Turkmenistan Factfile

Turkmenistan Introduction

Turkmenistan is the least-known, least-visited, and least-understood of all the Central Asian countries.

This is both its attraction to many curious visitors, but also something to push against, as the history, sites to visit and see, and the society itself are very much worth developing a deeper knowledge and understanding of. 

Made up almost entirely of desert, with fringes of spectacular mountains along some borders, most notably the soaring Kopet Dag mountains that rise over the shining capital city of Ashgabat and form the border with Iran, as well as a coast on the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan is possessed of a low population and a lot of empty space. 

Traditionally, Turkmen were nomadic, but with modernity comes a more sedentary kind of life, so the population is now mostly urbanised in Ashgabat and a handful of smaller cities, with the capital being the home of the government, the economy, and the shiny marble-clad prestige buildings. A new governmental and residential city named Arkadag has been built just outside of Ashgabat, and this may become a more important settlement, but at present, all visits tend to be centred around the relative comforts of the capital. 

Natural gas is Turkmenistan’s economic driver, with the 4th largest deposits in the world paying for all the architectural grandstanding, as well as everything else that the state funds. Life has been imperfect, though with various periods of economic crisis and political uncertainty affecting the lives of ordinary people over time. 

The government system is one which is openly autocratic, despite the occurrence of a form of elections.

Nobody in the country is unaware of the system they have and how it differs from the systems that others enjoy or endure, but life is resilient in Turkmenistan, and visitors will find more common ground with local people than they often expect. It is a place going through a prolonged period of change, but that change comes in many forms.

Turkmenistan History

Ancient History

The territory we now call Turkmenistan has known many names over the millennia, sitting at the crossroads of empires, history, and the ancient Silk Road, too.

It is a new country with ancient roots, and they can be complex indeed, but worthy of understanding before and during a trip to this fascinating country. 

There is evidence of sophisticated urban settlements going back more than five thousand years, deep into the Bronze Age, with Gonur Depe (today a ruin) serving as a trading centre with cultures such as Mesopotamia and those in the Indus Valley. 

1st Millennium BCE

In the 6th Century BCE, the mighty Persian Achaemenid Empire took control of the region.

This empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, was vast and all-conquering for hundreds of years, but then in 330 BCE it all collapsed under the onslaught of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian Greek forces. After Alexander’s death, Turkmenistan passed to his general Seleucus, whose own Hellenic empire lasted until the Roman Republic. But in this particular area was taken by the Parthians, great rivals of Rome and one of the greatest powers in history.

Parthia ruled what is now Turkmenistan from the local capital of Nisa, now an archaeological site just outside of Ashgabat. 

Arab Conquest

Parthia fell in 224 AD, and various players controlled the territory, including the empire of the Sasanian Persians. But in the 7th Century, the invasion of the Arabs deep into Central Asia brought new rulers and a new religion; Islam.

This was accepted widely, but even to this day has local elements of pre-Islamic ritual and belief woven into the local version (symbols to protect from the evil eye, an older concept can be found across Turkmenistan, including in religious sites to this day). Under the Arabs, the city of Merv (also a ruin now, and originally named Alexandria for its founder Alexander) was one of the world’s largest cities during the height of the Silk Road. 

Mongol Invasion

Next to invade and conquer were the armies of Genghis Khan in the 13th Century. Merv was annihilated in 1221, and Turkmenistan was swept up into the Mongolian World.

This eventually faded away rather than being outright conquered, and Turkmen tribal society managed to keep its place, with nomadism and decentralised tribal practices seeing a resurgence as various imperial controls weakened. 

The Arrival of Modern Powers

In the late 19th century, it was a new form of imperialism whose intrigues were brought to Turkmenistan.

The Great Game, a kind of cold war between Britain and Russia, was played out in Central Asia as the buffer region between British India and the expansionist Russia. In the 1880s, Russia moved to seize Turkmenistan, with an invasion across the Caspian Sea and a brutal battle at Geok Deppe (not far from modern Ashgabat), which snuffed out Turkmen tribal independence with significant brutality. Dragging the region into the European sphere.

Turkmenistan became part of Russian Transcaspia. Modern infrastructure was built, such as railways and urban settlements, and cotton farming was brought in, with the formerly nomadic Turkmens pressed into settling and working in ways hitherto alien to them. 

Revolution

The Russian Revolution brought in new rulers and a whole new system in Moscow and throughout the Empire, consolidated by the Russian Civil War soon after/ Turkmenistan became a republic in the USSR in 1924. Mass movements began, which caused major cultural and societal changes - some of them good, and some less so.

