Turkmenistan
republicIndependence 27 October 1991 (from the Soviet Union)
Turkmenistan as the 2009 edition of the CIA World Factbook published it: 130 fields, one of 34 editions from 1992 to 2025.
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Introduction
1 fieldBackground
Eastern Turkmenistan for centuries formed part of the Persian province of Khurasan; in medieval times Merv (today known as Mary) was one of the great cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by Russia between 1865 and 1885, Turkmenistan became a Soviet republic in 1924. It achieved independence upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Extensive hydrocarbon/natural gas reserves could prove a boon to this underdeveloped country if extraction and delivery projects were to be expanded.
The Turkmenistan Government is actively seeking to develop alternative petroleum transportation routes to break Russia's pipeline monopoly. President for Life Saparmurat NYYAZOW died in December 2006, and Turkmenistan held its first multi-candidate presidential electoral process in February 2007. Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMEDOW, a vice premier under NYYAZOW, emerged as the country's new president.
Geography
Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea, between Iran and Kazakhstan
20 fieldsLand useshare of 488,100 sq km
More
Terrain
- flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes rising to mountains in the south;
- low mountains along border with Iran;
- borders Caspian Sea in west
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)
- total:
- 24.65 cu km/yr (2%/1%/98%)
- per capita:
- 5,104 cu m/yr (2000)
Environment - current issues
- contamination of soil and groundwater with agricultural chemicals, pesticides;
- salination, water logging of soil due to poor irrigation methods;
- Caspian Sea pollution;
- diversion of a large share of the flow of the Amu Darya into irrigation contributes to that river's inability to replenish the Aral Sea;
- desertification
Environment - international agreements
- party to:
- Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection
- signed, but not ratified:
- none of the selected agreements
Geography - note
- landlocked;
- the western and central low-lying desolate portions of the country make up the great Garagum (Kara-Kum) desert, which occupies over 80% of the country;
- eastern part is plateau
People
21 fieldsAge structuremale left, female right · (2009 est.)
Per 1,000 population
Male · female
Ethnic groups(2003)
Sex ratio
- at birth:
- 1.05 male(s)/female
- under 15 years:
- 1.02 male(s)/female
- 15-64 years:
- 0.98 male(s)/female
- 65 years and over:
- 0.77 male(s)/female
- total population:
- 0.98 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS
fewer than 200 (2007 est.) country comparison to the world: 160
Government
Republic; President Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMEDOW (since 14 February 2007); President Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMEDOW (since 14 February 2007)
18 fieldsPresidential electionpercent of vote
Country name
- conventional long form:
- none
- conventional short form:
- Turkmenistan
- local long form:
- none
- local short form:
- Turkmenistan
- former:
- Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
Government type
republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little power outside the executive branch
Capital
- name:
- Ashgabat (Ashkhabad)
- geographic coordinates:
- 37 57 N, 58 23 E
- time difference:
- UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Administrative divisions
5 provinces (welayatlar, singular - welayat) and 1 independent city*: Ahal Welayaty (Anew), Ashgabat*, Balkan Welayaty (Balkanabat), Dashoguz Welayaty, Lebap Welayaty (Turkmenabat), Mary Welayaty note: administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses)
Executive branch
- chief of state:
- President Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMEDOW (since 14 February 2007); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
- head of government:
- President Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMEDOW (since 14 February 2007)
- cabinet:
- Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president
- elections:
- president elected by popular vote for a five-year term; election last held on 11 February 2007 (next to be held in February 2012)
- election results:
- Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMEDOW elected president; percent of vote - Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMEDOW 89.2%, Amanyaz ATAJYKOW 3.2%, other candidates 7.6%
Legislative branch
unicameral parliament known as the National Assembly (Mejlis) (125 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
- elections:
- last held 14 December 2008 (next to be held December 2013)
- election results:
- 100% of elected officials are members of either the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan or its pseudo-civil society parent organization, the Revival Movement, and are preapproved by the president
note: in autumn 2008, the constitution of Turkmenistan was revised to abolish the 2,507-member legislative body known as the People's Council and to expand the number of deputies in the National Assembly from 65 to 125; the powers formerly held by the People's Council were divided up between the president and the National Assembly
Political parties and leaders
Democratic Party of Turkmenistan or DPT [Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMEDOW]
note: formal opposition parties are outlawed; unofficial, small opposition movements exist abroad; the three most prominent opposition groups-in-exile are the National Democratic Movement of Turkmenistan (NDMT), the Republican Party of Turkmenistan, and the Watan (Fatherland) Party;
the NDMT was led by former Foreign Minister Boris SHIKHMURADOV until his arrest and imprisonment in the wake of the 25 November 2002 attack on President NYYAZOW's motorcade
International organization participation
ADB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PFP, SCO (guest), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO
Diplomatic representation in the US
- chief of mission:
- Ambassador Meret Bairamovich ORAZOW
- chancery:
- 2207 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
- telephone:
- [1] (202) 588-1500
- FAX:
- [1] (202) 588-0697
Diplomatic representation from the US
- chief of mission:
- Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Richard M. MILES
- embassy:
- No. 9 1984 Street (formerly Pushkin Street), Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 744000
- mailing address:
- 7070 Ashgabat Place, Washington, DC 20521-7070
- telephone:
- [993] (12) 35-00-45
- FAX:
- [993] (12) 39-26-14
Flag description
- green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five tribal guls (designs used in producing carpets) stacked above two crossed olive branches;
- a white crescent moon representing Islam with five white stars representing the regions or welayats of Turkmenistan appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly side of the red stripe
Economy
Turkmenistan is largely a desert country with intensive agriculture in irrigated oases and sizeable gas and oil resources.
