History UsefulNotes / Turkmenistan

[[AC: Media set in Turkmenistan]]
* In Episode 14 of ''Series/SEALTeam's'' third season, Bravo Team deploys to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Türkmenbaşy,_Turkmenistan Türkmenbaşy]] (spelled in the show as the Westernized "Turkmenbashi") under official cover of training Turkmen special forces to capture a missing Pakistani nuclear scientist who has turned up in the country.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' is set in Turkmenistan. Departing from the show's usual [[AmbiguousTimePeriod pseudo-Cold War setting]], the country's President is explicitly identified as Berdimuhamedow, though with many of the BunnyEarsLawyer qualities associated with Niyazov.
* ''VideoGame/CounterStrike: Condition Zero'' has a bonus mission set in Turkmenistan, where the Spetsnaz are tasked with rescuing hostages in an oil facility in Bukhoro.
* The final set of missions in ''VideoGame/SOCOMUSNavySeals'' are set in Turkmenistan.

** Chairman of Parliament: Gülşat Mämmedowa

The Turkmens of Turkmenistan should not be confused with the Turkmens of UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}} and UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}. Although they all speak closely-related languages, the Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens are descended from Oghuz Turks who colonized the Fertile Crescent during TheHighMiddleAges and have much more in common with the Turkish and Azerbaijani peoples genetically, culturally, and linguistically.

Most of Turkmenistan's area is taken up by the massive Karakum cold desert, so population is concentrated in the two large oases to the north and south, which were known in ancient times as Khwarezm and Margiana, respectively. These two developed some of the most advanced cultures in Central Asia. However, while Turkic peoples dominate the modern life of the area, ancient Khwarezm and Margiana were unquestionably part of the Iranian civilization. In fact, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}} Zoroastrian]] scripture ''Avesta'' lists the latter as one of the lands specifically created by Ahura Mazda for the Iranian peoples.

After a series of foreign rule by Persians and Arabs, the region came into the spotlight when the Turks set up three major empires: the Ghaznavids, the Seljuks, and the Khwarezmians. Turkification of the region began in the earnest around this time. Gurganj (present-day Konye-Urgench) was the capital of the Khwarezmians for over a century, up until the Mongol invasions. During this time, the Khwarezmians was a center of the Islamic Golden Age and one of the greatest powers in the world; Merv was claimed to be the world's most populous city in the 12th century. It produced many thinkers and scholars, including polymath and geographer Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al Biruni and Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, who made timeless contribution to mathematics and astronomy. The Europeans latinized the latter's last name as Algaurizin, and then Algoritmi, and finally Algorithm.

The fairytale didn't last forever, however. In the 13th century, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and his sons marched west into the Iranian Plateau along with their army and requested the surrender of the empires there. They refused and what followed was, to describe the least, catastrophe. Bactria and Sogdia were sacked and looted, Persia was reduced to a lowly vassal, but their sufferings couldn't compare to what happened to the Khwarezmians. Genghis Khan was extremely furious against anyone who betrayed him when they had his trust, and when the Khwarezmians massacred a convoy of Mongols sent to bring the peace treaty, the Mongols responded by completely razing the empire to the ground and [[{{Unperson}} destroying everything marking that a civilization used to exist there]]. Historians unanimously regarded the destruction of the Khwarezmians as one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.

The Ilkhanate inherited Margiana and Khwarezm following the breakup of the Mongol Empire and under their rule the territory recovered, but never again to achieve the glory of the past. Turkification had solidified by this time. In the early modern era, the Khanate of Khiva emerged from the heart of Khwarezm and controlled the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea. It was an Uzbek polity; the Turkmens were never interested in leaving their nomadic way of life. In the 19th century, the Russians annexed Central Asia and organized Margiana and the Karakum Desert as part of the Transcaspian Oblast, while Khwarezm was left at the hands of the Khiva protectorate. The [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Revolution]] made them independent for a while, but a futile Basmachi movement didn't stop the Soviets from conquering and making the region communist. First assigned under the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed in 1925, with a half of the former Khorezm People's Soviet Republic tacked to the north. It declared independence in October 1991, which was recognized two months later as part of the Soviet collapse.

Most of Turkmenistan's area is taken up by the massive Karakum cold desert, so population is concentrated in the two large oases to the north and south, which were known in ancient times as Khwarezm and Margiana, respectively. These two developed some of the most advanced cultures in Central Asia, but thing is, while Turkic peoples dominate the modern life of the area, ancient Khwarezm and Margiana were unquestionably part of the Iranian civilization. In fact, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}} Zoroastrian]] scripture ''Avesta'' lists the latter as one of the lands specifically created by Ahura Mazda for the Iranian peoples.

