Turkmenistan has a state-controlled press and monitored communication systems.

Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan

Mobile[link]

BCTI was only GSM operator in country with 10-year exclusive license granted in 1994. Due to lack of competition, BCTI continued to operate without investing much to cover rural areas. Expensive cost of service limited the number of subscribers to very small percentage of general population.

Mobile phones sector started to improve rapidly after the expiration of company's exclusive license in 2004. Russian mobile phone operator MTS acquired BCTI ^[1] and state owned communication company TurkmenTelekom opened new subsidiary, Altyn Asyr GSM. Number of mobile phone subscribers reached over 1,000,000. (MTS - 800,000^[2] and Altyn Asyr GSM 450,000 (estimate^[3])

Internet Service[link]

Turkmenistan gained access to the Internet in 1997 through a contract with MCI Communications (later became MCI WorldCom). A small number of independent Internet Service Providers were forced out of business in 2001 when TurkmenTelecom was granted a monopoly over data services. Dependence on expensive satellite channels limited the availability of Internet to only two thousand subscribers. To upgrade the Internet backbone, Ministry of Communication signed a contract with TATA Communications for routing traffic through Transit-Asia-Europe fiber optic channel.^[4] As a result of this development, TurkmenTelecom started offering an access to the higher speed Internet with ADSL to the consumers in Ashgabat.

In 2008, MTS started offering Internet service to mobile subscribers via GPRS. Altyn Asyr was first to lunch 3G and 2 mpbs mobile internet service in March 2010. Move surprised mobile customers as the provider was known for inferior but cheaper service.

Country code (Top level domain): TM

Television[link]

Analog TV signal feed of 5 national channels are receivable over-the-air in all living areas across the country. Foreign TV channels are watched with digital satellite receiver. In some places of Ashgabat, cable service is available where satellite dishes are not allowed to be installed.

List of broadcast stations:

• Altyn Asyr (Golden Age)
• Ýaşlyk (Youth)
• Miras (Inheritance)
• TV4 Turkmenistan - News channel broadcast in 7 languages.
• Türkmen Owazy - Turkmen Music channel, launched in 2009.

All 5 of national channels are aired on Yamal satellitle for international audience.

Telephone[link]

Telephones - main lines in use: 500,000 (2006)
domestic: 500 automatic telephone stations and 500,000 telephone numbers.^[5]
international: linked by cable and microwave radio relay to other Commonwealth of Independent States republics and to other countries by leased connections to the Moscow international gateway switch; a new telephone link from Ashgabat to Iran has been established; a new exchange in Ashgabat switches international traffic through Turkey via Intelsat; satellite earth stations - 1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat

Newspapers[link]

List of newspapers in Turkmenistan:

• Turkmenskaya Iskra (Soviet-era)
• Balkan newspaper, Turkmenistan (Balkanabat)

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

TurkmenTel[link]

Ministry of Communication organizes international exhibition "TurkmenTel" each year, starting from 2007. Leading companies all around the world are invited to Ashgabat to exhibit their technologies.

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.turkmenistan.ru/?page_id=3&lang_id=en&elem_id=6803&type=event&sort=date_desc
2. ^ http://www.mts.tm/news/2008-10-22-697454/
3. ^ http://www.turkmenistaninfo.ru/?page_id=6&type=article&elem_id=page_6/magazine_51/423&lang_id=en&highlight_words=GSM
4. ^ http://www.turkmenistan.ru/?page_id=3&lang_id=en&elem_id=12682&type=event&sort=date_desc
5. ^ Telecommunications At The World Level

External links[link]

• Ministry of Communication of Turkmenistan
• MTS Turkmenistan
• TurkmenTel 2008 Official website

