The territory of Turkmenistan has been populated since ancient
times, as armies from one empire to another decamped on their way to
more prosperous territories. Tribes of horse-breeding Turkmen
drifted into the territory of Turkmenistan, possibly from the Altay
Mountains, and grazed along the outskirts of the Karakum Desert into
Persia, Syria, and Anatolia.
Alexander the Great conquered the territory in the 4th century B.C.
on his way to India. One hundred fifty years later the Parthian
Kingdom took control of Turkmenistan, establishing its capital in
Nisa, an area now located in the suburbs of the modern-day capital
of Ashgabat. In the 7th century A.D. Arabs conquered this region,
bringing with them the Islamic religion and incorporating the
Turkmen into Middle Eastern culture. It was around this time that
the famous "Silk Road" was established as a major trading route
between Asia and Europe.
In the middle of the 11th century, the powerful Turks of the Seljuk
Empire concentrated their strength in the territory of Turkmenistan
in an attempt to expand into Afghanistan. The empire broke down in
the second half of the 12th century, and the Turkmen lost their
independence when Genghis Khan took control of the eastern Caspian
Sea region on his march west. For the next seven centuries, the
Turkmen people lived under various empires and fought constant
intertribal wars.
From the 16th century on, Turkmen raiders on horseback preyed on
passing caravans, pillaging and taking prisoners for the slave
trade. In order to consolidate the Tsarist Empire in Central Asia,
and upon the pretext of freeing Russian citizens from slavery,
Russia sent forces to Turkmenistan, and in 1881 fighting climaxed
with the massacre of 7,000 Turkmen at the desert fortress of Gokdepe,
near modern Ashgabat; another 8,000 were killed trying to flee
across the desert. By 1894 imperial Russia had taken control of
Turkmenistan. The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia and
subsequent political unrest led to the declaration of the Turkmen
Republic as one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union in 1924. At
this time the modern borders of Turkmenistan were formed.
The Turkmen Republic was under full control of Moscow, which
exploited its raw material resources for the purposes of the Soviet
Union. Sovereignty was only a formality since Russia ultimately
ruled all Soviet states. Following the end of the Cold War and the
breakup of the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan declared its independence
on October 27, 1991. Saparmyrat Niyazov became the first president
of the new republic and remained the supreme decision-maker,
"president for life," until his death in 2006. |
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