[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Turkmenistan-map_617.gif]]
Turkmenistan ('''Turkmen:''' ''Türkmenistan''), formerly known as Turkmenia, is a Central Asian nation and a former republic of the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], currently holding about 5.6 million people within its borders. It is bordered by UsefulNotes/{{Kazakhstan}} and UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}} to the north, UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} to the east, UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} to the south, and the Caspian Sea to the west. Its currency is the New Manat, its official language is Turkmen (not to be confused with Turkish, although they share a root dialect), its predominant religion is UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} and its capital is Ashgabat.

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 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 the population is concentrated in the two large oases in 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.

The Dahae nomadic confederation were one of the earliest peoples to live in the area. They were brought under the 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.

Following Persian and Arab rule, 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 Khwarezmian Empire 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.

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.

However, things got worse from there. The first post-Soviet president, Saparmurat 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]]. Niyazov died of a heart attack on 21 December 2006, and was succeeded by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow in an election two months later. Ironically, Berdimuhamedow previously served as a dentist whose pension was taken away by Niyazov 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]], including naming the new capital of a province after his title ("Arkadag", ''protector''), and buildings after various members of his family. In 2022, he announced that he would step down, [[HereditaryRepublic to be succeeded by his only son, Serdar]].

The country's population is overwhelmingly (85%) made up of ethnic Turkmens, who were and to some extent are still pastoral nomads. The Soviet rule forced them to go urban, but there have been revivals of their traditional way of life. Their language, originally written in the Arabic script (and still is in Iran and Afghanistan) and then Cyrillic, is now written in Latin.

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 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 from other Iranian Turks is that they are one of the three major ethnicities in Iran who still closely identify with Sunni Islam after the 16th century, alongside the Kurds and Balochs.

----
!! Media set in Turkmenistan:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* 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.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''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.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* 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.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Turkmen flag ]]

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/turkmenistan_flag.png
->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.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Turkmen national anthem ]]


->Janym gurban saňa, erkana ýurdum
->Mert pederleň ruhy bardyr könülde.
->Bitarap, Garaşsyz topragyň nurdur
->Baýdagyň belentdir dünýän önünde.

->Halkyň guran baky beýik binasy
->Berkarar döwletim, jigerim–janym.
->Başlaryň täji sen, diller senasy
->Dünýä dursun, sen dur, Türkmenistanym!

->Gardaşdyr tireler, amandyr iller
->Owal–ahyr birdir bizin ganymyz.
->Harasatlar almaz, syndyrmaz siller
->Nesiller döş gerip gorar şanymyz.

->Halkyň guran baky beýik binasy
->Berkarar döwletim, jigerim–janym.
->Başlaryň täji sen, diller senasy
->Dünýä dursun, sen dur, Türkmenistanym!

--

->I am ready to give life for our native hearth
->The spirit of ancestors descendants are famous for.
->My land is sacred, my flag flies in the world
->A symbol of the great neutral country flies,

->The forever great creation of the people
->The native land, the sovereign state
->Forever, the light and song of the soul,
->Long live and prosper, Turkmenistan!

->My nation is united and in veins of tribes
->Our ancestors' blood, undying flows.
->Storms and misfortunes of times are not dreadful for us,
->Let us increase fame and honour.

->The forever great creation of the people
->The native land, the sovereign state
->Forever, the light and song of the soul,
->Long live and prosper, Turkmenistan!
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Government ]]

* Unitary presidential constitutional republic
** President: Serdar Berdimuhamedow
** Chairman of Parliament: Dünýägözel Gulmanowa
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Miscellaneous ]]

* '''Capital and largest city:''' Ashgabat
* '''Population:''' 6,031,187
* '''Area:''' 491,210 km
(189,660 sq mi) (52nd)
* '''Currency:''' Turkmenistani manat (T) (TMT)
* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' TM
* '''Country calling code:''' 993
* '''Highest point:''' Aýrybaba (3139 m/10,299 ft) (60th)
* '''Lowest point:''' Akjagaýa (−81 m/−266 ft) (10th)