History of Turkmenistan
Encyclopedia
While the ancient history of Turkmenistan
is largely shrouded in mystery, its past since the arrival of Indo-European
Iranian tribes
around 2000 BC is often the starting point of the area's discernible history. Early tribes were nomadic or semi-nomadic due to the arid conditions of the region as the steppe culture in Central Asia was an extension of a larger Eurasian
series of horse cultures which spanned the entire spectrum of language families including the Indo-Europeans
and Turko-Mongol groups. Some of the known early Iranian tribes included the Massagatae, Scythia
ns/Sakas, and early Soghdians (most likely precursors of the Khwarezm
ians). Turkmenistan was a passing point for numerous migrations and invasions by tribes which gravitated towards the settled regions of the south including ancient Mesopotamia
, Elam
, and the Indus Valley Civilization
.
The region's written history begins with the region's conquest by the Achaemenid Empire
of ancient Iran, as the region was divided between the satrapys of Margiana, Chorasmia
and Parthia
. Later conquerors included Alexander the Great, the Parni
, Ephthalites, Huns
, Göktürks
, Sarmatians
, and Sassanid Iranians. During this early phase of history, the majority of Turkmenistan's inhabitants were either adherents of Zoroastrianism
or Buddhism
and the region was largely dominated by Iranian peoples. However, these incursions and epochs, though pivotal, did not shape the region's history as the invasions of two later invading groups: Muslim
Arabs and the Oghuz Turks
. The vast majority of inhabitants were converted to the Sunni variant of Islam
, while the Oghuz
brought the Turkic
Turkmen language
that came to dominate the area. The Turkic period was a time of cultural fusion as Islamic traditions brought by the Arabs merged with local Iranian cultures and then were further altered by Turkic invaders and rulers such as the Seljuks
. Genghis Khan
and Mongol invasions devastated the region during the late Middle Ages
, but their hold upon the area was transitional as later Timur Leng
and Uzbeks
contested the land.
Modern Turkmenistan was radically transformed by the invasion of the Russian Empire
, which conquered the region in the late 19th century. Later, the Russian Revolution of 1917
would ultimately transform Turkmenistan from an Islamic tribal society to a totalitarian Leninist one during the Soviet era. Independence came in 1991, as Saparmurat Niyazov
, a former local communist party boss, declared himself absolute ruler for life as Turkmenbashi or Leader of the Turkmen and transitioned the newly independent Turkmenistan into an authoritarian state under his absolute control and has thus far resisted the democratization that has influenced many of the other former Soviet Republics. Niyazov ruled until his death on December 21, 2006.
The territory of Turkmenistan
has been populated since ancient times, especially the areas near oasis of Merv
, where traces of human settlements have been found. Tribes of horse-breeding Iranian Scythians drifted into the territory of Turkmenistan at about 2000 BC, possibly from the Russian steppes and moved along the outskirts of the Karakum desert
into Iran
, Syria
, and Anatolia
.
The scant remains point to some sparse settlements in the region, including possibly early neanderthals, but the region as a whole remains largely unexplored. Bronze Age
and Iron Age
finds do support the probability of advanced civilizations in ancient Turkmenistan
including finds at Djeitun and Gonur Tepe
.
Alexander the Great conquered the territory in the 4th century BC on his way to South Asia
. In 330 BC, Alexander marched northward into Central Asia
and founded the city of Alexandria near the Murgab River. Located on an important trade route, Alexandria later became the city of Merv
(modern Mary
). The ruins of Alexander's ancient city are still to be found and have been extensively researched. After Alexander's death his empire quickly fell apart. It was ruled by Seleucids before independence declaration of Partia's satrap. The Parthia
ns- fierce, nomadic warriors from the north of Iran —then established the kingdom of Parthia, which covered present-day Turkmenistan and Iran. The Parthian kings ruled their domain from the city of Nisa
– an area now located near the modern-day capital of Ashgabat – founded by Arsaces I (reigned c. 250–211 BC), and was reputedly the royal necropolis of the Parthian kings, although it has neither been established that the fortress at Nisa was a royal residence nor a mausoleum.
Excavations at Nisa have revealed substantial buildings, mausoleums and shrines, many inscribed documents, and a looted treasury. Many Hellenistic art works have been uncovered, as well as a large number of ivory rhytons, the outer rims decorated with Iranian subjects or classical mythological scenes.
The Parthian Kingdom succumbed in 224 AD to the Sasanids – rulers of Iran
. At the same time, several tribal groups—including the Alans
and the Huns
—were moving into Turkmenistan from the east and north. A branch of the Huns wrested control of southern Turkmenistan
from the Sasanian Empire in the 5th century A.D, this records first evidence of nomadic Non-Iranian peoples into the area of Turkmenistan.
, and Merv
and Nisa
became centers of sericulture
(the raising of silkworms). A busy caravan route, connecting Tang Dynasty
China
and the city of Baghdad
(in modern Iraq), passed through Merv. Thus, the city of Merv constituted an important prize for any conqueror.
Central Asia came under Arab control after a series of invasions in the late 7th and early 8th centuries and was incorporated into Islamic Caliphate
divided between provinces of Mawara'un Nahr and Khorasan
. The Arab conquest brought Islamic religion to all of the peoples of central Asia. The city of Merv was occupied by lieutenants of the caliph Uthman ibn Affan, and was constituted as the capital of Khorasan. Using this city as their base, the Arabs, led by Qutayba ibn Muslim, brought under subjection Balkh
, Bokhara, Fergana
and Kashgaria, and penetrated into China as far as the province of Kan-suh early in the 8th century.
Merv achieved some political spotlight in February 748 when Abu Muslim
(d. 750) declared a new Abbasid
dynasty at Merv, and set out from the city to conquer Iran and Iraq and establish a new capital at Baghdad. Abu Muslim was famously challenged by the Goldsmith of Merv to do the right thing and not make war on fellow Muslims. The Goldsmith was put to death.
In the latter part of the 8th century Merv became obnoxious to Islam as the centre of heretical propaganda preached by al-Muqanna "The Veiled Prophet of Khorasan". In 874 Arab rule in Central Asia came to an end. During their dominion Merv, like Samarkand
and Bokhara, was one of the great schools of learning, and the celebrated historian Yaqut studied in its libraries. Merv produced a number of scholars in various branches of knowledge, such as Islamic law, Hadith
, history, literature, and the like. Several scholars have the name: Marwazi (المروزي) designating them as hailing from Merv.
may be traced back to the Oghuz
confederation of nomadic pastoral tribes of the early Middle Ages, which lived in present-day Mongolia and around Lake Baikal
in present-day southern Siberia. Known as the Nine Oghuz, this confederation was composed of Turkic-speaking peoples who formed the basis of powerful steppe empires in Inner Asia. In the second half of the eighth century, components of the Nine Oghuz migrated through Jungaria into Central Asia, and Arabic sources located them under the term Guzz in the area of the middle and lower Syrdariya in the eighth century. By the tenth century, the Oghuz had expanded west and north of the Aral Sea
and into the steppe of present-day Kazakhstan, absorbing not only Iranians but also Turks from the Kipchak and Karluk ethnolinguistic groups. In the eleventh century, the renowned Muslim Turk scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari described the language of the Oghuz and Turkmen as distinct from that of other Turks and identified twenty-two Oghuz clans or sub-tribes, some of which appear in later Turkmen genealogies and legends as the core of the early Turkmen.
First mention of Oghuz goes back to the time prior to the Göktürk state- there are references to the Sekiz-Oghuz ("eight-Oghuz") and the Dokuz-Oghuz ("nine-Oghuz") union. The Oghuz
Turks under Sekiz-Oghuz and the Dokuz-Oghuz state formations ruled different areas in the vicinity of the Altay Mountains
. During the establishment of the Göktürk state, Oghuz tribes inhabited the Altay mountain region and also lived along the Tula
River. They also formed as a community near the Barlik river in present-day northern Mongolia.
