. The Turkmen, who found out from foreign media how bad things really were in their country, were shocked.

### Coup d'etat

However, the desire to abolish the Islamic model was not limited to the population. Many civil servants, police officers and other government employees began to disapply laws that had been enacted. The population benefited greatly from the new gray area and was able to speak out more openly against the government. Ultimately, however, the sect leaders shot themselves into their own foot when, at the end of 2020, people took to the streets to demand an end to the theocracy. A major reason for the outbreak of the demonstrations was the conquest of  Azerbaijan by the Black Sea Coalition. The Turkmen people have always been told that Muslims stick together and therefore never have to fear that the barbarians will destroy their civilizations because their brothers will always come to their aid. In Azerbaijan, however, they saw that they were simply abandoned and did not even comment on the Capture of Baku. The army was ordered to shoot them down, but refused to do so, partly because wages were not increased. As a result, the government was overthrown and a democracy set up. The coup not only ended the dictatorship, it is also worth noting that everything happened completely peaceful. A new constitution was drafted under the leadership of Boris Şyhmyradov and the first free presidential elections were held in August 2022.

## Politics

Turkmenistan is a federal, presidential republic. Federal legislative power is vested in the parliament consisting of the People's Assembly and the Federal Council, which together form the legislative body. The People's Assembly consists of 210 seats an is elected through direct elections using the single transferable voting system. The 48 members of the Federal Council represent and are appointed by the governments of the six federated states (seven seats by Ahal, eight seats by Ashgabat, five seats by Balkan, nine seats by Daşhowuz, nine seats by Lebap and ten seats by Merv). The Supreme Convention (both legislative chambers) make laws, but these can be overturned by the Supreme Court or by referendum. Amendments generally require a two-thirds majority of both the People's Assembly and the Federal Council; the fundamental democratic principles of the constitution are valid in perpetuity.

The President, currently Akmuhammet Baykhanov, is head of state and head of government of Turkmenistan. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Turkmenistan Armed Forces. He is elected through direct elections, using the instant-runoff voting system, and serves a five-year term with the possibility to be reelected once. The second-highest official in the Turkmen order of precedence is the Vice President, who ranks first in the presidential line of succession. He is also an officer in the legislative branch, as the president of the Federal Council. The third-highest official is the President of the People's Assembly, who is elected by the People's Assembly and responsible for overseeing the daily sessions of the body.

### Constituent states

  **Ashgabat**
 **Ahal**
 **Balkan**
 **Daşhowuz**
 **Lebap**
 **Merv**

### Foreign relations

Since the nation withdrew from international politics for decades in order to build a common, strictly religious community with its like-minded brother nations, Turkmenistan is hardly networked internationally and, if at all, mostly purely economically. In the meantime, that seems to be changing and the country has announced measures to open up to the international community.

As a result, Turkmen foreign policy has placed a special emphasis on bilateral relations with other nations in order to exert its influence beyond the region.

### Human rights

Turkmenistan has been widely criticised for human rights abuses and has imposed severe restrictions on foreign travel for its citizens. Discrimination against the country's ethnic minorities remains in practice. Universities have been encouraged to reject applicants with non-Turkic surnames, especially ethnic Russians. Religious minorities are discriminated against for conscientious objection and practicing their religion by imprisonment, preventing foreign travel, confiscating copies of Christian literature or defamation. Many detainees who have been arrested for exercising their freedom of religion or belief were tortured and subsequently sentenced to imprisonment, many of them without a court decision. Homosexual acts are illegal in Turkmenistan.

## Geography

### Relief

 Topographically, four-fifths of Turkmenistan consists of the southern part of the Turan Plain. Mountains and foothills rise mainly in the southern part of the union, including the Kugitangtau and Kopet-Dag ranges. The Kopet-Dag is geologically young, its instability indicated by *intermittent* earthquakes of great destructive force. Two broad divisions may be seen throughout Turkmenistan: an oasis region - characterized by adequate water supply, *cultivated* lands, and developed industry - composed of the Kopet-Dag and other oases; and a desert region occupying nine-tenths of Turkmenistan’s territory, subdivided into western Turkmenistan and the Karakum. The Karakum is one of the world’s largest sand deserts, taking up the entire central part of Turkmenistan and extending northward toward  Kazakhstan.