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Turkmenistan Türkmenistan
Flag Emblem
Anthem: Independent, Neutral, Turkmenistan State Anthem "Garaşsyz, Bitarap Türkmenistanyň Döwlet Gimni"
Capital (and largest city)		Ashgabat 37°58′N 58°20′E / 37.967°N 58.333°E / 37.967; 58.333
Official language(s)		Turkmen
Language of interethnic communication		Russian
Ethnic groups (2003)		Turkmen 85% Uzbek 5% Russian 4% other 6%
Demonym		Turkmen
Government		Presidential republic Single-party state
-	President	Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
Legislature		Mejlis
Independence		from the Soviet Union
-	Declared	27 October 1991
-	Recognized	25 December 1991
Area
-	Total	491,210 km2 [1](52nd) 188,456 sq mi
-	Water (%)	4.9
Population
-	2009 estimate	5,110,000[2] (112th)
-	Density	10.5/km2 (208th) 27.1/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$43.359 billion[3]
-	Per capita	$7,846[3]
GDP (nominal)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$25.742 billion[3]
-	Per capita	$4,658[3]
HDI (2010)		0.669[4] (medium) (87th)
Currency		Turkmen new manat (TMT)
Time zone		TMT (UTC+5)
-	Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+5)
Drives on the		right
ISO 3166 code		TM
Internet TLD		.tm
Calling code		993

Turkmenistan (ⁱ/tɜrkˈmɛnɨstæn/ or ⁱ/tɜrkmɛnɨˈstɑːn/; Turkmen: Türkmenistan), formerly also known as Turkmenia (Russian: Туркмения), is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR). Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states. 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% in 2010^[update] ranks 4th in the world, but these figures are subject to wide margins of error.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.

History[link]

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, Khorezm and Parthia.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[7]

In the 7th century AD, Arabs conquered this region, introducing Islam. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Magtymguly Pyragy

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^{[citation needed]}. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Between the 17th and 19th centuries, control of Turkmenistan was fought over by the rulers of Afghanistan, Persian Shahs, Khivan Khans and the Emirs of Bukhara. During this period, Turkmen spiritual leader Magtymguly Pyragy reached prominence with his efforts to secure independence and autonomy for his people. In 1885, the Russian forces seized the Afghan territory of the Panjdeh oasis (around modern-day Serhetabat in Turkmenistan) during the Panjdeh Incident.

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."^[8][9]

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[link]

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 the 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. Photo by Prokudin-Gorskii between 1905 and 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 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.^[10] The national policies of the Soviet Union, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, actually promoted "the invention of turkmen traditions".^[11] Turkmen was enjoying preferable treatment in the Soviet administration and educational system and during the Stalin years the republic had become more national in form including the establishment of Turkman as the official language.^[11]

Independence[link]

When the Soviet Union began to collapse, Turkmenistan and the rest of the Central Asian republics first 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. Nevertheless, Turkmenistan declared independence on 27 October 1991,^[12] albeit one of the last Soviet republics to secede. Turkmenistan gained official recognition on 25 December 1991, a day before the final dissolution of the Soviet Union. Turkmenistan joined the U.N. the following year.

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.^[13]

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Politics[link]

The Presidential Palace in Ashgabat

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^[when?] that the government would revert to Niyazov's draconian style of rule.^{[citation needed]}

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.

Human rights[link]

Turkmenistan has been widely criticised for human rights abuses and has imposed severe restrictions on foreign travel for its citizens.^[14] Discrimination against the country's ethnic minorities remain in practice. Universities have been encouraged to reject applicants with non-Turkmen surnames, especially ethnic Russians.^[15] It is forbidden to teach the customs and language of the Baloch, an ethnic minority. The same happens to Uzbeks, though the Uzbek language used to be taught in some national schools.^[16]

According to Reporters Without Borders' 2011 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.^[17]

Administrative divisions[link]

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[link]

The Karakum Desert is one of the driest deserts in the world, some places have an average annual precipitation of only 12 mm (0.47 in). The highest temperature recorded in Ashgabat is 48.0 °C (118.4 °F) and Kerki, an extreme inland city located on the banks of the Amu Darya river, recorded 51.7 °C (125.1 °F) in July 1983, although this value is unofficial. 50.1°C is the highest temperature recorded at Repetek Reserve, recognized as the highest temperature ever recorded in the whole former Soviet Union.^{[citation needed]}