The Dahae nomadic confederation was one of the first peoples to live in the area. They were brought under control of the Persian Achaemenids, but broke away when the empire was annexed by [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat Alexander]]. They notably did not succumb to the Greeks' invasion, although a part of Margiana (specifically the city of Merv, now known as Mary) did fall and was known as "Alexandria Margiana" for some time. Then the land was conquered by the Parthians and Sassanians. Arabs next came; their conquest was fully complete when Khwarezm fell to Qutayba ibn Muslim of the Umayyads. In the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, the Turks arrived from the former Western Turkic Khaganate and formed the Oghuz Yabgu State. This state is important as being the origin of modern-day Turkmens, who generally claim them as their foremost ancestors. It was also from the Oghuz Yabgu that the Turks moved through the Iranian Plateau, the Middle East, and eventually the Anatolian Peninsula.

After a series of foreign rule by Persians, the region came into spotlight when the Turks set up three major empires: the Ghaznavids, the Seljuks, and the Khwarezmians. Turkification of the region began in the earnest around this time. Gurganj (present-day Konye-Urgench) was the capital of the Khwarezmians for over a century, up until the Mongol invasions. During this time, the Khwarezmians was a center of the Islamic Golden Age and one of the greatest powers in the world; Merv was claimed to be the world's most populous city in the 12th century. It produced many thinkers and scholars, including polymath and geographer Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al Biruni and Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, who made timeless contribution to mathematics and astronomy. The Europeans latinized his last name as Algaurizin, and then Algoritmi, and finally Algorithm. [[AndNowYouKnow And now you know]].

The fairytale didn't last forever, however. In the 13th century, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and his sons marched west into the Iranian Plateau along with their army and requested the surrender of the empires there. They refused and what followed was, to describe the least, catastrophe. Bactria and Sogdia were sacked and looted, Persia was reduced to lowly vassal, but their sufferings couldn't compare to what happened to the Khwarezmians. Genghis Khan was extremely furious against anyone who betrayed him when they had his trust, and when the Khwarezmians massacred a convoy of Mongols sent to bring the peace treaty, the Mongols responded by completely razing the empire to the ground and [[{{Unperson}} destroying everything marking that a civilization used to exist there]]. Historians unanimously regarded the destruction of the Khwarezmians as one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.

Fortunately, [[OnlyServesForLife that "for-life" part didn't last long]]. Niyazov died of a heart attack on 21 December 2006, and was succeeded by [[OverlyLongName Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow]] in an election two months later. Ironically, Berdimuhamedow previously served as a dentist whose pension was taken away by Nyýazow before he died; Berdimuhamedow returned the favor by restoring pensions to 100,000 affected doctors. To this day, Turkmenistan still qualifies as a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, being a single-party state (but just so you know how democratic they are, the one party is named the [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom "Democratic Party of Turkmenistan"]]), while Berdimuhamedow has taken steps to [[MeetTheNewBoss dismantle Niyazov's cult of personality in favor of his own]]. His son, Serdar Berdimuhamedow, would later become the new president in 2022.

The country's population is overwhelmingly (85%) made of ethnic Turkmens, who were and to some extent are still pastoral nomads. The Soviet rule forced them to go urban, but there has been revivals of their traditional way of life. Their language, originally written with the Arabic script (and still is in Iran and Afghanistan) and then Cyrillic, is now written with a strange Latin orthography (see Berdimuhamedow's name above) compared to other Latinate Turkic orthographies. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmen_alphabet It was originally even weirder]]; the dollar, yen, and cent symbols were used, for example.

There are also some Uzbeks in the former Khwarezm, and some Russians lounging in the cities. Surprisingly, there are very few Persians/Tajiks, in spite of the country's close proximity to Iran and large numbers of them in neighboring UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}}. Conversely, a centuries-old Turkmen community exists in Iran, numbering approximately 1.4 million and concentrated in a region of Golestan Province aptly known as the Turkmen Sahra ("Turkmen desert"). They are often lumped together with other nomadic Turks of Iran, particularly with the closely-related Khorasani Turks, but what separates the Turkmens with other Iranian Turks is that they are one of the two major ethnicities in Iran who still closely identify with Sunni Islam after the 16th century (long story short, there's an aggressive evangelization campaign in Iran during that period, not unlike the contemporaneous Reformation in Europe. It's the reason why Iran is currently majority Shia Muslim in a sea of Sunnism).

* In Episode 14 of ''Series/SEALTeam's'' third season, Bravo Team deploys to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Türkmenbaşy,_Turkmenistan]] (spelled in the show as the Westernized "Turkmenbashi") under official cover of training Turkmen special forces to capture a missing Pakistani nuclear scientist who has turned up in the country.