#### Oases

The Kopet-Dag oasis stretches along the northern foothills of the Kopet-Dag Range, the slopes of which offer large areas for nonirrigated farming; both the mountains and foothills are also rich in mineral resources. The economic and cultural centre of the oasis is the capital city of Ashgabat. The development of the capital has *stimulated* industry, turning an agrarian oasis into the industrial-agrarian core of the union. The Morghab oasis is famous for its fine-staple cotton, silk, handmade carpets and rugs, and Karakul sheep. Merv is the centre of the oasis and the surrounding region. Separated from the Morghab by a stretch of the Karakum, the Tejen oasis formed along the Tejen River. Before of the scarcity of water, only small areas of wheat, barley, and melons can be cultivated. The economic and cultural centre is the town of Tejen.

The middle Amu Darya oasis, in contrast to other oases, stretches almost without interruption for hundreds of miles and is almost entirely cultivated. The Amu Darya waters are very rich in silt, an excellent natural fertilizer. Raising of cotton and silkworms has long been widespread in that area, which is also an important producer of kenaf and other fibre crops. The adjoining deserts provide fodder for Karakul sheep. Industries processing agricultural products and mineral raw materials have been developed in the oasis as well. The economic and administrative centre of the oasis and the region is Chardzhou, the second largest city and industrial centre in Turkmenistan. The lower Amu Darya oasis lies in the ancient *delta* of the Amu Darya and was long one of the most important agricultural regions of the union. The oasis is cut by a dense network of old riverbeds and ditches beginning in neighbouring  Uzbekistan. Reductions in the lower Amu Darya’s flow threaten to impair this oasis’s agricultural output, however.

#### Deserts

 The desert of western Turkmenistan is an enormous and almost waterless expanse, but its mountainous part, which is an eastern continuation of the Caucasus Mountains, has mineral and fuel resources. The latter’s deposits of oil, rock salt, and common lake salt are of great importance. Western Turkmenistan is one of the most industrially developed regions of the union, emphasizing oil extraction and refining, chemical and mining industries, and fisheries and fish processing (along the Caspian Sea). The rural population is engaged mostly in raising sheep, goats, and camels. The Karakum and the other featureless deserts are distinguished by the same desert landscape, lack of surface water, exceptionally meagre precipitation, and high summer temperatures. At the same time the desert is a zone of fuel and mineral resources, and its richest pastures can be used year-round for sheep, goats, and camels.

### Drainage

Turkmenistan’s main rivers are the aforementioned Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River), which flows along its northeastern border toward the Aral Sea, and the Tejen, Morghab, and Atrek; there are also numerous small mountain rivers. However, the geographic position of the rivers and the direction of their flow do not coincide with the location of cultivable lands; the most fertile - and still insufficiently used - lands lie chiefly in the south, northeast, and west, whereas the principal rivers run mostly in the east.

### Climate

 Turkmenistan’s position deep inside Asia and the character of its relief are responsible for a strongly continental climate, which exhibits great fluctuations in temperatures during the day and the year. The average annual temperature is 14–16 °C (57-61 °F), but this figure masks an extremely wide range. The temperature seldom falls below 35 °C (95 °F) during summer days, and the absolute maximum high temperature in the southeast Karakum reaches 50 °C (122 °F) in the shade. By contrast, in winter the temperature in Serhetabat, in the extreme south on the border with  Afghanistan, drops to -30°C (−27 °F). Precipitation occurs mainly in the spring and ranges from about 80 mm (3 in) per year in the northwest desert to as much as 12 inches in the mountains.

### Biodiversity

Except in the *oases* and mountain valleys and plateaus, the vegetation is of a pronounced desert character. In the mountain valleys of the Kopet-Dag, wild grapes, almonds, figs, and walnuts are found, while juniper and pistachio trees grow on the open slopes. On the riverbanks and islands of the Amu Darya stand tugay of black poplar, willow, reed, and cane. The desert is home to foxes, wildcats, gazelles, and tortoises, while the mountains support goats, cheetahs, lynx, snow leopards, and porcupines. Jackals, wild boars, various species of birds, and the rare pink deer inhabit the tugay; wild donkeys roam the Badghyz and Karabil plateaus in the southwest. Vast flocks of ducks, geese, and swans make the east coast of the Caspian Sea their winter home. In the Caspian, fishermen find abundant herring, sprat, roach, and sturgeon; before it became heavily polluted, the Amu Darya supplied edible carp, barbel, and pike.

