Turkmenistan

Long before recorded history, the river-fed oases on the southern fringe of the Karakum Desert sustained one of Central Asia's earliest civilisations. The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), or Oxus civilisation, flourished roughly between 2300 and 1700 BCE, its Margiana heartland centred on the site of Gonur Depe north of modern Mary. Discovered and excavated by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi from the 1970s, Gonur revealed monumental walled compounds, palaces and temples, sophisticated metalwork and craft in semi-precious stone — the hallmarks of a sedentary, irrigation-farming urban culture.

After the BMAC declined, the oases were drawn into the great empires of antiquity — the Achaemenid Persians, then the Hellenistic successors of Alexander the Great. In the mid-3rd century BCE the Parni, a nomadic people, founded the Parthian Empire, which would rule Iran and much of Central Asia for nearly five centuries and rival Rome in the west. Near present-day Ashgabat they built Nisa, comprising two settlements — Old Nisa and New Nisa — that served as one of the earliest and most important cities, and an early capital and royal residence, of the Parthian realm.

Old Nisa held a fortified citadel with towers, royal palaces, temples and treasuries; excavations have yielded carved ivory drinking horns (rhytons), sculpture and the remains of a wine economy that bear witness to a sophisticated court fusing Hellenistic and Iranian traditions. The Parthian Fortresses of Nisa were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007 as testimony to the power and culture of an empire that for centuries balanced Rome and the steppe.

Turning points

1. c. 2300 BCEFormation

   The Margiana oasis civilisation (BMAC)

   The Bronze Age Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex flourished in the southern Karakum oases, its Margiana centre at Gonur Depe — monumental architecture, irrigation farming and fine metalwork later excavated by Viktor Sarianidi.

   [1] [13]

2. c. 247 BCEFormation

   Rise of the Parthian Empire

   The nomadic Parni founded the Parthian state, which grew into an empire ruling Iran and Central Asia for nearly five centuries and rivalling Rome, with Nisa among its early royal centres.

   [4] [16]

3. 2nd century BCECulture & Ideas

   Royal city of Nisa

   Old and New Nisa, near modern Ashgabat, served as an early capital and royal residence of the Parthian Empire, with palaces, temples and treasuries that fused Hellenistic and Iranian art.

   [11] [4]

4. 2007Culture & Ideas

   Nisa inscribed by UNESCO

   The Parthian Fortresses of Nisa were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007 as an exceptional record of the Parthian civilisation at one of its earliest and most important cities.

   [11]

Figures of the era

Merv, on the Murghab river delta, became the great city of the Turkmen oases. A caravan hub on the Silk Road from the early centuries CE, it passed under the Sasanian Persians, then in the 7th–8th centuries under the Arab caliphate, which made it a base for the spread of Islam and a launchpad for conquests further east. By the early medieval period Merv was a celebrated centre of learning, with renowned libraries, observatories and scholars; its monuments are among the best-preserved on the entire Silk Road.

Merv reached its zenith under the Great Seljuk Turks, who made it a capital of their vast empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. Under Sultan Sanjar (ruler of Khorasan and then sultan until 1157), the city's population swelled and Merv ranked among the largest and most prosperous cities in the world, drawing mathematicians, astronomers, philosophers and poets. The 12th-century domed Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar, rising at the heart of the walled city of Sultan Kala, remains the supreme surviving monument of Seljuk power at Merv.

To the north, the city of Urgench (later Kunya-Urgench) rose as the capital of Khwarazm, a flourishing centre on the Amu Darya whose mosques, mausoleums and a soaring minaret testified to outstanding Central Asian craftsmanship. The region's golden age, however, would be shattered. When the Khwarazmshah provoked Genghis Khan, the Mongol storm swept across Khorasan, and in 1221 a Mongol army under Tolui, son of Genghis Khan, besieged and annihilated Merv in one of the most destructive massacres of the age.

Turning points

1. c. 651 CEReligion

   Merv under the Arab caliphate

   After the fall of Sasanian Persia, Merv became a key garrison and administrative centre of the Arab caliphate in Khorasan, a base for the spread of Islam and for campaigns further into Central Asia.

