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Country Information |
Turkmenistan
is one of the most closed societies in the world and power
rests with President Saparmurad Niyazov. Parliament granted
Niyazov the presidency for life and he has created a personality
cult unseen in Central Asia. Opposition leaders have been
harassed and many have left the country, according to human
rights groups.
Tribes
of horse-breeding Turkmen drifted into the territory of
Turkmenistan from ancient times. It was conquered by the
Mongols in the thirteenth century and seized by Russia in
the late 1800s. Turkmenistan was incorporated into the Soviet
Union in 1924 and gained formal independence in 1991.
Turkmenistan
hosts more than 14,000 refugees from neighboring countries.
Most are from Tajikistan and are ethnic Turkmen who entered
between 1992-94 and were largely integrated into Turkmenistan
society. UNICEF international staff left Afghanistan and
began running the agency's northern Afghan operation from
Turkmenistan after the September terrorist attacks in the
United States. A long border of mainly inhospitable desert
has helped prevent an influx of Afghan refugees into Turkmenistan.
More than half of the population in Turkmenistan lives below
the poverty line.
Turkmenistan
was an important supplier of raw materials, especially cotton,
oil, and natural gas, during the Soviet era. There have
been few reforms of the Soviet command system and most Turkmen
live in poverty. Although it has the world's fourth-largest
reserves of natural gas, as well as substantial oil reserves,
limited export routes prevent Turkmenistan from fully benefiting
from the resources. One-half of its irrigated land - the
country is mainly desert - is planted in cotton, making
it the world's tenth-largest producer.
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| Country
Data |
| Capital |
Ashgabat |
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| Population |
4.6 million
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| Life Expectancy |
61.1 |
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| GDP |
$21.5 billion (purchasing power parity) |
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| GDP per capita |
$4,700 (purchasing power parity) |
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| Political structure |
Presidential
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| Independence |
27 October 1991 (from the Soviet Union) |
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| Ethnic Groups |
Turkmen (77 percent), Uzbek (9 percent), Russian (7 percent),
Kazakh (2 percent), other (5 percent) |
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| Religions |
Muslim (89 percent), Eastern Orthodox (9 percent), other (2 percent) |
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| Geography |
Mostly covered in the subtropical, sandy Karakum Desert, the
Caspian Sea is to the west, with dunes rising to the Kopet
Dag Mountains in the south |
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| Border countries |
Iran, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan |
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| Natural resources |
petroleum, natural gas, coal, sulfur, salt |
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| Agriculture products |
Cotton, grain, livestock |
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| Other products |
Natural gas, oil, petroleum products, textiles, food processing |
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| Literacy rate |
99 percent (male)
97 percent (female) |
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| Under five mortality rate |
73.21 (per 1,000 live births) |
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| HIV/AIDS prevalence |
0.01 percent (adults) |
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| External debt |
$2.3 billion (2000) |
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| Economic aid |
$27.2 million (1995) |
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| Internally displaced |
Not applicable |
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| Refugees |
Turkmenistan hosted about 14,200 refugees at the end of 2001, including 12,850 from Tajikistan and 1,350 from Afghanistan. |
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Note: Turkmenistan ranked 86 on the UN Development Program's
Human Development Index for 2003.
Additional details
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| Links
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Links to other sources
Interactive Central Asia Resource Project
US Committee for Refugees
US State Department Background Notes
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