43 fieldsGDP - composition by sector(2008 est.)
Trading partnersexports left, imports right
Electricity
Economy - overview
Turkmenistan is largely a desert country with intensive agriculture in irrigated oases and sizeable gas and oil resources. One-half of its irrigated land is planted in cotton; formerly it was the world's 10th-largest producer. Poor harvests in recent years have led to an almost 50% decline in cotton exports.
With an authoritarian ex-Communist regime in power and a tribally based social structure, Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to economic reform, hoping to use gas and cotton sales to sustain its inefficient economy. Privatization goals remain limited. From 1998-2005, Turkmenistan suffered from the continued lack of adequate export routes for natural gas and from obligations on extensive short-term external debt.
At the same time, however, total exports rose by an average of roughly 15% per year from 2003-08, largely because of higher international oil and gas prices. A new pipeline to China, set to come online in late 2009 or early 2010, will give Turkmenistan an additional export route for its gas.
Overall prospects in the near future are discouraging because of widespread internal poverty, a poor educational system, government misuse of oil and gas revenues, and Ashgabat's reluctance to adopt market-oriented reforms. In the past, Turkmenistan's economic statistics were state secrets.
The new government has established a State Agency for Statistics, but GDP numbers and other figures are subject to wide margins of error. In particular, the rate of GDP growth is uncertain. Since his election, President BERDIMUHAMEDOW has sought to improve the health and education systems, unified the country's dual currency exchange rate, ordered the redenomination of the manat, reduced state subsidies for gasoline, increased Internet access both in schools and Internet cafes, ordered an independent audit of Turkmenistan's gas resources, and created a special tourism zone on the Caspian Sea. Although foreign investment is encouraged, numerous bureaucratic obstacles from the NYYZOW-era remain.
Natural gas - proved reserves
2.662 trillion cu m (1 January 2009 est.) country comparison to the world: 12
Current account balance
$4.669 billion (2008 est.) · $3.285 billion (2007 est.) country comparison to the world: 35
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold
$13.88 billion (31 December 2008 est.) · $13.19 billion (31 December 2007 est.) country comparison to the world: 60
Debt - external
$1.4 billion (2004 est.) country comparison to the world: 147 note: some estimates put this figure as high as $5 billion
Communications
8 fieldsTelephone system
- general assessment:
- telecommunications network remains underdeveloped and progress toward improvement is slow;
- strict government control and censorship inhibits liberalization and modernization
- domestic:
- Turkmentelekom, in cooperation with foreign partners, has installed high speed fiber-optic lines and has upgraded most of the country's telephone exchanges and switching centers with new digital technology;
- mobile telephone usage is expanding with Russia's Mobile Telesystems (MTS) the primary service provider
- international:
- country code - 993;
- linked by fiber-optic cable and microwave radio relay to other CIS republics and to other countries by leased connections to the Moscow international gateway switch;
- an exchange in Ashgabat switches international traffic through Turkey via Intelsat;
- satellite earth stations - 1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat (2008)
Transportation
10 fieldsMerchant marine, 7 ships by typeone square, one ship · (2008)
Airports by runway lengthunpaved only
Networkskm
Waterways
1,300 km (Amu Darya and Kara Kum canal are important inland waterways) (2008) country comparison to the world: 56
Military
Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces (2009)
6 fieldsMilitary service age and obligation
18-30 years of age for compulsory military service; 2-year conscript service obligation (2007)
Manpower available for military service
- males age 16-49:
- 1,316,698
- females age 16-49:
- 1,331,005 (2008 est.)
Transnational Issues
3 fieldsDisputes - international
- cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan creates water-sharing difficulties for Amu Darya river states;
- field demarcation of the boundaries with Kazakhstan commenced in 2005, but Caspian seabed delimitation remains stalled with Azerbaijan, Iran, and Kazakhstan due to Turkmenistan's indecision over how to allocate the sea's waters and seabed
Refugees and internally displaced persons
refugees (country of origin): 11,173 (Tajikistan); less than 1,000 (Afghanistan) (2007)
Illicit drugs
transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and Western European markets; transit point for heroin precursor chemicals bound for Afghanistan
Cite this entry
Central Intelligence Agency. “Turkmenistan.” The World Factbook 2009. Archived by The Factbook, thefactbook.org/turkmenistan/2009.