Oghuz expansion by means of military campaigns went at least as far as the Volga River
and Ural Mountains
, but the geographic limits of their dominance fluctuated in the steppe areas extending north and west from the Aral Sea. Accounts of Arab geographers and travelers portray the Oghuz ethnic group as lacking centralized authority and being governed by a number of "kings" and "chieftains." Because of their disparate nature as a polity and the vastness of their domains, Oghuz tribes rarely acted in concert. Hence, by the late tenth century, the bonds of their confederation began to loosen. At that time, a clan leader named Seljuk founded a dynasty and the empire that bore his name on the basis of those Oghuz elements that had migrated southward into present-day Turkmenistan and Iran. The Seljuk Empire was centered in Persia, from which Oghuz groups spread into Azerbaijan and Anatolia.
After the fall of Göktürk kingdom, Oghuz tribes migrated to the area of Transoxiana
, in western Turkestan, in modern Kazakhstan and Kirghizstan. This land became known as the "Oghuz steppe" which is an area between the Caspian and Aral Seas. Ibn al-Athir, an Arab historian, stated that the Oghuz Turks had come to Transoxiana in the period of the caliph Al-Mahdi
in the years between 775 and 785. In the period of the Abbasid
caliph Al-Ma'mun
(813 – 833), the name Oghuz starts to appear in the Islamic historiography. By 780, the eastern parts of the Syr Darya were ruled by the Karluk
Turks and the western region (Oghuz steppe) was ruled by the Oghuz
Turks.
The name Turkmen first appears in written sources of the tenth century to distinguish those Oghuz groups who migrated south into the Seljuk domains and accepted Islam from those that had remained in the steppe. Gradually, the term took on the properties of an ethnonym and was used exclusively to designate Muslim Oghuz, especially those who migrated away from the Syrdariya Basin. By the thirteenth century, the term Turkmen supplanted the designation Oghuz altogether. The origin of the word Turkmen remains unclear. According to popular etymologies as old as the eleventh century, the word derives from Turk plus the Iranian element manand, and means "resembling a Turk." Modern scholars, on the other hand, have proposed that the element man /men acts as an intensifier and have translated the word as "pure Turk" or "most Turk-like of the Turks."
domains stretched from the delta of the Amu Darya delta into Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus region, Syria, and Asia Minor. In 1040 the Seljuk Turks crossed the Oxus from the north, and having defeated Masud, sultan of Ghazni, raised Toghrul Beg, grandson of Seljuk
, to the throne of Iran, founding the Seljukid dynasty, with its capital at Nishapur
. A younger brother of Toghrul, Daud, took possession of Merv
and Herat. Toghrul was succeeded by his nephew Alp Arslan
(the Great Lion), who was buried at Merv. It was about this time that Merv
reached the zenith of her glory. In 1055 Seljuk forces entered Baghdad
, becoming masters of the Islamic heartlands and important patrons of Islamic institutions. Until these revolts, Turkmen tribesmen were an integral part of the Seljuk military forces. Turkmen migrated with their families and possessions on Seljuk campaigns into Azerbaijan and Anatolia, a process that began the Turkification of these areas. During this time, Turkmen also began to settle the area of present-day Turkmenistan. Prior to the Turkmen habitation, most of this desert had been uninhabited, while the more habitable areas along the Caspian Sea, Kopetdag Mountains, Amu Darya
, and Murgap River (Murgap Deryasy) were populated predominantly by Iranians. The city-state of Merv
was an especially large sedentary and agricultural area, important as both a regional economic-cultural center and a transit hub on the Silk Road
. The last powerful Seljuk ruler, Sultan Sanjar (d. 1157), witnessed the fragmentation and destruction of the empire because of attacks by Turkmen and other tribes. During the reign of Sultan Sanjar or Sinjar of the same house, in the middle of the 11th century, Merv was overrun by the Turkish tribes of the Ghuzz from beyond the Oxus. It eventually passed under the sway of the rulers of Khwarizm (Khiva). After mixing with the settled peoples in Turkmenistan, the Oguz living north of the Kopet-Dag Mountains gradually became known as the Turkmen
.
The Seljuk empire broke down in the second half of the 12th century, and the Turkmen became independent tribal federation.
. The Turkic rulers of Khiva took control of the area of Turkmenistan, under the title of Khwarezmshahs In 1221, central Asia suffered a disastrous invasion by Mongol warriors who swept across the region from their base in eastern Asia.
Under their commander, Genghis Khan
, the Mongols conquered Khwarezm
and burned the city of Merv to the ground. The Mongol leader ordered the massacre of Merv's inhabitants as well as the destruction of the province's farms and irrigation works which effectively ended the Iranian dominance in urban areas and agricultural communities of khwarezm. These areas were soon repopulated by the Turkmen who survived the invasion and had retreated northward to the plains of Kazakhstan or westward to the shores of the Caspian Sea.
Small, semi-independent states arose under the rule of the region's tribal chiefs later in 14 century. In the 1370s, Amir Timur (known as Tamerlane in Europe),one of the greatest conquerors in human history, captured Turkmen states once more and established the short lived Timurid Empire, which collapsed after Timur's death in 1405, when Turkmens became independent once again.
In addition to the new political arrangements, historical sources suggest that a large tribal union called the Salor confederation remained from the original Oghuz tribes and into modern times. In the late 17th century, the confederation fell apart and three senior tribes moved eastward and then southward. Of these tribes, the Yomud split into eastern and western groups, and the Teke migrated to the Akhal region near the Kopetdag Mountains
and eventually into the Murgap River basin. Other Salor tribes moved into the region near the Amu Darya
delta and into other parts of modern day southeast Turkmenistan
. Salor groups also live in Turkey
, Afghanistan
, Uzbekistan
, and China
.
The history of Turkmenistan from the 16th until the 19th century is mostly known by the relations with the states of Iran, Khiva
, and Bukhara
. However, wars of the period took place mostly in the lands of Turkmenistan. The invasion of the Khan of Khiva, Abul Gazi Bahadur Khan
, from 1645 to 1663, caused some difficulties to the Turkmens, coupled with the impact of the drought that occurred at about the same period, most of the Turkmens within the khanate moved to areas around Akhal, Atrek, Murgap and Tedjen. In this period, many of the Turkmens tribes living around the Lake Aral left also migrated because of pressures from both the Khanate of Khiva and the Kalmyks
and migrated to around Astrakhan and Stavropol in northern Caucasus.
Popular epics such as Korogly, and other oral traditions, took shape during this period which could be taken as a beginning of Turkmen nation. The poets and thinkers of the time such as Devlet Mehmed Azadi and Makhtumkuli became a voice for an emerging nation, calling for unity, brotherhood and peace among Turkmen tribes. Makhtumkuli is venerated in Turkmenistan as the father of the national literature.
port of Krasnovodsk, current-day Turkmenbashy
. After the suppression of Bukhara and Khiva emirate, Russians decided to move into Transcaspian region, allegedly to subdue Turkmen slave trade and banditry. The service of some Turkmen tribes, especially the Yomud, for the Khivan Khan also encouraged the Russia to punish them by raids into Khorazm, which killed hundreds. These wars culminated in the campaigns of General Mikhail Skobelev
, and in 1881 fighting climaxed with the massacre of 7,000 Turkmen at the desert fortress of Geok Depe, near modern Ashgabat; another 8,000 were killed trying to flee across the desert. By 1894 imperial Russia had taken control of all of Turkmenistan.