There was a focus on literacy and the emancipation of women (who were not well-represented in Turkmen society). There was also the suppression of religion, forced collectivisation, removal of nomadism (completely incompatible with a society which venerated the urban working class), and the discovery and exploitation of the vast natural gas reserves that still define the economic state of the nation. 

Independence and Beyond

With the collapse of the USSR in 1991, independence was declared, and rule fell to Saparmurat Niyazov, previously the local general secretary.

Niyazov, a new soviet man whose father had never returned from the Great Patriotic War and whose mother and two brothers had been among hundreds of thousands buried in the 1949 Earthquake that levelled Ashgabat, swiftly threw off the cloak of Marxism-Leninism that he had worn to the top, and took on the mantle of nationalist leader.

Entitling himself ‘Turkmenbashi’ (Leader of Turkmen) he became known for his expensive idiosyncrasies. This includes statues of himself (one of which was gold and rotated with the sun), a building boom in Ashgabat of marble-covered offices, apartments, and government buildings (which continues to this day), and introducing his own thoughts and works into the social and education system at all levels.

Since his death in 2006, the country has been run by first President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov and now his son, Serdar Berdimuhammedov.

The system of strict social control and some cult-of-personality tendencies remains, funded by the thirst for Turkmenistan’s vast gas reserves.

The future is a complex one for the people of Turkmenistan, and there is more than one direction it could go in. 

Travelling in Turkmenistan

Known, correctly, as the complicated one for the Central Asian ‘Stans’ to visit and travel in, the visa system operated by Turkmenistan has always been a bit of a disincentive to make the effort for the less-motivated traveller, and a frustration for those who have fallen foul of the occasional unexplained refusal of entry too. 

Turkmenistan LOI

In brief, a Letter of Invitation from an authorised local company is needed for tourists travelling to Turkmenistan. This LOI is basically a guarantee of a visa, so when the LOI is issued, a visa can then be obtained at a Turkmen Embassy or on entry to the country at any customs point (air, land, or sea).

However, refusals do happen, sometimes more often than other times, and almost always unexplained. In such cases, another application can be made, which does work from time to time, but there are also cases of more than one refusal.

This is a frustration, and all that can be suggested is that the application be made early. 

Koryo Tours has worked in tourism in Turkmenistan since 2004, and has seen the LOI system get easier, harder, easier again, and so on. It is subject to the vagaries of the government and is not under our control or that of any of our partners. But, we have had very few LOI refusals over the decades, and a far higher success rate than anyone else all along. 

Inside Turkmenistan

When in the country, there are rules about being with an authorised guide. You must be with a guide on entry and exit to the country, technically crossing provincial borders (although rarely enforced), but these rules are flexible and change over time in terms of enforcement.

The reputation of being ‘the North Korea of Central Asia’ in this sense is not quite right. You can wander around by yourself, take buses, make local friends, visit homes, and so on, but a guide is needed for tourists for certain things and at certain times. So, there is more flexibility than most people expect. But planning ahead is very much the order of the day. 

It is common for people to make a bit of fun of Turkmenistan. The statues, the odd national holidays, the (now revoked) renaming of the months and days by the Turkmenbashi, the ban on non-white cars in Ashgabat, the second President’s tendency to be the best jockey, cyclist, musician, etc in the country.

The Real Turkmenistan

But it is a real country with real people, and people who have an interest in their own lives and the lives of others, too.

A trip to Turkmenistan with people who have a deep and long-running interest in the place, as well as connections and relationships cultivated over a long period, gives more back than one focused on mockery and the odder aspects of an undeniably odd place. 

Infrastructure in Turkmenistan

Roads in urban areas tend to be in good condition and are often recently renovated. Highways from Ashgabat to some other cities are also well done, even though they often deteriorate in the harsh climate.

The highway that leads most of the way to the remarkable Darvaza Gas Crater is, at the time of writing, in very poor condition and highly pot-holed. Local drivers know every hole, though, so they can weave around them. 

While the internet is still a frustration, some decent hotels have good networks and even built-in VPNs, the general internet coverage and accessibility for tourists has gotten worse over the years. So, visitors should expect to be mostly offline.

Supply of power is reliable, though (being that they produce enormous amounts of energy) and even though most of the country is a desert, water supply is reliable in all hotels. 

In winter, it is cold, and in summer, it is incredibly hot. Air conditioning is everywhere, of course, but any trip in summer is one that will be spent looking for shade a lot of the time. Spring and Autumn are the best times to go without a doubt. 

One of our very favourite places to visit, and a country with deep history, complex society, and a little-understood modern culture.  

Written by Turkmenistan Expert Simon Cockerell