   [10] [1]

2. 1118–1157Politics & Power

   Merv as Seljuk capital under Sultan Sanjar

   The Great Seljuk sultan Sanjar made Merv a capital; the city's population swelled and it became one of the largest and most cultured cities in the world, a hub of Silk Road science and faith.

   [5] [10]

3. c. 1157Culture & Ideas

   Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar

   Built at the death of Sultan Sanjar, the great domed mausoleum at the centre of Sultan Kala stands as the finest surviving monument of Seljuk Merv.

   [10] [5]

4. 1221Catastrophe

   Mongol destruction of Merv

   A Mongol army under Tolui, son of Genghis Khan, besieged Merv during the conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire and massacred its population, ending the city's age as a great metropolis of the Islamic world.

   ↗See the data

   [10] [6]

Figures of the era

In the centuries after the Mongol cataclysm, the Turkmen — Oghuz Turkic peoples who had migrated into the region — consolidated across the Karakum and its oasis fringes. Their society was organised by tribe and clan rather than by state: confederations such as the Teke, Yomut, Ersari and Salor were variously nomadic and independent or subject to the neighbouring khanates of Khiva and Bukhara and to Persia. Out of this fragmented world rose the 18th-century poet Magtymguly Pyragy, who wrote in the Turkmen tongue and gave voice to a longing for unity; he is revered as the father of Turkmen literature and a symbol of national identity.

From the mid-19th century the Russian Empire pushed south and east into Central Asia. In 1869 a Russian force landed on the eastern shore of the Caspian and founded the port of Krasnovodsk (today Türkmenbaşy), and in 1874 the Transcaspian military district was established. The Teke Turkmen of the Akhal oasis mounted fierce resistance, repelling an early Russian assault, but the empire returned in force under General Mikhail Skobelev to break Turkmen independence once and for all.

In January 1881 Skobelev besieged the Teke stronghold of Geok Tepe (Gök-Tepe), near Ashgabat, and stormed it after exploding a mine beneath its walls. The fall of the fortress was followed by a massacre of thousands of fleeing and captured Turkmen — men, women and children — that broke organised resistance and decided the fate of Transcaspia. The region was annexed as an oblast of the Russian Empire, and by 1885 Russian control over the lands of modern Turkmenistan was largely complete.

Turning points

1. 18th centuryCulture & Ideas

   Magtymguly Pyragy and Turkmen poetry

   The poet Magtymguly Pyragy (1724–c. 1807) wrote in the Turkmen language and called for the unity of the tribes; he is revered as the father of Turkmen literature and national identity.

   [2] [13]

2. 1869Colonisation

   Russians found Krasnovodsk

   A Russian military force landed on the eastern Caspian coast and founded the port of Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy), opening the conquest of the Transcaspian region.

   ↗See the data

   [2]

3. January 1881War & Rupture

   Battle of Geok Tepe

   General Mikhail Skobelev stormed the Teke Turkmen fortress of Geok Tepe by detonating a mine under its walls; the assault and ensuing massacre of thousands broke Turkmen resistance and secured Russian control of Transcaspia.

   ↗See the data

   [3] [2]

4. 1885Colonisation

   Russian annexation completed

   Following Geok Tepe, the Transcaspian region was annexed as part of the Russian Empire, completing the conquest of the lands of modern Turkmenistan.

   ↗See the data

   [2] [13]

Figures of the era

Russian rule brought the Transcaspian railway, Russian and Armenian settlers, and the slow incorporation of the Turkmen into a colonial economy. After the Russian Revolution, the region was contested in civil war and basmachi resistance before Soviet power was consolidated. When Central Asia was redrawn along national lines in 1924, the Trans-Caspian district and the Turkmen lands of the Turkestan ASSR were combined to form the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, a constituent republic of the USSR with its capital at Ashgabat.

Soviet rule transformed Turkmen society, often violently. The forced collectivisation of the late 1920s and 1930s seized livestock and land, crushed the tribal-pastoral economy and met fierce resistance; by the late 1930s most Turkmen, formerly nomadic, had been made sedentary. Soviet planners dictated the cultivation of cotton to the near-exclusion of other crops, binding the republic to a single demanding crop. In 1948 a catastrophic earthquake devastated Ashgabat, killing tens of thousands.