The Transcaspian Railway was started from the shores of the Caspian in 1879 in order to secure Russian control over the region and provide a rapid military route to the Afghan border. In 1885 a crisis
was precipitated by the Russian annexation of the Pendjeh oasis, to the south of Merv, on a territory of modern Afghanistan
, which nearly led to war with Britain
. as it was thought that the Russians were planning to march on to Herat in Afghanistan
. Until 1898 Transcaspia was part of the Governor-Generalship of the Caucasus and administered from Tiflis, but in that year it was made an Oblast of Russian Turkestan
and governed from Tashkent
. Nevertheless Turkestan remained an isolated colonial outpost, with an administration that preserved many distinctive features from the previous Islamic regimes, including Qadis' courts and a 'native' administration that devolved much power to local 'Aksakals' (Elders). In 1897 the Transcaspian Railway reached Tashkent, and finally in 1906 a direct rail link with European Russia was opened across the steppe from Orenburg to Tashkent. This led to much larger numbers of Slavic settlers flowing into Turkestan than had hitherto been the case, and their settlement was overseen by a specially created Migration Department in St. Petersburg (Переселенческое Управление). This caused considerable discontent amongst the local Turkmen population, as mainly Russian-populated cities such as Ashgabat appeared.
The best-known Military Governor to have ruled the region from Ashkhabad was probably General Kuropatkin
, whose authoritarian methods and personal style of governance made the province very difficult for his successors to control and led to a revolt in 1916. Consequently the administration of Transcaspia became a byword for corruption and brutality within Russian Turkestan, as Russian administrators turned their districts into petty fiefdoms and extorted money from the local population. In 1908 Count Konstantin Konstantinovich Pahlen led a reforming commission to Turkestan which produced a monumental report detailing these abuses of power, administrative corruption and inefficiency.
of 1917 in Russia, Ashgabat became a base for anti-Bolshevik
counter-revolutionaries, who soon came under attack from the Tashkent
Soviet. The Communists succeeded in taking control of Ashkhabad in the summer of 1918, forming a Soviet. In response, Junaid Khan and forces loyal to the old Russian regime joined together to drive out the Communists. In July 1919, these anti-Communist allies established the independent state of Transcaspia. A small British
force from Meshed occupied Ashgabat and parts of southern Turkmenistan until 1919. It is alleged that 26 Baku Commissaires were gunned down by British forces or their Transcaspian allies. The region was one of the last centres of Basmachi resistance to Bolshevik
rule, with the last of the rebellious Turkoman feeling across the border to Afghanistan and Iran in 1922-3.
became one of the republics
of the Soviet Union
. At this time the modern borders of Turkmenistan were formed. The Turkmen SSR was under full control of Moscow, which exploited its raw materials resources for the purposes of the Soviet Union. Sovereignty
was only a formality, since Moscow ultimately ruled all Soviet states. Incensed by attempts from Moscow to end their nomadic lifestyle, establish collective farms, and destroy their religion, Turkman basmachi staged guerrilla warfare against the communist government until 1936. More than a million Turkmen fled into exile in Afghanistan or Iran. Of the 441 mosques that existed in Turkmenistan in 1911, only 5 remained open in 1941. In the meantime, the ethnic balance of Turkmenistan was altered by an influx of thousands of Russian immigrants from other parts of the Soviet Union.
Soviets renamed Ashgabat into Poltoratsk after a local revolutionary, however the name "Ashgabat" was restored in 1927 to please the local population, though it was usually known by the Russian form "Ashkhabad". From this period onward the city experienced rapid growth and industrialisation, although this was severely disrupted by a major earthquake on October 6, 1948. An estimated 7.3 on the Richter scale, the earthquake killed over 110,000 (2/3 the population of the city), however the official number announced by Soviet news was only 14,000.
In the 1950s, the 1375 kilometer long Qaraqum Canal
was built. Draining the Amu-Darya river, it enabled huge areas to be opened for cotton
production, but resulted in the destruction of the native riparian tugai forests. It also greatly diminished the inflow of water to the Aral Sea
, resulting in an ecological catastrophe.
Turkmenistan remained one of the most economically and socially backward republics in USSR, with largely agrarian economy, despite exploration and exploitation of enormous oil and gas resources – discovery of 62 trillion cubic feet Dawletabad gas field in 1960s became the largest gas field find in the world outside Russia and Middle East.
. His opus, the Ruhnama
, was made a mandatory reading in Turkmenistan's schools and months of the calendar were renamed after members of his family. Opposition parties are banned in Turkmenistan and the government controls all sources of information. In December 1999, Turkmenistan's constitution
was amended to allow Niyazov to serve as president for life.
Niyazov was the main proponent of Turkmenistan's constitutional neutrality. Under this policy, Turkmenistan does not participate in any military alliance and does not contribute to United Nations monitoring forces. This in fact means an internal isolation of Turkmenistan from world politics.
In late 2004, Niyazov met with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
to discuss an oil contract in Turkmenistan for a Canadian corporation. In March 2005, news of this meeting caused an uproar amongst opposition circles in Canada, who claimed the affair could damage Chrétien's legacy.
In 2005, Niyazov announced that his country would downgrade its links with the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose alliance of post-Soviet states; he furthermore promised free and fair elections by 2010 in a move that surprised many Western observers.
Niyazov acknowledged having heart disease in November 2006. On December 21, 2006, Niyazov died unexpectedly, leaving no heir-apparent and an unclear line of succession. A former deputy prime minister rumored to be the illegitimate son of Niyazov,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6346185.stm Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, became acting president, although under the constitution the Chairman of the People's Council, Öwezgeldi Ataýew
, should have succeeded to the post. However, Ataýew was accused of crimes and removed from office.
on February 11, 2007, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was elected president with 89% of the vote and 95% turnout, although the election was condemned by outside observers.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1298497.stm
Following his election, Berdimuhamedow moved to reduce foreign isolation and reversed some of Niyazov's more egocentric and damaging policies. Internet cafes offering free and uncensored Web access opened in Ashgabat, compulsory education was extended from nine to ten years and classes in sports and foreign languages were re-introduced into the curriculum, and the government announced plans to open several specialized schools for the arts. President Berdimuhamedow has called for reform of education, health care and pension systems, and government officials of non-Turkmen ethnic origin who had been sacked by Niyazov have returned to work.
President Berdimuhamedow began to reduce the personality cult surrounding Niyazov and the office of the president. He has called for an end to the elaborate pageants of music and dancing that formerly greeted the president on his arrival anywhere, and has said that the Turkmen "sacred oath", part of which states that the speaker's tongue should shrivel if he ever speaks ill of Turkmenistan or its president, should not be recited multiple times a day but reserved for "special occasions." Previously the oath was recited at the beginning and end of TV news reports, by students at the beginning of the school day, and at the beginning of virtually all meetings of any official nature that took place in the country.
However, Berdimuhamedow is criticized for building a personality cult of his own (albeit a modest one compared to his predecessor's). for example he is the only person whose first name is used in government press releases, other officials always have their first names abbreviated to a single letter. He is also sometimes called the "Turkmen leader" by his country's press.
On March 19, 2007, Berdimuhamedow reversed one of Niyazov's most unpopular decrees by giving pensions back to 100,000 elderly people whose pensions Niyazov had slashed in the face of an unspecified budget crisis.
On March 20, in a decision of significant symbolic weight in the ongoing rejection of Niyazov's personality cult, he abolished the power of the president to rename any landmarks, institutions, or cities.
On March 31, 2007, the 20th Congress of the Halk Maslahaty began in the city of Mary. New laws relating to agricultural efficiency were passed, and it was decreed that school teachers' wages would soon rise by 40%.
On May 12, Russia and Turkmenistan announced that they had reached an agreement to build a new natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, through Kazakhstan to Russia. This has led to speculation that the European Union will become more energy-dependent on Russia, which buys Turkmen gas at below-market prices, and that as a result Russia's political influence in Eastern Europe may increase.
On May 16, in what has been described as one of his boldest moves yet, Berdimuhamedow sacked a high-ranking security official who had been instrumental in building and maintaining the late president Niyazov's extensive cult of personality. According to official Turkmen news media, Akmyrat Rejepow
, the head of the presidential security service was removed from office by presidential decree and transferred to "another job." The nature of this job was not specified.