## Economy

Turkmenistan specializes in cotton growing and in the extraction of oil and natural gas. Turkmenistan’s resources underground in the western plain and underwater along the Caspian Sea include *extensive* reserves of oil and natural gas as well as deposits of mirabilite, iodine, bromine, sulfur, potassium, and salt. The mountains and foothills contain dolomites and marl, which are used for fertilizing calcium-deficient soil.

### Agriculture

 The cultivation of fine-staple cotton and the raising of Karakul sheep, horses, and camels contribute most to the agricultural economy. The Karakul breed accounts for seventh-tenths of all sheep in the union. There are several prized varieties of Karakul pelts: the glistening black arabi, the golden sur, and the silver-gray shirazi. The Akhal Teke and Yomut breeds of horses deserve their fame as handsome, fleet animals with great endurance. Arabian dromedary (one-humped) camels are indispensable in desert areas for transporting sheepherders, for drawing water from deep desert wells, and as a source of wool, milk, and meat. Turkmenistan leads Central Asia as a producer of silkworm *cocoons*, primarily from the middle Amu Darya oasis. The lower Amu Darya oasis, lying in the Amu Darya delta, long supported one of the most important agricultural zones in Turkmenistan. Grown in the warm climate there are medium-staple cotton, alfalfa (lucerne), sweet sorghum, beans, kenaf, sesame, grapes, vegetables, and melons, and cattle and silkworms are raised. In less-populated western Turkmenistan, people raise sheep, goats, and camels and *cultivate* some grain and melons. In the south, near Tejen, lies the Badkhyz Nature Reserve with its pistachio woodlands. Pistachios also grow in the Serhetabat district, watered by a tributary of the Morghāb River, at Turkmenistan’s southernmost point.

### Resources and power

 Petroleum deposits and the associated oil industry are centred in the Caspian plain in western Turkmenistan and in the offshore oil fields to the west of the Cheleken Peninsula in the Caspian Sea. Turkmenistan oil is of a very high grade, both as a fuel and as a raw material for chemical production. A network of pipelines links natural gas deposits in western Turkmenistan with  Ashgabat, Krasnovodsk, Çeleken, and the central regions of the union. In December 2009 a 1,800km (1,100 mile) natural gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan with  China was opened; it was largely funded by the China Development Bank. Passing through  Kazakhstan and  Uzbekistan, it was Turkmenistan’s first high-volume export pipeline to completely *circumvent*  Russia. Early the following year a new 30km (19 mile) pipeline between Turkmenistan and  Iran was opened, augmenting an older, smaller pipeline that continued deliveries to that country. Construction of a pipeline delivering natural gas from Turkmenistan to  Afghanistan and  Hindustan (known by the *acronym* TAH) began in 2018. Thermal power stations using liquid fuel operate at Neftedag, Ashgabat, Bezmein, and Krasnovodsk, while a station at Merv burns natural gas. Hydroelectric plants include the Hindu Kush plant, as well as plants at Kaushtubent and at the Dashköpri Reservoir on the Morghāb River.

### Manufacturing

The radical reconstruction of the union’s economy was completed by 1930. Old branches (cotton ginning, oil pressing, and carpet making) were retained, and new ones (heavy and light industry, such as food processing) emerged. Significant in the chemical industry are the Chardzhou superphosphate plant, mirabilite from the *vicinity* of the Garabogazköl (Kara-Bogaz-Gol), sulfur from Gaurdak, iodine and bromine factories on the Cheleken Peninsula, and the production of detergents at the Krasnovodsk oil refinery. The union’s engineering and metal-processing enterprises include shops for repairing diesel locomotives, railcars, and agricultural machinery. Plants in Ashgabat and Merv produce oil-field and refinery equipment. Silk-winding and silk-weaving mills, as well as cotton, cotton-wool, and worsted mills are important. Artificial furs, leather footwear, and sewn goods also are produced. Domestic industries, especially carpet and rug making, occupy an important place in the union’s economy. Turkmen carpets and rugs, long renowned for their durability and unique designs, are exported to more than 50 countries. Among Turkmen carpets well-known in the West are those made by the Teke, Yomut, Salur, and Ersari Turkmens and called by those names. The food industry’s most important branches include those producing vegetable oil, processing fish and meat, grinding flour, and making wine. Turkmenistan exports oil, butter, wine, fish, and salt to nearby countries.