Geography[link]

Map of Turkmenistan

Dust storm over Turkmenistan

At 488,100 km² (188,500 sq mi), 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).^[19]

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 1,880 metres (6,170 ft) at Mount Arlan^[20] and the highest summit in Turkmenistan is Ayrybaba in the Kugitangtau Range – 3,137 metres (10,292 ft).^[21] 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 1,768 kilometres (1,099 mi) long. The Caspian Sea is entirely landlocked, with no access to the ocean.

The major cities include Aşgabat, Türkmenbaşy (formerly Krasnovodsk) and Daşoguz.

Economy[link]

Graphical depiction of Turkmenistan's product exports in 28 color coded categories.

The country possesses the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil resources.^[22] 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 ninth-largest cotton producer^[23].

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%.^[5]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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,^[24] electricity, natural gas, water and salt will be subsidized for citizens up to 2030. 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.^[25]

Natural gas and export routes[link]

The latest study in May 2011 stated that the South lolotan gas field is now easily the world's second-largest gas field in terms of gas-in-place. The estimated reserves at South lolotan was about 21 trillion cubic metres.^[26] 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. In 2010 Ashgabat started a policy of diversifying export routes for its raw materials.^[27] China is set to become the largest buyer of gas from Turkmenistan over the coming years as a pipeline linking the two countries, through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, reaches full capacity.^[28] In addition to supplying Russia, China and Iran, Ashgabat took concrete measures to accelerate progress in the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan and India pipeline (TAPI). Turkmenistan has previously estimated the cost of the project at $3.3 billion. On 21 May, president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov unexpectedly signed a decree stating that companies from Turkmenistan will build an internal East-West gas pipeline allowing the transfer of gas from the biggest deposits in Turkmenistan (Dowlatabad and Yolotan) to the Caspian coast. The East-West pipeline is planned to be around 1,000 km long and have a carrying capacity of 30 bn m³ annually, at a cost of between one and one and a half billion US dollars.^[27]

Oil[link]

Most of Turkmenistan's oil is extracted by the Turkmenistan State Company (Concern) Türkmennebit from fields at Koturdepe, Balkanabat, 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 Cheleken in 1909 (by Nobel brothers) and Balkanabat in the 1930s, then production leaped ahead with the discovery of the Kumdag field in 1948 and the Koturdepe field in 1959. A 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.^[29]

Energy[link]

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.^[30]

Agriculture[link]

Half of the country's irrigated land is planted with cotton, making the country the world's ninth-largest cotton producer^[23].

Demographics[link]

Most of Turkmenistan's citizens are ethnic Turkmens with sizeable minorities of Uzbeks and Russians. Smaller minorities include Kazakhs, Tatars, Ukrainians, Armenians, Azeris, Balochs and Pashtuns. The percentage of ethnic Russians dropped from 18.6% in 1939 to 9.5% in 1989.^[31]

The CIA World Factbook gives the ethnic composition of Turkmenistan as 85% Turkmen, 5% Uzbek, 4% Russian and 6% other (2003 estimates^[update]).^[5] According to data announced in Ashgabat in February 2001^[update], 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).^[32]

Largest cities[link]

v t e Largest cities or towns of Turkmenistan http://www.geonames.org/TM/largest-cities-in-turkmenistan.html
	Rank	City name	Province	Pop.
Ashgabat Turkmenabat	1	Ashgabat	Ahal	1 003 678
	2	Turkmenabat	Lebap	408 904
	3	Dasoguz	Dasoguz	245 872
	4	Mary	Mary	200 680
	5	Balkanabat	Balkan	87 822
	6	Bayramaly	Mary	88 797
	7	Türkmenbaşy	Balkanabad	101 292
	8	Tejen	Ahal	67 294
	9	Buezmeyin	Ahal	39 481
	10	Gowurdak	Lebap	34,745