On June 14, Berdimuhamedow re-opened the Turkmen Academy of Sciences, which had been shut down by his predecessor. According to reports as of June 25, Berdimuhamedow had also ordered the closure of the International Fund of Saparmurat Niyazov, the former Turkmenbashi's personal private fund, and has stated his intent to begin a series of reforms in the military.
Berdimuhamedow celebrated his 50th birthday on June 29, 2007. He was awarded the Watan Order
(Order of the Motherland) for his "outstanding achievements" – a gold and diamond pendant weighing about 1 kilogram. The President has also published his biography and held a gala birthday celebration and government issued 400 gold and silver coins decorated with the president's portrait.
Recently, Berdimuhamedow has restored the names of the months and days of the week (Niyazov had renamed them after himself and his mother), and announced plans to move the infamous gold rotating statue
of Niyazov from Ashgabat's central square. He has not, however, moved toward Western-style democracy.
In September 2008, a new constitution was accepted by the People's Council. Parliamentary elections under this new constitution were held on December 14, 2008.
In December 2008, he also reversed the changes to the national anthem which made numerous references to former President Niyazov, releasing the new anthem on December 21.
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia 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 . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
is largely shrouded in mystery, its past since the arrival of Indo-European
Proto-Indo-Europeans
The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...
Iranian tribes
Ancient Iranian peoples
Iranian peoples first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BCE. In Classical Antiquity they were found primarily in Scythia and Persia...
around 2000 BC is often the starting point of the area's discernible history. Early tribes were nomadic or semi-nomadic due to the arid conditions of the region as the steppe culture in Central Asia was an extension of a larger Eurasian
Eurasian nomads
Eurasian nomads are a large group of peoples of the Eurasian Steppe. This generic title encompasses the ethnic groups inhabiting the steppes of Central Asia, Mongolia, and Eastern Europe. They domesticated the horse, and their economy and culture emphasizes horse breeding, horse riding, and a...
series of horse cultures which spanned the entire spectrum of language families including the Indo-Europeans
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
and Turko-Mongol groups. Some of the known early Iranian tribes included the Massagatae, Scythia
Scythia
In antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
ns/Sakas, and early Soghdians (most likely precursors of the Khwarezm
Khwarezm
Khwarezm, or Chorasmia, is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, which borders to the north the Aral Sea, to the east the Kyzylkum desert, to the south the Karakum desert and to the west the Ustyurt Plateau...
ians). Turkmenistan was a passing point for numerous migrations and invasions by tribes which gravitated towards the settled regions of the south including ancient Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
, Elam
Elam
Elam was an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Elam was centered in the far west and the southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province, as well as a small part of southern Iraq...
, and the Indus Valley Civilization
Indus Valley Civilization
The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of what is now mainly modern-day Pakistan and northwest India...
.
The region's written history begins with the region's conquest by the Achaemenid Empire
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
of ancient Iran, as the region was divided between the satrapys of Margiana, Chorasmia
Khwarezmian language
Khwarezmian, also known as Khwarazmian or Chorasmian, is the name of an extinct East Iranian language closely related to Sogdian. The language was spoken in the area of Khwarezm , centered in the lower Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea .Our knowledge of Khwarezmian is...
and Parthia
Parthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
. Later conquerors included Alexander the Great, the Parni
Parni
The Parni or Aparni were an east Iranian people of the Ochus River valley, southeast of the Caspian Sea...
, Ephthalites, Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
, Göktürks
Göktürks
The Göktürks or Kök Türks, were a nomadic confederation of peoples in medieval Inner Asia. Known in Chinese sources as 突厥 , the Göktürks under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan The Göktürks or Kök Türks, (Old Turkic: Türük or Kök Türük or Türük; Celestial Turks) were a nomadic confederation of...
, Sarmatians
Sarmatians
The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
, and Sassanid Iranians. During this early phase of history, the majority of Turkmenistan's inhabitants were either adherents of Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
or Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and the region was largely dominated by Iranian peoples. However, these incursions and epochs, though pivotal, did not shape the region's history as the invasions of two later invading groups: Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Arabs and the Oghuz Turks
Oghuz Turks
The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion....
. The vast majority of inhabitants were converted to the Sunni variant of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, while the Oghuz
Oghuz Turks
The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion....
brought the Turkic
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
Turkmen language
Turkmen language
Turkmen is the national language of Turkmenistan...
that came to dominate the area. The Turkic period was a time of cultural fusion as Islamic traditions brought by the Arabs merged with local Iranian cultures and then were further altered by Turkic invaders and rulers such as the Seljuks
Great Seljuq Empire
The Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Persianate, Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuq Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf...
. Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
and Mongol invasions devastated the region during the late Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, but their hold upon the area was transitional as later Timur Leng
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
and Uzbeks
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
contested the land.
Modern Turkmenistan was radically transformed by the invasion of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, which conquered the region in the late 19th century. Later, the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
would ultimately transform Turkmenistan from an Islamic tribal society to a totalitarian Leninist one during the Soviet era. Independence came in 1991, as Saparmurat Niyazov
Saparmurat Niyazov
Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov; , was a Turkmen politician who served as President of Turkmenistan from 2 November 1990 until his death in 2006...
, a former local communist party boss, declared himself absolute ruler for life as Turkmenbashi or Leader of the Turkmen and transitioned the newly independent Turkmenistan into an authoritarian state under his absolute control and has thus far resisted the democratization that has influenced many of the other former Soviet Republics. Niyazov ruled until his death on December 21, 2006.
Ancient history
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia 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 . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
has been populated since ancient times, especially the areas near oasis of Merv
Merv
Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
, where traces of human settlements have been found. Tribes of horse-breeding Iranian Scythians drifted into the territory of Turkmenistan at about 2000 BC, possibly from the Russian steppes and moved along the outskirts of the Karakum desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
into Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, and Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
.
The scant remains point to some sparse settlements in the region, including possibly early neanderthals, but the region as a whole remains largely unexplored. Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
and Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
finds do support the probability of advanced civilizations in ancient Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia 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 . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
including finds at Djeitun and Gonur Tepe
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia, dated to ca. 2300–1700 BC, located in present day Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan and northeastern Iran, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centered on...
.
Alexander the Great conquered the territory in the 4th century BC on his way to South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
. In 330 BC, Alexander marched northward into Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
and founded the city of Alexandria near the Murgab River. Located on an important trade route, Alexandria later became the city of Merv
Merv
Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
(modern Mary
Mary, Turkmenistan
Mary is the capital city of Mary Province in Turkmenistan. Former names include Merv, Meru and Margiana. It is located at . The city is an oasis in the Karakum Desert, located on the Murghab river. In 2009, Mary had a population of 123,000 , up from 92,000 in the 1989 census.-History:The ancient...
). The ruins of Alexander's ancient city are still to be found and have been extensively researched. After Alexander's death his empire quickly fell apart. It was ruled by Seleucids before independence declaration of Partia's satrap. The Parthia
Parthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
ns- fierce, nomadic warriors from the north of Iran —then established the kingdom of Parthia, which covered present-day Turkmenistan and Iran. The Parthian kings ruled their domain from the city of Nisa
Nisa
-Locations:*Nısa - a village in Azerbaijan*Nisa, Portugal - a municipality in the district of Portalegre*Nisa, Turkmenistan - an ancient city , first capital of the Parthians-Organizations:*The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in Japan....
– an area now located near the modern-day capital of Ashgabat – founded by Arsaces I (reigned c. 250–211 BC), and was reputedly the royal necropolis of the Parthian kings, although it has neither been established that the fortress at Nisa was a royal residence nor a mausoleum.
Excavations at Nisa have revealed substantial buildings, mausoleums and shrines, many inscribed documents, and a looted treasury. Many Hellenistic art works have been uncovered, as well as a large number of ivory rhytons, the outer rims decorated with Iranian subjects or classical mythological scenes.
