Region: Central Asia
Climate: Extreme Continental, Desert
Leader(s): Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, since 2006 (at time of writing)
Population: 5,171,943
Capital: Ashgabat
Largest City: Ashgabat
Currency: Turkmen New Manat
Languages: Turkmen, Russian
Independence: 1991, from the Soviet Union
Territories or Colonies: None
THE FACTS
Turkmenistan is one of the stan countries in Central Asia. These often forgot about countries are vast in size, taking up land conquered by the Mongols, but are low in population like Mongolia. The people in these countries are from a variety of ethnic groups that were Turkic in origin, hence the origin of the name Turkmenistan.
EARLY HISTORY (????-600s)
The first time Turkmenistan shows up in history is when Alexander the Great arrives in the 300s BCE. Alexander the Great brought his Macedonians all the way to Afghanistan and passed through central Asia conquering stuff and naming cities after himself and his horse.
The Region at the time was only controlled by Stone-Age groups of nomadic warriors and Alexander the Great was able to overpower them technologically. Alexander the Great didn't have time to rule everything though and his empire was short lived, much like himself and it died with him when he got a cold, or died of alcohol poisoning (depending on who you listen to, but getting a cold isn't a very cool way to go).
The Persians later re-conquered the region like they did in Uzbekistan and added it to its province of Transoxiana. You may remember this from the Uzbekistan post, as these countries are near each other much of there history will overlap and I'll just reference previous posts if necessary.
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