### Trade

In the late 2010s Turkmenistan’s principal trading partners and primary sources of imports included  China,  Turkey,  Russia, and the  United Arab Emirates. Its main imports are machinery and equipment, vehicles, metals, and chemical products. Most of its exports go to  China, and it mainly exports gas, though it also exports petroleum, cotton, and related products.

### Transportation and telecommunications

 The great dispersion of the towns in Turkmenistan requires extending rail lines to serve a scattered population efficiently, but the existing communications system falls far short of achieving that goal. A main trunk railway connects Krasnovodsk via Ashgabat and other towns with Tashkent in  Uzbekistan, throwing off branch lines from Merv to Kushka and from Neftedag to Kushka. Another line extends from Chardzhou along the Amu Darya as far north as Qoʻngʻirot (Kungrad) in  Karakalpakstan. However, trucks now carry most of the country’s internal freight, and such traffic is developing more rapidly than rail transportation. Water transport includes a merchant fleet and a ferry plying the Caspian Sea between Krasnovodsk and Baku in  Azerbaijan. Air service from Ashgabat to Baku and Tashkent has been reduced since 2017. Mobile telephone services are provided by the state-owned Türkmentelekom. Telephone density for the country is about 170 subscriptions per 100 persons. Less than one-fifth of the population has access to the internet.

## Demographics

The population is distributed unevenly, with few people in the Karakum Desert and mountain regions but large numbers in the oases. With the development of the Turkmenistan economy during the Soviet period, many non-Turkmen skilled workers and scientific and technical intelligentsia immigrated to urban areas of the union, though many have left since the counter-revolution. Roughly half of the population of Turkmenistan lives in rural settlements and villages.

The population of Turkmenistan is young. More than half of the population is under 30 years of age. A high birth rate in the decades after independence led to a population boom. The birth rate has since decreased significantly but remains higher than the global average. Life expectancy is about 74 for women and 68 for men.

### Ethnic groups

 For centuries the Turkmens were divided into numerous tribes and clans, the largest being the Teke, Ersari, and Yomut. Prior to the Russian Revolution most of the Turkmens were pastoral nomads, though during the 18th and 19th centuries many had settled in the oases and become agriculturalists. Their tribal organizations and loyalties were strong, and they often hired themselves out as mercenaries to various rulers in Central Asia and  Iran. Turkmenistan’s incorporation into the  Soviet Union had the effect of bringing greater unity to the Turkmen tribes and of giving them the beginning of a sense of nationhood. Turkmens make up more than four-fifths of the union’s population, up from three-fourths at the end of the 20th century and about two-thirds in 1970, largely because of a relatively high birth rate. There are smaller numbers of Russians, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and Tatars.

### Language

The Turkmens speak a language belonging to the southwestern, or Oghuz, branch of the Turkic linguistic group. As such, Turkmen is more closely related to Turkish than it is to either Uzbek or Kazakh. Since 1951 it has been written in the Arabic script, replacing the previously used Latin then Cyrillic script. Uzbek is the primary language of nearly one-tenth of the population and is widely spoken as a second language as  Uzbekistan is faction leader of MOGIV, but its use has declined significantly as the influence of this alliance is becoming more irrelevant with every passing year.

### Religion

 The vast majority of people in Turkmenistan are  Muslim, mostly Sunni of the Athari school, enforced by the Movement of Great Islamic Virtues. As the so called "Turkish sect" gradually lost control of the country over the course of the 2010s and was finally declared abolished in early 2021, more and more Turkmen have returned to the Hanafi school, which was the dominant school in Turkmenistan before the counter revolution. Islam among the Turkmens has a notable tradition of being tempered and infused with folk practices and traditions. The government promotes secularism, signing a bill that prevents senior Muslim clergy to occupy secular institutions, with the former state religion of the Movement and other fundamentalist interpretations of Islam being suppressed. The second largest religion is  Christianity with around 110,000 followers.