The Parthian Kingdom succumbed in 224 AD to the Sasanids – rulers of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. At the same time, several tribal groups—including the Alans
Alans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
and the Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
—were moving into Turkmenistan from the east and north. A branch of the Huns wrested control of southern Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia 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 . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
from the Sasanian Empire in the 5th century A.D, this records first evidence of nomadic Non-Iranian peoples into the area of Turkmenistan.
Arab invasion and Islamization
At this time much of the population was already in settlements around the fertile river valleys along the Amu DaryaAmu Darya
The Amu Darya , also called Oxus and Amu River, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers...
, and Merv
Merv
Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
and Nisa
Nisa
-Locations:*Nısa - a village in Azerbaijan*Nisa, Portugal - a municipality in the district of Portalegre*Nisa, Turkmenistan - an ancient city , first capital of the Parthians-Organizations:*The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in Japan....
became centers of sericulture
Sericulture
Sericulture, or silk farming, is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk.Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, Bombyx mori is the most widely used and intensively studied. According to Confucian texts, the discovery of silk production by B...
(the raising of silkworms). A busy caravan route, connecting Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and the city of Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
(in modern Iraq), passed through Merv. Thus, the city of Merv constituted an important prize for any conqueror.
Central Asia came under Arab control after a series of invasions in the late 7th and early 8th centuries and was incorporated into Islamic Caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
divided between provinces of Mawara'un Nahr and Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
. The Arab conquest brought Islamic religion to all of the peoples of central Asia. The city of Merv was occupied by lieutenants of the caliph Uthman ibn Affan, and was constituted as the capital of Khorasan. Using this city as their base, the Arabs, led by Qutayba ibn Muslim, brought under subjection Balkh
Balkh
Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...
, Bokhara, Fergana
Fergana
Fergana is a city , the capital of Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley in southern Central Asia, cutting across the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan...
and Kashgaria, and penetrated into China as far as the province of Kan-suh early in the 8th century.
Merv achieved some political spotlight in February 748 when Abu Muslim
Abu Muslim
- External links :* *...
(d. 750) declared a new Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
dynasty at Merv, and set out from the city to conquer Iran and Iraq and establish a new capital at Baghdad. Abu Muslim was famously challenged by the Goldsmith of Merv to do the right thing and not make war on fellow Muslims. The Goldsmith was put to death.
In the latter part of the 8th century Merv became obnoxious to Islam as the centre of heretical propaganda preached by al-Muqanna "The Veiled Prophet of Khorasan". In 874 Arab rule in Central Asia came to an end. During their dominion Merv, like Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
and Bokhara, was one of the great schools of learning, and the celebrated historian Yaqut studied in its libraries. Merv produced a number of scholars in various branches of knowledge, such as Islamic law, Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
, history, literature, and the like. Several scholars have the name: Marwazi (المروزي) designating them as hailing from Merv.
Oghuz tribes
The origins of the TurkmenTurkmen people
The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...
may be traced back to the Oghuz
Oghuz
Oghuz may refer to:*an early Turkic word for "tribe", see Oghuz * Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family.* Oghuz Turks, the Turkic groups speaking Oghuz languages* Oghuz Khan, a legendary and semi-mythological Turkic khan....
confederation of nomadic pastoral tribes of the early Middle Ages, which lived in present-day Mongolia and around Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
in present-day southern Siberia. Known as the Nine Oghuz, this confederation was composed of Turkic-speaking peoples who formed the basis of powerful steppe empires in Inner Asia. In the second half of the eighth century, components of the Nine Oghuz migrated through Jungaria into Central Asia, and Arabic sources located them under the term Guzz in the area of the middle and lower Syrdariya in the eighth century. By the tenth century, the Oghuz had expanded west and north of the Aral Sea
Aral Sea
The Aral Sea was a lake that lay between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...
and into the steppe of present-day Kazakhstan, absorbing not only Iranians but also Turks from the Kipchak and Karluk ethnolinguistic groups. In the eleventh century, the renowned Muslim Turk scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari described the language of the Oghuz and Turkmen as distinct from that of other Turks and identified twenty-two Oghuz clans or sub-tribes, some of which appear in later Turkmen genealogies and legends as the core of the early Turkmen.
First mention of Oghuz goes back to the time prior to the Göktürk state- there are references to the Sekiz-Oghuz ("eight-Oghuz") and the Dokuz-Oghuz ("nine-Oghuz") union. The Oghuz
Oghuz
Oghuz may refer to:*an early Turkic word for "tribe", see Oghuz * Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family.* Oghuz Turks, the Turkic groups speaking Oghuz languages* Oghuz Khan, a legendary and semi-mythological Turkic khan....
Turks under Sekiz-Oghuz and the Dokuz-Oghuz state formations ruled different areas in the vicinity of the Altay Mountains
Altay Mountains
The Altai Mountains are a mountain range in East-Central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their sources. The Altai Mountains are known as the original locus of the speakers of Turkic as well as other members of the proposed...
. During the establishment of the Göktürk state, Oghuz tribes inhabited the Altay mountain region and also lived along the Tula
Tuul River
Tuul River is a river in central and northern Mongolia considered sacred by the Mongols. It is 704 km long and drains an area 49,840 square km. The river is called the "Duluo river" in the Suishu, a Chinese historical work completed in 636 AD...
River. They also formed as a community near the Barlik river in present-day northern Mongolia.
Oghuz expansion by means of military campaigns went at least as far as the Volga River
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
and Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
, but the geographic limits of their dominance fluctuated in the steppe areas extending north and west from the Aral Sea. Accounts of Arab geographers and travelers portray the Oghuz ethnic group as lacking centralized authority and being governed by a number of "kings" and "chieftains." Because of their disparate nature as a polity and the vastness of their domains, Oghuz tribes rarely acted in concert. Hence, by the late tenth century, the bonds of their confederation began to loosen. At that time, a clan leader named Seljuk founded a dynasty and the empire that bore his name on the basis of those Oghuz elements that had migrated southward into present-day Turkmenistan and Iran. The Seljuk Empire was centered in Persia, from which Oghuz groups spread into Azerbaijan and Anatolia.
After the fall of Göktürk kingdom, Oghuz tribes migrated to the area of Transoxiana
Transoxiana
Transoxiana is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgystan and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it is the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers...
, in western Turkestan, in modern Kazakhstan and Kirghizstan. This land became known as the "Oghuz steppe" which is an area between the Caspian and Aral Seas. Ibn al-Athir, an Arab historian, stated that the Oghuz Turks had come to Transoxiana in the period of the caliph Al-Mahdi
Al-Mahdi
Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Mahdi , was the third Abbasid Caliph who reigned from 158 AH to 169 AH . He succeeded his father, al-Mansur....
in the years between 775 and 785. In the period of the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
caliph Al-Ma'mun
Al-Ma'mun
Abū Jaʿfar Abdullāh al-Māʾmūn ibn Harūn was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833...
(813 – 833), the name Oghuz starts to appear in the Islamic historiography. By 780, the eastern parts of the Syr Darya were ruled by the Karluk
Karluk
Karluk can refer to many different things:* HMCS Karluk, a ship crushed and sunk by Arctic ice in January 1914* Karluk, Alaska, a town in the USA* Karluk River, a river on Kodiak Island in Alaska...
Turks and the western region (Oghuz steppe) was ruled by the Oghuz
Oghuz
Oghuz may refer to:*an early Turkic word for "tribe", see Oghuz * Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family.* Oghuz Turks, the Turkic groups speaking Oghuz languages* Oghuz Khan, a legendary and semi-mythological Turkic khan....
Turks.
The name Turkmen first appears in written sources of the tenth century to distinguish those Oghuz groups who migrated south into the Seljuk domains and accepted Islam from those that had remained in the steppe. Gradually, the term took on the properties of an ethnonym and was used exclusively to designate Muslim Oghuz, especially those who migrated away from the Syrdariya Basin. By the thirteenth century, the term Turkmen supplanted the designation Oghuz altogether. The origin of the word Turkmen remains unclear. According to popular etymologies as old as the eleventh century, the word derives from Turk plus the Iranian element manand, and means "resembling a Turk." Modern scholars, on the other hand, have proposed that the element man /men acts as an intensifier and have translated the word as "pure Turk" or "most Turk-like of the Turks."
