A Little information about Turkmenistan (english)

A Little information about Turkmenistan An Essay By Mekan Melyayev English Composition 121 January 30, 2002 What is the first thought that comes toyour mind when you hear the word Turkmenistan? Is it Gee, I don t evenknow where it is ? Or if you knowthe location do you have questions? Does your country harbor terrorists? Does you country have roads? Are all women covered in your country? Does your country chop off peoples hands forrobbery? The history of Turkmenistanindicates that the Turkmens were nomadic people who lived on their own, nevertrying to conquer any land. In the 8th century Turkmens were forced to acceptIslam by the Arabs. The Muslim influence lasted till the late 18thcentury.

In the early 19th centuryRussians invaded the Turkmen lands, and Turkmens were forced to join the Unionof Soviet Socialistic Republics.Then in 1925 Turkmens formed the Republic ofTurkmenistan. It is bordered on the south by Afghanistanand Iran, on the north by Kazakhstan, on the northeast by Uzbekistan, and onthe West by the Caspian Sea. At presentit is an independent and neutral country.

It has a population of less than 5million, and a land size slightly large than California. It is oil rich countrywith about 100 trillion cubic meters of oil reserves, and it s a 10th largestcotton producer in the world. During my stay in Colorado, I ve noticed thatvery few people know about my country.I ve witnessed quite often that about people I talk to havemisconceptions about Turkmenistan.

Probably about 80 of the people I ve talked to have some kind ofmisconception. The most commonmisconception they have is viewing Turkmenistan as a Muslim state. Whenever I tell them about the location ofTurkmenistan, they start thinking of a Muslim ruled state a state that doesn tallow women to dress openly, that chops off peoples hands for robbery.There are many questions they might want toask of a person representing an uncivilized Muslim state.

But Turkmenistan is completelydifferent from what most people think. Even though Turkmens were forced to receive Islam as their primaryreligion, they didn t fight for Islam. The respected elders of the Turkmen community tried to inspire people todefend their country, rather than defend their religion. In their poems they talked about Heaven assomething that no one has seen, or been inside, and that they would rather stayon earth instead of going to Heaven.Another example of this could be a Turkmenmythical story, almost like of venerable Bede s Beowulf . But unlike Bede s writing in which hedescribes monster Grendel as something God has sent, the Turkmen story called Gorogly son of the grave has no mention of a God who is in chargeof everything that is happening on earth.

It does have some creatures like dragons and monsters with one eye. The main point of the story is not to inspirepeople to believe in God, but to awaken their patriotic feelings.On the other hand I would be wrong to sayTurkmenistan doesn t interact with its neighbors.

We have 125 diplomaticmissions abroad including 2 consulates in Afghanistan. We import gas andelectricity to Iran and Afghanistan. Allthese relationships are based on mutual economic benefits only. Turkmenistanreceives some help in training of its military personnel from Pakistan. TheUnited Nations allows this type of basic training for a neutral country.Thetraining is meant only for defense of a country, not an attack or spying on anycountry.

Another misconception, mainly held bypeople with a higher level of awareness about current events in the area, isthat Turkmenistan doesn t allow the U.S. military to use its air space orterritory for retaliation against Afghanistan, even though Turkmenistan wouldbe the second best place to carry out U.S. attacks, after Pakistan.The rulesset by United Nations on neutrality status don t allow Turkmenistan s territoryto be used for military actions.

It canonly be used for humanitarian aid. Turkmenistan is allowing humanitarian aid to pass through its territory,it is allowing airplanes of humanitarian aid to land and take off from itsairport. Another misconception that I have ahard time explaining is that Turkmenistan is not Russia, even though it used tobe part of the Soviet Union for 70 years.When I tell people that Turkmenistanwas part of the Soviet Union, they still think of Turkmenistan as Russia, andtherefore I am usually asked a questions that they would ask a nativeRussian.

Does your country havenuclear bombs? Why were you guys making nuclear weapons against the UnitedStates? Were your parents Communists? I have to explain that Turkmenistan doesn thave any nuclear weapons because Russia reclaimed all of its nuclear weaponsafter the collapse of the Soviet Union. In answer to the question of whether my parents were communists or not,I just say that the all people in the Soviet Union were communist, and citizensof that country had no other choice but to be one. People were prosecuted forhaving different ideas or beliefs about the government during the Soviet era.Of course the Soviet Union made nuclear weapons against United States, becausethe United States built the same weapons against the Soviet Union. Was the United States the biggest enemy ofthe Soviet Union, or was it the other way around? Or was it both ways at once? In the Cold War, the KGB of the SovietUnion and the CIA of the United States both spied on each other, andunfortunately the practice is still continuing.

But this time the practice is just between Russia and the UnitedStates.

As a neutral countryTurkmenistan is not involved in it. TheUnited Nations knows all the military power Turkmenistan has. It would be naive to believe that neither theUnited States nor Russia have spies in Turkmenistan, but it seems to me veryunlikely that Turkmenistan has spies in the United States.Of course that is only my own opinion, basedlargely on the fact that I m not a spy myself.

Only a few people have asked me whether I am, but sometimes I thinkmore people wonder about it. Turkmenistan is a country with an annualgrowth of 9 in the Gross Domestic Product over the past 10 years. EconomicallyTurkmenistan still relies heavily on Russia because of the industry of gasexportation.The only gas pipelines that were built during the Soviet erapassed through Russia, and Turkmenistan has to rely only on those pipelinesnow.

But if the war finishes in Afghanistan, a new pipeline will be builtthrough Afghanistan to Europe. Thispipeline would be the most beneficial for Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan is still not fully awakenedfrom the Soviet Laws and regulations. The country doesn t have a completedemocracy, but Turkmenistan has just starting growing, and democracy comes withtime.With the ongoing war in that region now, Ihope this piece of information helps to better understand the stance ofTurkmenistan.

As for explaining what itis like to be a member of the tiny subculture of Turkmen students in the UnitedStates, the best explanation I can give is that it would be handy for me tocarry a copy of this essay with me daily.