Language[link]

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%.^[5]

Religion[link]

The Ärtogrul Gazy Mosque in Ashgabat named after the father of Osman Ghazi, the founder of the Ottoman Empire

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.^[5] However, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center report, 93.1% of Turkmenistan's population is Muslim.^[33] 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.^[34]

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.^[35]

The history of Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan is as old as the religion itself, and Bahá'í communities still exist today.^[36] The first Bahá'í House of Worship was built in Ashgabat at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was seized by the Soviets in the 1920s and converted to an art gallery. It was heavily damaged in the earthquake of 1948 and later demolished. The site was converted to a public park.^[37]

Culture[link]

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.^{[citation needed]}

• Akhal-Teke horse
• Yomut carpet
• Turkmen carpet
• Islam in Turkmenistan
• Merv
• Music of Turkmenistan
• Turkmen cuisine

Heritage[link]

Turkmenistan in the list of World Heritage Sites
Image	Name	Location	Notes	Date added	Type
	Ancient Merv	Mary	a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road	1995	Cultural[38]
	Köneürgenç	Köneürgenç	unexcavated ruins of the 12th-century capital of Khwarezm	2005	Cultural[39]
	Parthian Fortresses of Nisa	Bagyr, Ahal Province	one of the first capitals of the Parthians	2007	Cultural[40]

Mass media[link]

There are a number of newspapers and monthly magazines published in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan currently broadcasts 6 national TV channels through satellite. They are Altyn asyr, Yashlyk, Miras, Turkmenistan (in 7 languages), Turkmen Owazy and Ashgabat. 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 ISP company "Turkmentelekom". It was estimated that in 2010 there were 80,400 internet users in Turkmenistan or roughly 1.6% of total population.^[41][42]

See also[link]

	Geography portal
	Asia portal
	Central Asia portal

	Book: Turkmenistan
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Outline of Turkmenistan
• Index of Turkmenistan-related articles
• Central Asian Union
• Foreign relations of Turkmenistan
• Geok Tepe
• Military of Turkmenistan
• Scouting in Turkmenistan
• Transport in Turkmenistan

References[link]

Further reading[link]

This article lacks ISBNs for the books listed in it. Please make it easier to conduct research by listing ISBNs. If the {{Cite book}} or {{citation}} templates are in use, you may add ISBNs automatically, or discuss this issue on the talk page. (October 2011)

• 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
• Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, Turkménistan, Paris, Non Lieu, 2009.

External links[link]

Find more about Turkmenistan on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Turkmenistan entry at The World Factbook
• Turkmenistan at UCB Libraries GovPubs
• Turkmenistan at the Open Directory Project
• Wikimedia Atlas of Turkmenistan
• Turkmenistan travel guide from Wikitravel
• Key Development Forecasts for Turkmenistan from International Futures

Government

• Turkmenistan government information portal
• Chief of State and Cabinet Members

Other

• "Chronicles of Turkmenistan". Publication of Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights.
• The Turkmenistan Project - weekly news and analysis in English and Russian
• Official photo gallery from Turkmenistan and Ashgabat
• daily news and analysis in Turkish English and Turkmen

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Geographic locale v t e Countries and territories of Central Asia Generally included  Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan  Tajikistan  Turkmenistan  Uzbekistan Sometimes included  Afghanistan  China Xinjiang Province  Iran Khorasan Province  Mongolia  Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Gilgit Baltistan  Russia Siberia Tatarstan v t e Countries and dependencies of Asia Sovereign states Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia China Cyprus Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand East Timor (Timor-Leste) Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen States with limited recognition Abkhazia Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan Dependencies and Special Administrative Regions Australia Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands China Hong Kong Macau United Kingdom Akrotiri and Dhekelia British Indian Ocean Territory v t e Countries bordering the Caspian Sea  Azerbaijan  Iran  Kazakhstan  Russia  Turkmenistan

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