* In Episode 14 of ''Series/SEALTeam's'' third season, Bravo Team deploys to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrkmenba%C5%9Fy,_Turkmenistan Türkmenbaşy]] (spelled in the show as the Westernized "Turkmenbashi") under official cover of training Turkmen special forces to capture a missing Pakistani nuclear scientist who has turned up in the country.

Fortunately, [[OnlyServesForLife that "for-life" part didn't last long]]. Niyazov died of a heart attack on 21 December 2006, and was succeeded by [[OverlyLongName Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow]] in an election two months later. Ironically, Berdimuhamedow previously served as a dentist whose pension was taken away by Nyýazow before he died; Berdimuhamedow returned the favor by restoring pensions to 100,000 affected doctors. To this day, Turkmenistan still qualifies as a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, being a single-party state (but just so you know how democratic they are, the one party is named the [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom "Democratic Party of Turkmenistan"]]), while Berdimuhamedow has taken steps to [[MeetTheNewBoss dismantle Niyazov's cult of personality in favor of his own]].

** President: Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow

The country's population is overwhelmingly (85%) made of ethnic Turkmens, who were and to some extent are still pastoral nomads. The Soviet rule forced them to go urban, but there has been revivals of their traditional way of life. Their language, originally written with the Arabic script (and still is in Iran and Afghanistan) and then Cyrillic, is now written with a strange Latin orthography (see Berdimuhamedow's name above) compared to other Latinate Turkic orthographies. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmen_alphabet It was originally even weirder]]; the dollar, yen, and cent symbols, were used, for example.

The Ilkhanate inherited Margiana and Khwarezm following the breakup of the Mongol Empire and under their rule the territory recovered, but never again to achieve the glory of the past. Turkification had solidified by this time. In the early modern era, the Khanate of Khiva emerged from the heart of Khwarezm and controlled the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea. It was an Uzbek polity; the Turkmens were never interested in leaving their nomadic way of life. In the 19th century, the Russians annexed Central Asia and organized Margiana and the Karakum Desert as part of the Transcaspian Oblast, while Khwarezm was left at the hands of the Khiva protectorate. The [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Revolution]] made them independent for a while, but a futile Basmachi movement didn't stop the Soviets from conquering and making the region communist. First assigned under the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed in 1925, with a half of the former Khorezm People's Soviet Republic tacked to the north. It declared independence in October 1991, which was recognized two months later as part of TheGreatPoliticsMessUp.

However, things got worse from there. The first post-Soviet president, Saparmyrat Niyazov, installed a [[{{Egopolis}} cult of personality]] rivaled only by UsefulNotes/NorthKorea or the Stalinist USSR. He renamed all months and days in the calendar [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas (including one named after his mother)]], built a gigantic golden statue of himself in Ashgabat, tried to build an enormous indoor ice skating rink near the capital (so people living in this ''desert'' country could learn to skate), banned things like the opera, circuses, video games [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and even gold tooth fillings and news presenters using makeup]] (because he was "having trouble telling them apart"), gave himself the title "Türkmenbaşy" (Leader of the Turkmens), renamed Krasnovodsk to [[{{Egopolis}} that title]], [[KickTheDog shut down all hospitals outside Ashgabat, arguing that sick Turkmens could "come to the capital" for treatment]], wrote the ''Ruhnama'', a book which was required to be memorized perfectly to hold government positions, apply for higher education, or even to ''own a driver's license'' and passed off as a text mosques were required by law (on penalty of having the mosques shut down at ''best'') to treat on the same level as the Quran - all despite Niyazov being "somewhat illiterate", and eventually declared himself [[PresidentForLife president-for-life]].

Fortunately, [[OnlyServesForLife that "for-life" part didn't last long]]. Nyýazow died of a heart attack on 21 December 2006, and was succeeded by [[OverlyLongName Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow]] in an election two months later. Ironically, Berdimuhamedow previously served as a dentist whose pension was taken away by Nyýazow before he died; Berdimuhamedow returned the favor by restoring pensions to 100,000 affected doctors. To this day, Turkmenistan still qualifies as a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, being a single-party state (but just so you know how democratic they are, the one party is named the [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom "Democratic Party of Turkmenistan"]]), while Berdimuhamedow has taken steps to [[MeetTheNewBoss dismantle Nyýazow's cult of personality in favor of his own]].

