Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan, 1991 to today. Draft, not yet reviewed
In 1925, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR); it became independent after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. With over 7 million people, Turkmenistan is the 35th most-populous country in Asia and has the lowest population of the Central Asian republics while being one of the most sparsely populated nations located on the Asian continent. Most of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert.
Seat of power: Ashgabat
Rulers
Saparmyrat Nyýazow
President of Turkmenistan, 1990–2006
Niyazov led Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in 2006. He continued to rule Turkmenistan as the first president for 15 years after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1999, the Assembly of Turkmenistan declared Niyazov President for life.
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
President of Turkmenistan, 2006–2022
He served as the second president of Turkmenistan from 2006 to 2022, when he entered into a power-sharing arrangement with his son, Serdar, the current president. He became acting president following Niyazow's death on 21 December 2006 and subsequently won the 2007 presidential election. In 2012, he was re-elected for a second term with 97% of the vote and he was re-elected again in 2017 with 97.7% of the vote.
Portrait of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow: Пресс-служба Президента Республики Татарстан, CC BY 4.0, file
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Serdar Berdimuhamedow
President of Turkmenistan, 2022 to today
He has served as the third and current president of Turkmenistan since 2022. Berdimuhamedow had previously served in several other positions within the government of his father, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow. In 2021, he became one of several deputy chairmen in the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan.
Portrait of Serdar Berdimuhamedow: Cabinet Public Relations Office of the Cabinet Secretariat, CC BY 4.0, file
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Culture
- Merv is one of the oldest oasis-cities in Central Asia, and was once among the biggest cities in the world.
- Turkmenistan has long served as a thoroughfare for several empires and cultures.
- The name of Turkmenistan can be divided into two components: the ethnonym Türkmen and the Persian suffix -stan meaning "place of" or "country".
Picture
The Darvaza gas crater is a burning natural gas field collapsed into a cavern near Darvaza, Turkmenistan.
Image: Tormod Sandtorv, CC BY-SA 2.0, file
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.