The republic's landscape was reshaped by one of the largest irrigation works of the Soviet era: the Kara-Kum Canal, begun in 1954, which carried water from the Amu Darya hundreds of kilometres across the desert to feed the cotton fields, at lasting cost to the Aral Sea basin. By the late Soviet period the local Communist Party was led by Saparmurat Niyazov, who became first secretary in 1985 and head of state as the union loosened — positioning him to lead the republic into independence as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Turning points

1. 1924Politics & Power

   Creation of the Turkmen SSR

   In the Soviet national delimitation of Central Asia, the Transcaspian and Turkmen lands were combined to form the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, with Ashgabat as its capital.

   [13] [1]

2. late 1920s–1930sEconomy & Trade

   Collectivisation and cotton

   Forced collectivisation seized herds and land and ended Turkmen pastoral nomadism amid fierce resistance, while Soviet planning imposed cotton monoculture across the republic's irrigated land.

   ↗See the data

   [13] [1]

3. 6 October 1948Catastrophe

   Ashgabat earthquake

   A devastating earthquake struck Ashgabat, destroying the city and killing tens of thousands of people in one of the deadliest seismic disasters in Soviet history.

   ↗See the data

   [13] [1]

4. begun 1954Economy & Trade

   The Kara-Kum Canal

   Construction began on the Kara-Kum Canal, which carried water from the Amu Darya across the desert to irrigate the cotton lands — a vast project that opened new farmland at heavy environmental cost.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [13]

Figures of the era

Turkmenistan declared independence on 27 October 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved, and Saparmurat Niyazov became its first president. The United States recognised the new state in December 1991 and established diplomatic relations in February 1992. In 1995 Turkmenistan adopted a policy of permanent neutrality, formally welcomed by the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 50/80 of 12 December 1995 — making it the first state whose neutral status was recognised by a UN resolution and shaping a foreign policy of strict non-alignment.

Niyazov ruled as an authoritarian leader who built one of the world's most pervasive personality cults. He took the title Türkmenbaşy ('Head of the Turkmen'), was declared president for life by parliament in 1999, renamed months and other things after himself and his family, and made his quasi-spiritual book, the Ruhnama, mandatory reading. His rule rested on the country's enormous natural-gas reserves — among the largest in the world — while political opposition and independent media were suppressed. Niyazov died suddenly in December 2006.

He was succeeded by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who won the presidency in February 2007 and consolidated power over three terms, softening some of Niyazov's cult while maintaining tight one-party control and the neutral, gas-export foreign policy. In 2021 a People's Council (Halk Maslahaty) was created, and in March 2022 Berdimuhamedow's son, Serdar Berdimuhamedow, won an early election to become president — a managed dynastic succession, with the elder Berdimuhamedow retaining influence as head of the People's Council. As of 2026 Turkmenistan remains a tightly governed, neutral, gas-rich state.

Turning points

1. 27 October 1991Independence

   Independence declared

   Turkmenistan declared independence from the Soviet Union, with Saparmurat Niyazov as its first president; the United States recognised the new state in December 1991 and opened relations in 1992.

   ↗See the data

   [14] [1]

2. 12 December 1995Politics & Power

   Permanent neutrality recognised by the UN

   The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 50/80 welcoming Turkmenistan's declared permanent neutrality, the basis of its non-aligned foreign policy and a status unique in being recognised by a UN resolution.

   [15] [1]

3. 1999Politics & Power

   Niyazov declared president for life

   Parliament declared Saparmurat Niyazov ('Türkmenbaşy') president for life, the apex of a personality cult that included renaming the calendar and making his Ruhnama compulsory reading.

   [7]

4. February 2007Politics & Power

   Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow elected

   Following Niyazov's death in December 2006, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was elected president, beginning fifteen years of rule that retained tight one-party control and the neutral, gas-export policy.

   [8] [1]

5. March 2022Politics & Power

   Serdar Berdimuhamedow succeeds his father

   In an early election, Serdar Berdimuhamedow won the presidency over 70 percent of the vote, succeeding his father in a managed dynastic transfer of power, with the elder Berdimuhamedow remaining head of the People's Council.

   [9] [8]

Figures of the era