However, things got worse from there. The first post-Soviet president, Saparmyrat Nyýazow, installed a [[{{Egopolis}} cult of personality]] rivaled only by UsefulNotes/NorthKorea or the Stalinist USSR. He renamed all months and days in the calendar [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas (including one named after his mother)]], built a gigantic golden statue of himself in Ashgabat, tried to build an enormous indoor ice skating rink near the capital (so people living in this ''desert'' country could learn to skate), banned things like the opera, circuses, video games [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and even gold tooth fillings and news presenters using makeup]] (because he was "having trouble telling them apart"), gave himself the title "Türkmenbaşy" (Leader of the Turkmens), renamed Krasnovodsk to [[{{Egopolis}} that title]], [[KickTheDog shut down all hospitals outside Ashgabat, arguing that sick Turkmens could "come to the capital" for treatment]], wrote the ''Ruhnama'', a book which was required to be memorized perfectly to hold government positions, apply for higher education, or even to ''own a driver's license'' and passed off as a text mosques were required by law (on penalty of having the mosques shut down at ''best'') to treat on the same level as the Quran - all despite Nyýazow being "somewhat illiterate", and eventually declared himself [[PresidentForLife president-for-life]].

* '''Highest point:''' Aýrybaba (3139 m/10,299 ft) (79th)

* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' TM

** Chairman of Parliament: Gülşat Mämmedowa

* The last set of missions in ''VideoGame/SOCOMUSNavySeals'' are set in Turkmenistan.

->The flag's green field and crimson stripe are colors long held in importance by the Turkmen people; the crescent is a Turkic symbol, used here to symbolize hope for the future; the five stars symbolize its provinces: Ahal, Balkan, Daşoguz, Lebap and Mary; in the stripe are five ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gul_%28design%29 guls]]'', symmetrical carpet patterns common in Central Asia, symbolizing the five major tribes of Turkmenistan (top to bottom): Teke, Yomut, Saryk, Chowdur and Arsary; and below the ''guls'' are a pair of olive branches of neutrality.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/turkmenistan_flag_8214.png

* In Episode 14 of ''Series/SEALTEAM'' Season 3, Bravo Team deploys to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrkmenba%C5%9Fy,_Turkmenistan Türkmenbaşy]] (spelled in the show as the Westernized "Turkmenbashi") under official cover of training Turkmen special forces to capture a missing Pakistani nuclear scientist who has turned up in the country.

* In Episode 14 of ''Series/SEALTEAM's'' third season, Bravo Team deploys to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrkmenba%C5%9Fy,_Turkmenistan Türkmenbaşy]] (spelled in the show as the Westernized "Turkmenbashi") under official cover of training Turkmen special forces to capture a missing Pakistani nuclear scientist who has turned up in the country.

The Ilkhanate inherited Margiana and Khwarezm following the breakup of the Mongol Empire and under their rule the territory recovered, but never again to achieve the glory of the past. Turkification had solidified by this time. In the early modern era, the Khanate of Khiva emerged from the heart of Khwarezm and controlled the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea. It was an Uzbek polity; the Turkmens were never interested in leaving their nomadic way of life. In the 19th century, the Russians annexed Central Asia and organized Margiana and the Karakum Desert as part of the Transcaspian Oblast, while Khwarezm was left at the hands of the Khiva protectorate. The [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Revolution]] made them independent for a while, but a futile Basmachi movement didn't stop the Soviets to conquer and made the region communist. First assigned under the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed in 1925, with a half of the former Khorezm People's Soviet Republic tacked to the north. It declared independence in October 1991, which was recognized two months later as part of TheGreatPoliticsMessUp.

After a series of foreign rule by Persians, the region came into spotlight when the Turks set up three major empires: the Ghaznavids, the Seljuks, and the Khwarezmians. Turkification of the region began in the earnest around this time. Gurganj (present-day Konye-Urgench) was the capital of the Khwarezmians for over a century, up until the Mongol invasions. During this time, the Khwarezmians was a center of the Islamic Golden Age and one of the greatest powers in the world; Merv was claimed to be the world's most populous city in the 12th century. It produced many thinkers and scholars, including polymath and geographer Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al Biruni and Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, who made timeless contribution to mathematics and astronomy. The Europeans latinized his last name as Algaurizin, and then Algoritmi, and finally Algorithm. And now you know.

Fortunately, [[OnlyServesForLife that "for-life" part didn't last long]]. Nyýazow died of a heart attack on 21 December 2006, and was succeeded by [[OverlyLongName Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow]] in an election two months later. Ironically, Berdimuhamedow previously served as a dentist whose pension was taken away by Nyýazow before he died; Berdimuhamedow returned the favor by restoring pensions to 100,000 affected doctors. To this day, Turkmenistan still qualifies as a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, being a single-party state (and that one party used to be the Communist Party), but Berdimuhamedow has taken steps to [[MeetTheNewBoss dismantle Nyýazow's cult of personality in favor of his own]].