Seljuks
In the eleventh century, SeljukGreat Seljuq Empire
The Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Persianate, Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuq Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf...
domains stretched from the delta of the Amu Darya delta into Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus region, Syria, and Asia Minor. In 1040 the Seljuk Turks crossed the Oxus from the north, and having defeated Masud, sultan of Ghazni, raised Toghrul Beg, grandson of Seljuk
Seljuk
Seljuk was the eponymous hero of the Seljuq Turks. He was the son of a certain Duqaq surnamed Timuryaligh and either the chief or an eminent member from the Kınık tribe of the Oghuz Turks...
, to the throne of Iran, founding the Seljukid dynasty, with its capital at Nishapur
Nishapur
Nishapur or Nishabur , is a city in the Razavi Khorasan province in northeastern Iran, situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Binalud Mountains, near the regional capital of Mashhad...
. A younger brother of Toghrul, Daud, took possession of Merv
Merv
Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
and Herat. Toghrul was succeeded by his nephew Alp Arslan
Alp Arslan
Alp Arslan was the third sultan of the Seljuq dynasty and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty...
(the Great Lion), who was buried at Merv. It was about this time that Merv
Merv
Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
reached the zenith of her glory. In 1055 Seljuk forces entered Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, becoming masters of the Islamic heartlands and important patrons of Islamic institutions. Until these revolts, Turkmen tribesmen were an integral part of the Seljuk military forces. Turkmen migrated with their families and possessions on Seljuk campaigns into Azerbaijan and Anatolia, a process that began the Turkification of these areas. During this time, Turkmen also began to settle the area of present-day Turkmenistan. Prior to the Turkmen habitation, most of this desert had been uninhabited, while the more habitable areas along the Caspian Sea, Kopetdag Mountains, Amu Darya
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya , also called Oxus and Amu River, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers...
, and Murgap River (Murgap Deryasy) were populated predominantly by Iranians. The city-state of Merv
Merv
Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
was an especially large sedentary and agricultural area, important as both a regional economic-cultural center and a transit hub on the Silk Road
Silk Road
The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...
. The last powerful Seljuk ruler, Sultan Sanjar (d. 1157), witnessed the fragmentation and destruction of the empire because of attacks by Turkmen and other tribes. During the reign of Sultan Sanjar or Sinjar of the same house, in the middle of the 11th century, Merv was overrun by the Turkish tribes of the Ghuzz from beyond the Oxus. It eventually passed under the sway of the rulers of Khwarizm (Khiva). After mixing with the settled peoples in Turkmenistan, the Oguz living north of the Kopet-Dag Mountains gradually became known as the Turkmen
Turkmen people
The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...
.
The Seljuk empire broke down in the second half of the 12th century, and the Turkmen became independent tribal federation.
Mongols and Timurids
In 1157, the rule of Seljuks dynasty came to an end in the province of KhorasanGreater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
. The Turkic rulers of Khiva took control of the area of Turkmenistan, under the title of Khwarezmshahs In 1221, central Asia suffered a disastrous invasion by Mongol warriors who swept across the region from their base in eastern Asia.
Under their commander, Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
, the Mongols conquered Khwarezm
Khwarezm
Khwarezm, or Chorasmia, is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, which borders to the north the Aral Sea, to the east the Kyzylkum desert, to the south the Karakum desert and to the west the Ustyurt Plateau...
and burned the city of Merv to the ground. The Mongol leader ordered the massacre of Merv's inhabitants as well as the destruction of the province's farms and irrigation works which effectively ended the Iranian dominance in urban areas and agricultural communities of khwarezm. These areas were soon repopulated by the Turkmen who survived the invasion and had retreated northward to the plains of Kazakhstan or westward to the shores of the Caspian Sea.
Small, semi-independent states arose under the rule of the region's tribal chiefs later in 14 century. In the 1370s, Amir Timur (known as Tamerlane in Europe),one of the greatest conquerors in human history, captured Turkmen states once more and established the short lived Timurid Empire, which collapsed after Timur's death in 1405, when Turkmens became independent once again.
New Political Arrangements
As a whole, the 14th to 16th century was a period in which the Turkmen's dislocation due to the Mongol invasions gave way to new political groupings which became tribal groupings which have continued to modern day.In addition to the new political arrangements, historical sources suggest that a large tribal union called the Salor confederation remained from the original Oghuz tribes and into modern times. In the late 17th century, the confederation fell apart and three senior tribes moved eastward and then southward. Of these tribes, the Yomud split into eastern and western groups, and the Teke migrated to the Akhal region near the Kopetdag Mountains
Kopet Dag
The Kopet Dag, Kopet Dagh, or Koppeh Dagh , also known as the Turkmen-Khorasan Mountain Range is a mountain range on the frontier between Turkmenistan and Iran, extending about 650 km along the border, east of the Caspian Sea. The highest peak of the range in Turkmenistan is southwest of the...
and eventually into the Murgap River basin. Other Salor tribes moved into the region near the Amu Darya
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya , also called Oxus and Amu River, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers...
delta and into other parts of modern day southeast Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia 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 . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
. Salor groups also live in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
Turkmenistan in the 16th and 17th centuries
Khanate of Khiva
The Khanate of Khiva was the name of a Uzbek state that existed in the historical region of Khwarezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Persian occupation by Nadir Shah between 1740–1746. It was the patrilineal descendants of Shayban , the fifth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
, and Bukhara
Emirate of Bukhara
The Emirate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state that existed from 1785 to 1920. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Its core territory was the land along the lower Zarafshan River, and its urban centres were the ancient cities of...
. However, wars of the period took place mostly in the lands of Turkmenistan. The invasion of the Khan of Khiva, Abul Gazi Bahadur Khan
Abulghazi Bahadur
Abulghazi Bahadur was khan of the Khanate of Khiva from 1643-1663. Having spent ten years in Persia before becoming khan, he was very well educated. Under his rule Khiva experienced a golden age. He had successfully repelled the Kalmyk raiders...
, from 1645 to 1663, caused some difficulties to the Turkmens, coupled with the impact of the drought that occurred at about the same period, most of the Turkmens within the khanate moved to areas around Akhal, Atrek, Murgap and Tedjen. In this period, many of the Turkmens tribes living around the Lake Aral left also migrated because of pressures from both the Khanate of Khiva and the Kalmyks
Kalmyk people
Kalmyk people is the name given to the Oirats, western Mongols in Russia, whose descendants migrated from Dzhungaria in 1607. Today they form a majority in the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Kalmykia is Europe's only Buddhist government...
and migrated to around Astrakhan and Stavropol in northern Caucasus.
Popular epics such as Korogly, and other oral traditions, took shape during this period which could be taken as a beginning of Turkmen nation. The poets and thinkers of the time such as Devlet Mehmed Azadi and Makhtumkuli became a voice for an emerging nation, calling for unity, brotherhood and peace among Turkmen tribes. Makhtumkuli is venerated in Turkmenistan as the father of the national literature.
Russian Colonization and Great Game
In the 18th century Turkoman tribes came into contact with Tsarist Empire. The Russian Empire began to move into the area in 1869 with the establishment of the Caspian SeaCaspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
port of Krasnovodsk, current-day Turkmenbashy
Türkmenbasy, Turkmenistan
Türkmenbaşy , formerly known as Krasnovodsk and, more properly, Kyzyl-Su, is a city in Balkan Province in Turkmenistan, on the Krasnovodsk Gulf of the Caspian Sea. It is located at latitude 40.0231 North; longitude 52.9697 East, at an altitude of 27 meters. The population was 86,800, mostly...
