Turkmenistan

Menga, F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5712-7748 (2016) Turkmenistan. In: The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives. SAGE, pp. 1729-1731. ISBN 9781483359878 doi: 10.4135/9781483359878.n672

Abstract/Summary

Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. It has a population of 5,171,943 and a territory of 488,100 square kilometers (the second largest in Central Asia after that of Kazakhstan); it is bordered by Kazakhstan on the northwest, Uzbekistan on the northeast, Afghanistan on the southeast, Iran on the south, and the Caspian Sea on the west. Turkmenistan was a Union republic of the Soviet Union until October 1991, when it declared independence. The country has the world’s fourth-largest natural gas reserves. Its capital is Ashgabat. This entry reviews Turkmenistan’s history, including conflicts and conquests, and its status in the contemporary post-Soviet world and current security threats.