## Culture

### Daily life and social customs

Turkmen cuisine shares much in common with other cuisines of the region yet is markedly set apart by its nomadic tradition and geography. One of the most popular dishes is *ash*, a rice and meat pilaf not unlike those of other cuisines in Central Asia. Meat and dairy play a heavy role in Turkmen cuisine, particularly fatty mutton and sheep’s milk. A variety of dishes involving fish are also common in the Western part of the country near the Caspian Sea. Spices are used sparingly; Turkmen cooking aims instead to preserve the ingredients’ flavours.

Some public holidays reflect Turkmenistan’s cultural *milieu*, while others centre on national events. Like many countries in the region, Turkmenistan celebrates the spring festival of Nowruz. The Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are likewise observed as public holidays. A day of remembrance is held on October 6 to pay respects to the victims of the devastating 1948 earthquake in  Ashgabat.

### The arts

 The widespread Turkmen traditional practice of composing poetry orally gave way, after printing became well established in Turkmen centres in the 1920s, to writing and to the *dissemination* of verse and prose in book form. Although written Turkmen literature dates at least to the 18th-century poet Magtymguly Pyragy, it underwent a burst of growth when the literary publications of the new republic began to appear in the late 1920s and ’30s. Outstanding graduates of  Bukharan seminaries such as Abdulhekim Qulmuhammed-oghli brought about a renewal of *intellectual* and cultural life in  Soviet Turkmenistan. Qulmuhammed-oghli served in the anti-Soviet  Basmachi resistance movement, later became a communist nationalist, and influenced younger intellectuals through his activities as a writer, editor, researcher, and cultural organizer. All such efforts came to an end in the 1930s when the purges instigated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and carried out locally by Russian and Turkmen communists destroyed this small core of outstanding intellectual leaders, including Qulmuhammed-oghli. After gaining independence, Islamist-educated intellectuals dominated cultural life. Among these figures, Berdi Kerbabayev, previously a Socialist who arranged with the new system, attained some renown for his novel "Aygïtlï ädim" (1940; *The Decisive Step*) and a later novel, "Nebit-Dag" (1957), as well as plays, poems, and translations.

### Cultural institutions

 The cultural centre of Turkmenistan is  Ashgabat, which hosts several museums and monuments. The most notable of these is the National Museum of History, which features a sizable number of exhibits representing 50,000 years of Turkmenistan’s history. Another museum, housed in the gold-domed Palace of Knowledge, which was built to celebrate and *glorify* Toprak Ashyrova. The city is full of marble edifices and golden statues, most of which were erected during the Ashyrova era.

### Media and publishing

Due to a long history of press censorship and strict media control, the new constitution explicitly defined freedom of expression and the press as inviolable rights. Although most television stations have been privatized in recent years, the reality is that the government continues to pressure opposition figures. The media have been given the mission to recondition the time under the Movement. This includes the rumor that the communists planned a genocide to wipe out the Turkmen culture, emphasized by the multiple changes of script. Prior to the Russian Revolution, it was common in the Turkmen region for literary to be published in modified Arabic script. Later, the  Turkmen SSR switched first to the Latin and then to the Cyrillic script. However, after the Islamists deposed the Soviet government, they put an end to the alleged foreign interference and returned to the Arabic script. Today the Islamist era is now also perceived as an era of dictatorial oppression, which is why lots of the population, notably the youth, is no longer believing in the Islamist *accusations*.

A studio in Ashgabat produces films, and television stations transmit from the capital and from Krasnovodsk. In the decade or so following the counter-revolution, most broadcasting and films employed the Uzbek language rather than Turkmen; following the collapse of the Movement in Turkmenistan the use of Uzbek in public platforms decreased in favour of English and German. Broadcasts in Turkmen are often translations of programs that originated in Uzbek and other languages.

## See also

* Outline of Turkmenistan
* Index of Turkmenistan-related articles