. After the suppression of Bukhara and Khiva emirate, Russians decided to move into Transcaspian region, allegedly to subdue Turkmen slave trade and banditry. The service of some Turkmen tribes, especially the Yomud, for the Khivan Khan also encouraged the Russia to punish them by raids into Khorazm, which killed hundreds. These wars culminated in the campaigns of General Mikhail Skobelev
Mikhail Skobelev
Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev was a Russian general famous for his conquest of Central Asia and heroism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Dressed in white uniform and mounted on a white horse, and always in the thickest of the fray, he was known and adored by his soldiers as the "White...
, and in 1881 fighting climaxed with the massacre of 7,000 Turkmen at the desert fortress of Geok Depe, near modern Ashgabat; another 8,000 were killed trying to flee across the desert. By 1894 imperial Russia had taken control of all of Turkmenistan.
The Transcaspian Railway was started from the shores of the Caspian in 1879 in order to secure Russian control over the region and provide a rapid military route to the Afghan border. In 1885 a crisis
Panjdeh Incident
The Panjdeh Incident or Panjdeh Scare was a battle that occurred in 1885 when Russian forces seized Afghan territory south of the Oxus River around an oasis at Panjdeh . The incident created a diplomatic crisis between Russia and Great Britain...
was precipitated by the Russian annexation of the Pendjeh oasis, to the south of Merv, on a territory of modern Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, which nearly led to war with Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. as it was thought that the Russians were planning to march on to Herat in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. Until 1898 Transcaspia was part of the Governor-Generalship of the Caucasus and administered from Tiflis, but in that year it was made an Oblast of Russian Turkestan
Turkestan
Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...
and governed from Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
. Nevertheless Turkestan remained an isolated colonial outpost, with an administration that preserved many distinctive features from the previous Islamic regimes, including Qadis' courts and a 'native' administration that devolved much power to local 'Aksakals' (Elders). In 1897 the Transcaspian Railway reached Tashkent, and finally in 1906 a direct rail link with European Russia was opened across the steppe from Orenburg to Tashkent. This led to much larger numbers of Slavic settlers flowing into Turkestan than had hitherto been the case, and their settlement was overseen by a specially created Migration Department in St. Petersburg (Переселенческое Управление). This caused considerable discontent amongst the local Turkmen population, as mainly Russian-populated cities such as Ashgabat appeared.
The best-known Military Governor to have ruled the region from Ashkhabad was probably General Kuropatkin
Aleksey Kuropatkin
Alexei Nikolayevich Kuropatkin was the Russian Imperial Minister of War who is often held responsible for major Russian drawbacks in the Russian-Japanese War, notably the Battle of Mukden and the Battle of Liaoyang.-Early years:Kuropatkin was born in 1848 in what is now Pskov, in the Russian...
, whose authoritarian methods and personal style of governance made the province very difficult for his successors to control and led to a revolt in 1916. Consequently the administration of Transcaspia became a byword for corruption and brutality within Russian Turkestan, as Russian administrators turned their districts into petty fiefdoms and extorted money from the local population. In 1908 Count Konstantin Konstantinovich Pahlen led a reforming commission to Turkestan which produced a monumental report detailing these abuses of power, administrative corruption and inefficiency.
Revolution and Civil War
Following the October RevolutionOctober Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
of 1917 in Russia, Ashgabat became a base for anti-Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
counter-revolutionaries, who soon came under attack from the Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
Soviet. The Communists succeeded in taking control of Ashkhabad in the summer of 1918, forming a Soviet. In response, Junaid Khan and forces loyal to the old Russian regime joined together to drive out the Communists. In July 1919, these anti-Communist allies established the independent state of Transcaspia. A small British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
force from Meshed occupied Ashgabat and parts of southern Turkmenistan until 1919. It is alleged that 26 Baku Commissaires were gunned down by British forces or their Transcaspian allies. The region was one of the last centres of Basmachi resistance to Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
rule, with the last of the rebellious Turkoman feeling across the border to Afghanistan and Iran in 1922-3.
Soviet Union
In 1924, the Turkestan ASSR was dissolved, and the Turkmen SSRTurkmen SSR
The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Turkmen SSR for short, was one of republics of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. It was initially established on 7 August 1921 as the Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan ASSR. On 13 May 1925 it was transformed into Turkmen SSR and became a...
became one of the republics
Republics of the Soviet Union
The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...
of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. At this time the modern borders of Turkmenistan were formed. The Turkmen SSR was under full control of Moscow, which exploited its raw materials resources for the purposes of the Soviet Union. Sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
was only a formality, since Moscow ultimately ruled all Soviet states. Incensed by attempts from Moscow to end their nomadic lifestyle, establish collective farms, and destroy their religion, Turkman basmachi staged guerrilla warfare against the communist government until 1936. More than a million Turkmen fled into exile in Afghanistan or Iran. Of the 441 mosques that existed in Turkmenistan in 1911, only 5 remained open in 1941. In the meantime, the ethnic balance of Turkmenistan was altered by an influx of thousands of Russian immigrants from other parts of the Soviet Union.
Soviets renamed Ashgabat into Poltoratsk after a local revolutionary, however the name "Ashgabat" was restored in 1927 to please the local population, though it was usually known by the Russian form "Ashkhabad". From this period onward the city experienced rapid growth and industrialisation, although this was severely disrupted by a major earthquake on October 6, 1948. An estimated 7.3 on the Richter scale, the earthquake killed over 110,000 (2/3 the population of the city), however the official number announced by Soviet news was only 14,000.
In the 1950s, the 1375 kilometer long Qaraqum Canal
Qaraqum Canal
The Qaraqum Canal in Turkmenistan is one of the largest irrigation and water supply canals in the world...
was built. Draining the Amu-Darya river, it enabled huge areas to be opened for cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
production, but resulted in the destruction of the native riparian tugai forests. It also greatly diminished the inflow of water to the Aral Sea
Aral Sea
The Aral Sea was a lake that lay between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...
, resulting in an ecological catastrophe.
Turkmenistan remained one of the most economically and socially backward republics in USSR, with largely agrarian economy, despite exploration and exploitation of enormous oil and gas resources – discovery of 62 trillion cubic feet Dawletabad gas field in 1960s became the largest gas field find in the world outside Russia and Middle East.
Independence and Turkmenbashi
Turkmenistan became independent on October 27, 1991, amidst the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The former head of Turkmenistan's Communist Party at the time of independence, Saparmurad Niyazov, was elected president of the newly independent nation in an uncontested election. The authoritarian Niyazov, who has assumed the title of "Turkmenbashi", or "Leader of all Turkmen", was accused of developing a totalitarian cult of personalityCult of personality
A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
. His opus, the Ruhnama
Ruhnama
Ruhnama , is a book written by Saparmurat Niyazov, late President for Life of Turkmenistan, combining spiritual/moral guidance, autobiography and revisionist history, much of it is of dubious or disputed factuality and accuracy. The text includes many stories and poems, including those by Sufi poet...
, was made a mandatory reading in Turkmenistan's schools and months of the calendar were renamed after members of his family. Opposition parties are banned in Turkmenistan and the government controls all sources of information. In December 1999, Turkmenistan's constitution
Constitution of Turkmenistan
The Constitution of Turkmenistan adopted on 18 May 1992 is the supreme law of Turkmenistan . In its preamble, the Constitution emphasizes self-determination for the Turkmen people, as well as the rule of law and rights for citizens. .The 1992 constitution was amended in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2006...
was amended to allow Niyazov to serve as president for life.
Niyazov was the main proponent of Turkmenistan's constitutional neutrality. Under this policy, Turkmenistan does not participate in any military alliance and does not contribute to United Nations monitoring forces. This in fact means an internal isolation of Turkmenistan from world politics.
In late 2004, Niyazov met with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
to discuss an oil contract in Turkmenistan for a Canadian corporation. In March 2005, news of this meeting caused an uproar amongst opposition circles in Canada, who claimed the affair could damage Chrétien's legacy.
In 2005, Niyazov announced that his country would downgrade its links with the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose alliance of post-Soviet states; he furthermore promised free and fair elections by 2010 in a move that surprised many Western observers.
