Azerbaijan currently has diplomatic relations with 160 countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the People's Republic of China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Libya, Luxembourg, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Republic of India, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

No seabed boundary with Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea has been agreed upon and the usage of Caspian Sea water is a matter that remains unsettled by international agreement.

* Turkmenistan has an embassy in Astana.

As in the Soviet era, Kyrgyzstan has the right to 25 % of the water that originates in its territory, but the new agreement allows Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan unlimited use of the water that flows into them from Kyrgyzstan, with no compensation for the nation at the source.

Independence came in 1991, as Saparmurat Niyazov, a former local communist party boss, declared himself absolute ruler for life as Turkmenbashi or Leader of the Turkmen and transitioned the newly independent Turkmenistan into an authoritarian state under his absolute control and has thus far resisted the democratization that has influenced many of the other former Soviet Republics.

The territory of Turkmenistan has been populated since ancient times, especially the areas near oasis of Merv, where traces of human settlements have been found.

Turkmenistan has a cold desert climate that is severely continental.

Like other CIS republics, Turkmenistan has established an Environmental Fund based on revenues collected from environmental fines, but the fines generally are too low to accumulate significant revenue.

According to estimates, as a result of desertification processes and pollution, biological productivity of the ecological systems in Turkmenistan has declined by 30 % to 50 % in recent decades.

The type of desertification caused by year-round pasturing of cattle has been termed the most devastating in Central Asia, with the gravest situations in Turkmenistan and the Kazakh steppe along the eastern and northern coasts of the Caspian Sea.

Turkmenistan has announced plans to clean up some of the Aral Sea fallout with financial support from the World Bank.

Turkmenistan has a single-party system, but has, according to the government, begun a transition towards a multi-party system.

His book, Ruhnama ( or Rukhnama ), which is revered in Turkmenistan almost like a holy text, has been translated into 32 languages and distributed for free among major international libraries.

In the post-Soviet era, Turkmenistan ’ s industrial sector has been dominated increasingly by the fuel and cotton processing industries to the detriment of light industry.

The Tejen – Serakhs – Mashhad railroad, built in 1996 by Turkmenistan and Iran, has become a vital link of Central Asian, Russian, and European railroad systems with South Asia and the Persian Gulf.

Turkmenistan has one of the lowest gas prices in the world, at $ 0. 72 per gallon ($ 0. 19 per liter ).

Although the Government of Turkmenistan claims to favour trade with and export to the United States and Turkey, it has significant commercial relationships with Russia and Iran and a growing cross-border trade with Afghanistan.

Turkmenistan has no common land or Caspian Sea border with Russia.

Turkmenistan is a partner country of the EU INOGATE energy programme, which has four key topics: enhancing energy security,

Turkmenistan has the fourth largest gas reserves and has been actively on the lookout to build transportation routes to large markets and the route through Afghanistan has been the most feasible and economical.

The country with the least degree of press freedom was Eritrea, followed by North Korea, Turkmenistan, Syria, Iran, and China.

According to Reporters Without Borders ' 2006 World Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan had the 3rd worst press freedom conditions in the world, behind North Korea and Burma.

Note: Broad-gauge track is employed at the borders with Azerbaijan Republic and Turkmenistan which have broad gauge rail systems ; 41 km of the standard gauge, electrified track is in suburban service at Tehran ( 2007 ).

It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and the east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.

These include: Albania, Afghanistan Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chad, Chile, the People's Republic of China, Côte d ' Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, DR Congo, Egypt, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Holy See ( Vatican City ), Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Order of Malta, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Uruguay, and Vietnam.

Afghan Turkestan is a region in northern Afghanistan, on the border with the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Following evacuation in 1941 during the Great Patriotic War ( World War II ), he graduated in Aşgabat, in today's Turkmenistan.

From 1902 to 1904, in addition to the building of the Shrine of the Báb that ` Abdu ' l-Bahá was directing, he started to put into execution two different projects ; the restoration of the House of the Báb in Shiraz, Iran and the construction of the first Bahá ' í House of Worship in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

The Durrani Empire encompassed present-day Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, eastern Turkmenistan ( around the Panjdeh oasis ), the Kashmir region, the modern state of Pakistan and northwestern India.

In West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean early copper zinc alloys are now known in small numbers from a number of third Millennium BC sites in the Aegean, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kalmykia, Turkmenistan and Georgia and from 2nd Millennium BC sites in West India, Uzbekistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq and Israel.

Of the 193 member states of the United Nations, only 17 are not party to the treaty: Andorra, Angola, Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( North Korea ), Federated States of Micronesia, Haiti, Iraq, Kiribati, Lebanon, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Nauru, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan and Tuvalu.

16. 6 million ), Kyrgyzstan ( 5. 5 million ), Tajikistan ( 7. 6 million ), Turkmenistan ( 5. 1 million ), and Uzbekistan ( 29. 5 million ), for a total population of 64. 7 million as of 2012.

The most limited definition was the official one of the Soviet Union, which defined Middle Asia as consisting solely of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Commonwealth of Independent States ( CIS ) is a loose alliance or confederation consisting of 10 of the 15 former Soviet Republics, the exceptions being Turkmenistan ( a CIS associate member ), Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Georgia.

* In Turkmenistan, the local party apparatus led by Saparmurat Niyazov was renamed the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan and abandoned communist ideology.

According to Parpola, ceramic similarities between the Indus Civilization, southern Turkmenistan, and northern Iran during 4300 – 3300 BC of the Chalcolithic period ( Copper Age ) suggest considerable mobility and trade.

* 2006 – Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan ( b. 1940 )

Since the collapse of the Taliban government in 2001, new trade relations are emerging with the United States, Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, the EU, Japan, Uzbekistan, India and other countries.

* 1940 – Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan ( d. 2006 )

Figures from the CIA World Factbook show the main export markets in 2006 were United Kingdom 30. 8 %, Spain 22. 7 %, Germany 13. 7 %, Turkmenistan 10. 4 %, Switzerland 8. 3 %, Italy 6. 7 % while the corresponding figures for imports are Spain 23. 4 %, Russia 12. 3 %, Italy 12 %, UK 9 %, France 8. 9 %, Netherlands 6. 8 % and United States 4. 7 %.

On 3 May 2012, the Renault-Nissan alliance has signed letter of intent to raise its stake in Avtovaz to a majority by taking a majority share of 67. 13 % of a joint venture with the Russian state-controlled company, Russian Technologies, to own 74. 5 % of Avtovaz.

Television broadcast stations: only one state-controlled propaganda station ZBC, as government has shut down and refuses to issue licenses to domestic independent broadcasters such as JoyTV in 2002

Some science and technology mega-projects has been seen as questionable trophy projects done for propaganda purposes with Chinese state-controlled media being filled with reports of Chinese achievements.

The use of this term has persisted since then in Egyptian newspapers, the state-controlled press of Syria, Lebanon's Al-Manar, and the Jordanian media.

Since its opening in April 2005, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum has ranked as America's most visited state-controlled presidential museum.

Since that time, the Confederation has developed into a country with a strong sense of national identity, and a society which is highly state-controlled.

In Asia, television has traditionally been state-controlled, although the number of private stations is increasing, as is competition from satellite and cable television.

Similarly in the Middle East, television has been heavily state-controlled, with considerable censorship of both news coverage and entertainment, particularly that imported from the West.

While Beijing has halted most of the anti-Taiwan stories in state-controlled media, it has continued preparations for a possible invasion of Taiwan.