Turkmenistan
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Official Name: Turkmenistan |
Flag
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 similar to the olive branches on the United Nations flag; a white crescent moon representing Islam with five white stars representing the regions or velayats of Turkmenistan appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly side of the red stripe.
Turkmenistan
The origins of the Turkmen may be traced back to the Oghuz confederation of nomadic pastoral tribes of the early Middle Ages, which lived in present-day Mongolia and around Lake Baikal in present-day southern Siberia. Known as the Nine Oghuz, this confederation was composed of Turkic-speaking peoples who formed the basis of powerful steppe empires in Inner Asia. In the second half of the 8th century, constituents of the Nine Oghuz migrated through Zhungaria into Central Asia, and Arabic sources located them by the term Guzz in the area of the middle and lower Syrdariya in the eighth century. By the tenth century, the Oghuz had expanded west and north of the Aral Sea and into the steppe of present-day Kazakstan, absorbing not only Iranians but also Turks from the Kipchak and Karluk ethnolinguistic groups. In the eleventh century, the renowned Muslim Turk scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari described the language of the Oghuz and Turkmen as distinct from that of other Turks and identified twenty-two Oghuz clans or sub-tribes, some of which appear in later Turkmen genealogies and legends as the core of the early Turkmen.
The name Turkmen first appears in written sources of the 10th century to distinguish those Oghuz groups who migrated south into the Seljuk domains and accepted Islam from those that had remained in the steppe. Gradually, the term took on the properties of an ethnonym and was used exclusively to designate Muslim Oghuz, especially those who migrated away from the Syrdariya Basin. By the 13thcentury, the term Turkmen supplanted the designation Oghuz altogether. The origin of the word Turkmen remains unclear. According to popular etymologies as old as the eleventh century, the word derives from Turk plus the Iranian element manand and means "resembling a Turk." Modern scholars, on the other hand, have proposed that the element man/men acts as an intensifier and have translated the word as "pure Turk" or "most Turk-like of the Turks".
Turkmen belongs to the family of Turkic languages. Its closest relatives are the languages of the Turks in northeastern Iran and the Khorazm Province of south central Uzbekistan (Khorasani), Azerbaijan (Azeri), and Turkey (Turkish), all of which belong to the Oghuz group of this language family.
Information and maps above taken from Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Fact Book. Unless otherwise specified, images sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
Turkmenistani Internet Sources
This section contains convenient starting points for exploring web sites related to Turkmenistan. To make this page easier to load and use, we generally have limited the list to those sites which contain substantial collections of links to information on these subjects. The views reflected on any web site linked below do not necessarily reflect the views of the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center. We provide these links as a service to the public.
General background information on Turkmenistan can be found on the Turkmenistan Wikipedia page.
ABC Country Book of Turkmenistan covers geography, economy, communications, government and people.
Amnesty International Country Profile: Turkmenistan documents human rights issues in the republic.
CIA World Factbook: Turkmenistan provides a general country overview and statistical data from the CIA.
The Embassy of Turkmenistan, in Washington, DC provides a brief description of the political, social and cultural situations in Turkmenistan.
Gündogar, the Provisional Executive Council of the People's Democratic Movement, is the opposition party in Turkmenistan. Their website (in English, Russian and Turkmen) offers news and information about opposition activites in Turkmenistan.
Human Rights Watch: Turkmenistan discusses human rights developments and the role of the international community.
Law Library of Congress Guide to Law Online: Turkmenistan provides links to government documents and reports and to other online guides with information on Turkmenistan.
The Turkmen International Home Page (in English with some Turkmen) has information and photos of Turkmen culture.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Turkmenistan is a digest of latest news from and about Turkmenistan. On the page are also links to RFE/RL Reports, Weekday Magazine, Newsline and external reports related to Turkmenistan in English.
Turkmenistan: A Country Study, from the Library of Congress Area Handbook Series, presents an overview of and statistical data about Turkmenistan.
The University of Texas Network Information Center: Turkmenistan page lists links by subject.
US State Department Human Rights Reports 2008: Turkmenistan analyzes human rights situation from a variety of issues: media, political prisoners, human rights-related legislation.
Erik Herron's Guide to Politics in East Central Europe and Eurasia: Turkmenistan Links provides links on Turkmenistan. It is maintained by Eric Herron, director of the Center for Russian and East European and Eurasian Studies at Kansas State University.