Niyazov acknowledged having heart disease in November 2006. On December 21, 2006, Niyazov died unexpectedly, leaving no heir-apparent and an unclear line of succession. A former deputy prime minister rumored to be the illegitimate son of Niyazov,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6346185.stm Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, became acting president, although under the constitution the Chairman of the People's Council, Öwezgeldi Ataýew
Öwezgeldi Ataýew
Öwezgeldi Ataýew is the former Chairman of the Assembly of Turkmenistan. According to the Constitution of Turkmenistan, he was to become the acting president after the death of Saparmurat Niyazov...
, should have succeeded to the post. However, Ataýew was accused of crimes and removed from office.
Recent history
In an electionTurkmenistani presidential election, 2007
Presidential elections were held in Turkmenistan on February 11, 2007, following the death of President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov on 21 December 2006.-Election date:...
on February 11, 2007, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was elected president with 89% of the vote and 95% turnout, although the election was condemned by outside observers.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1298497.stm
Following his election, Berdimuhamedow moved to reduce foreign isolation and reversed some of Niyazov's more egocentric and damaging policies. Internet cafes offering free and uncensored Web access opened in Ashgabat, compulsory education was extended from nine to ten years and classes in sports and foreign languages were re-introduced into the curriculum, and the government announced plans to open several specialized schools for the arts. President Berdimuhamedow has called for reform of education, health care and pension systems, and government officials of non-Turkmen ethnic origin who had been sacked by Niyazov have returned to work.
President Berdimuhamedow began to reduce the personality cult surrounding Niyazov and the office of the president. He has called for an end to the elaborate pageants of music and dancing that formerly greeted the president on his arrival anywhere, and has said that the Turkmen "sacred oath", part of which states that the speaker's tongue should shrivel if he ever speaks ill of Turkmenistan or its president, should not be recited multiple times a day but reserved for "special occasions." Previously the oath was recited at the beginning and end of TV news reports, by students at the beginning of the school day, and at the beginning of virtually all meetings of any official nature that took place in the country.
However, Berdimuhamedow is criticized for building a personality cult of his own (albeit a modest one compared to his predecessor's). for example he is the only person whose first name is used in government press releases, other officials always have their first names abbreviated to a single letter. He is also sometimes called the "Turkmen leader" by his country's press.
On March 19, 2007, Berdimuhamedow reversed one of Niyazov's most unpopular decrees by giving pensions back to 100,000 elderly people whose pensions Niyazov had slashed in the face of an unspecified budget crisis.
On March 20, in a decision of significant symbolic weight in the ongoing rejection of Niyazov's personality cult, he abolished the power of the president to rename any landmarks, institutions, or cities.
On March 31, 2007, the 20th Congress of the Halk Maslahaty began in the city of Mary. New laws relating to agricultural efficiency were passed, and it was decreed that school teachers' wages would soon rise by 40%.
On May 12, Russia and Turkmenistan announced that they had reached an agreement to build a new natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, through Kazakhstan to Russia. This has led to speculation that the European Union will become more energy-dependent on Russia, which buys Turkmen gas at below-market prices, and that as a result Russia's political influence in Eastern Europe may increase.
On May 16, in what has been described as one of his boldest moves yet, Berdimuhamedow sacked a high-ranking security official who had been instrumental in building and maintaining the late president Niyazov's extensive cult of personality. According to official Turkmen news media, Akmyrat Rejepow
Akmyrat Rejepow
Akmyrat Rejepow is a Turkmen general and governmental hierarch, having served as Saparmurat Niyazov's Chief of Security. He was said to have been involved in Defense Minister Agageldi Mämmetgeldiýew's arrest right after Niyazov's death....
, the head of the presidential security service was removed from office by presidential decree and transferred to "another job." The nature of this job was not specified.
On June 14, Berdimuhamedow re-opened the Turkmen Academy of Sciences, which had been shut down by his predecessor. According to reports as of June 25, Berdimuhamedow had also ordered the closure of the International Fund of Saparmurat Niyazov, the former Turkmenbashi's personal private fund, and has stated his intent to begin a series of reforms in the military.
Berdimuhamedow celebrated his 50th birthday on June 29, 2007. He was awarded the Watan Order
Watan Order
The Watan Order is the highest national order of Turkmenistan. It can only be awarded to the current president, and only once in the president's tenure, for " outstanding achievements in domestic and foreign policies."...
(Order of the Motherland) for his "outstanding achievements" – a gold and diamond pendant weighing about 1 kilogram. The President has also published his biography and held a gala birthday celebration and government issued 400 gold and silver coins decorated with the president's portrait.
Recently, Berdimuhamedow has restored the names of the months and days of the week (Niyazov had renamed them after himself and his mother), and announced plans to move the infamous gold rotating statue
Neutrality Arch
The Neutrality Arch is a monument located in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.The arch is tall and was built in 1998 on the orders of Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov to commemorate the country's official position of neutrality. It cost $12 million to construct. The three-legged arch was...
of Niyazov from Ashgabat's central square. He has not, however, moved toward Western-style democracy.
In September 2008, a new constitution was accepted by the People's Council. Parliamentary elections under this new constitution were held on December 14, 2008.
In December 2008, he also reversed the changes to the national anthem which made numerous references to former President Niyazov, releasing the new anthem on December 21.
See also
- Dissolution of the Soviet UnionDissolution of the Soviet UnionThe dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
- History of AsiaHistory of AsiaThe history of Asia can be seen as the collective history of several distinct peripheral coastal regions such as, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East linked by the interior mass of the Eurasian steppe....
- History of Central AsiaHistory of Central AsiaThe history of Central Asia has been determined primarily by the area's climate and geography. The aridity of the region makes agriculture difficult, and its distance from the sea cut it off from much trade. Thus, few major cities developed in the region...
- History of the Soviet UnionHistory of the Soviet UnionThe history of the Soviet Union has roots in the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, emerged as the main political force in the capital of the former Russian Empire, though they had to fight a long and brutal civil war against the Mensheviks, or Whites...
- Human rights in TurkmenistanHuman rights in TurkmenistanTurkmenistan's human rights record has been heavily criticized by various countries and scholars worldwide. Standards in education and health declined markedly during the rule of President Saparmurat Niyazov....
- Magtymguly PyragyMagtymguly PyragyMagtymguly Pyragy was a Turkmen spiritual leader and philosophical poet who made significant efforts to secure independence and autonomy for his people in the 18th century....
- MervMervMerv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
- Politics of TurkmenistanPolitics of TurkmenistanThe politics of Turkmenistan takes place in the framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of Turkmenistan is both head of state and head of government...
- President of TurkmenistanPresident of Turkmenistan-First Secretaries of the Turkmen Communist Party:*Ivan Mezhlauk *Shaymardan Ibragimov *Nikolay Paskutsky *Grigory Aronshtam...
- RuhnamaRuhnamaRuhnama , is a book written by Saparmurat Niyazov, late President for Life of Turkmenistan, combining spiritual/moral guidance, autobiography and revisionist history, much of it is of dubious or disputed factuality and accuracy. The text includes many stories and poems, including those by Sufi poet...
- Soviet Central AsiaSoviet Central AsiaSoviet Central Asia refers to the section of Central Asia formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, as well as the time period of Soviet administration . In terms of area, it is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkestan, the name for the region during the Russian Empire...
- TurkmenistanTurkmenistanTurkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia 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 . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
- Turkmen SSRTurkmen SSRThe Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Turkmen SSR for short, was one of republics of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. It was initially established on 7 August 1921 as the Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan ASSR. On 13 May 1925 it was transformed into Turkmen SSR and became a...
Literary sources
- Turkmen History
- Peter Hopkirk. The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, Kodansha International, 1992, ISBN 4-7700-1703-0, 565p. The timeline of the Great Game is available online.
- Karl Meyer. Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Asia, Shareen Brysac, 2001, ISBN 0-349-11366-1
- Turkmenistan Embassy