Turkmenistan is one of the five countries—along with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—that formerly made up the region known as Soviet Central Asia.
It declared its independence from the Soviet Union, which has since ceased to exist, in 1991. Historically, Turkmenistan was the home of fiercely independent nomadic peoples,
who until recent times had no government structure of their own beyond tribal federations.
The People.
The Turkmen (or Turkmens, Turkomans, or Turkmenians, as the people have variously been called) make up some 72 percent of the population. Izbeks and Russians are the largest
minorities, with about 9 percent of the population each. In religion, the Turkmen and Uzbeks are Muslims, the Russians Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Turkmen language is
closely related to Turkish. A rich Turkmen oral literary tradition also exists, based on epic songs and romantic poetry.
In their way of life, the Turkmen are more of a confederation of tribes than a modern nation. The largest and most powerful of the tribes is the Tekke, followed by the Ersary
and the Yomuk. The tribes are divided into subtribal groups, which are divided into clans. The old class divisions of nobles, members of the middle class, and former slaves
still survive in social relations. The Turkmen see themselves as warlike and aristocratic in comparison to their settled neighbors, who in turn think of Turkmen as uneducated
and primitive.
The Land and Economy.
Turkmenistan is bordered by Afghanistan on the south, by Iran and the Caspian Sea on the west, and by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on the north and east. Most of Turkmenistan
consists of the great desert of the Kara Kum. A narrow strip of fertile land lying along the Kopet-Dag range, on the Iranian border, is the most densely populated region.
Ashkhabad (Ashgabat), the capital and largest city, with a population of about 400,000, is situated in the foothills of the Kopet-Dag.
Turkmenistan has a dry, continental climate, with extremely hot summers and cool to cold winters. Rainfall is sparse.
Economically, the people traditionally relied on livestock raising, including cattle and karakul sheep, from which the valuable Persian lamb is obtained. Rug making was a
traditional Turkmen handicraft. Under the Soviets, cotton growing was introduced in irrigated areas and the region’s large deposits of oil and natural gas were developed.
Industry is based on mining and the manufacture of building materials, chemicals, and textiles.
Early History.
Like other parts of Central Asia, the early history of what is now Turkmenistan was marked by successive invasions of Turkic tribes; Arabs, who converted the people to the Muslim
religion; and Mongols. The region fell to the empire of Tamerlane in the 1300’s, then to Uzbek and Persian dynasties, and finally came under the rule of the states of Khiva and
Bukhara, where the Turkmen served as mercenary troops and were influential in court politics.
Russian and Soviet Rule: Independence.
The Russians conquered the region between 1875 and 1885, but not before the Turkmen stubbornly defended their freedom. Following the decisive battle of Geok-Tepe (1879), however,
the Tekke tribe was subdued, and the others soon followed.
After the Soviets came to power following revolutions in 1917, they erased the old administrative units in Central Asia and established republics based on ethnic division. Local
resistance was only slowly put down, and the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic came into being in 1924. Under Soviet Communist rule, Turkmenistan, like other parts of the Soviet
Union, was subjected to forced collectivization of agriculture, religious discrimination, and political purges. Soviet political reforms in the late 1980’s led to demands for
greater self-rule and then to full independence, which was proclaimed in late 1991, as the Soviet Union was breaking apart.
Michael Rywkin
City University of New York, City College
Author, Moscow’s Muslim Challenge: Soviet Central Asia
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