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.

Turkmenistan has a state-controlled press and monitored communication systems.

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 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.

On 28 December 1999, Niyazov was declared President for Life of Turkmenistan by the Mejlis ( parliament ), which itself had taken office only a week earlier in elections that included only candidates hand-picked by President Niyazov ; no opposition candidates were allowed.

Air travel within Turkmenistan on the national carrier, Turkmenistan Airlines, is often claimed to be unreliable, but there have been no reported accidents.

no: Jernbane i Turkmenistan

Landlocked Afghanistan has no seaports but the Amu Darya river, which forms part of the nation's border with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, does have barge traffic.

Also, no visa has been required for citizens of Russia, and other CIS countries ( except Turkmenistan ).

From 1985 it was led by Saparmurat Niyazov, who in 1991 renamed the party to the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, which is no longer a communist party.

" The U. N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, appealed to the government of Turkmenistan in June 2003 and again in 2005 for an invitation to visit the country, but received no response.

no: Kategori: Turkmenistan

no: Turkmenistan under Sommer-OL 2004

Other claim, its parts was used to build the mast of Raszyn radio transmitter in Poland, however there is no proof for this, while others say, it was rebuilt in Turkmenistan or not rebuilt at all.

no: Kategori: Elver i Turkmenistan

no: Kategori: Språk i Turkmenistan

no: Kategori: Turkmenistan under de olympiske leker

no: Kategori: Innsjøer i Turkmenistan

It is also common in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Pirozhki are common as fast food on the streets of the Central Asian countries in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, where they were introduced by the Russians.

Arbitrary arrests and mistreatment of detained persons are common in Turkmenistan, as is torture to obtain confessions.

It is unknown who took him captive, yet such events were common in 18th century Iran and Turkmenistan.

In the early 1970s, the first section of a major irrigation project was completed to divert water from the Amu Darya River in Turkmenistan eastward into Uzbekistan in order to irrigate the land surrounding Qarshi.

The country borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan to the south ; Russia to the north ; Russia and the Caspian Sea to the west ; and China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the east.

Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea to the west, Iran and Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the north-east, and Kazakhstan to the north-west.

Note: Turkmenistan borders the Caspian Sea.

Azerbaijan has direct maritime connections only with other Caspian littoral states ( Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan ).

* The Caspian Sea borders between Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan are not yet determined, although this problem is set to be resolved peacefully in the coming years through slow negotiations.

Although modern Gorgan is only a city and county ( sharing the same name ), ancient Hyrcania was the name of a greater region on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea ( encompassing all of the present day Golestan province, as well as some eastern parts of the Mazandaran province, and some southern parts of the present day Republic of Turkmenistan ).

Covering much of present day Turkmenistan, the Karakum Desert lies east of the Caspian Sea, with the Aral Sea to the north and the Amu Darya river and the Kyzyl Kum desert to the northeast.

In 1869 the Russian Empire established a foothold in present-day Turkmenistan with the foundation of the Caspian Sea port of Krasnovodsk ( now Turkmenbashy ).

Hyrcania was the name of a satrapy located in the territories of the present day Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan provinces of Iran and part of Turkmenistan, lands south of the Caspian Sea.

In places like Turkmenistan and the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea one still encounters this name, such as the Balkan Peninsula and the Balkan Province in Turkmenistan.

The pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India.

* It has been proposed by Iran that the Caspian Sea be a pentadominium of Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan ( its five littoral states ), but it is not in fact.

Off its Caspian shores the Balkan Province includes the island of Ogurja Ada, the most important island in Turkmenistan and one of the largest in the Caspian Sea.

The main route starts in Helsinki, Finland, and continues through Russia to the Caspian Sea, where it splits into three routes: a western route through Azerbaijan, Armenia, and western Iran ; a central route across the Caspian Sea to Iran via ferry ; and an eastern route through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to eastern Iran.

* January 10 – Last confirmed specimen of a Caspian Tiger is killed, in the valley of the Sumbar River in the Kopet Dag Mountains of Turkmenistan.

Türkmenbaşy ( also spelled Turkmenbashi ), formerly known as Krasnovodsk () and, more properly, Kyzyl-Su, is a city in Balkan Province in Turkmenistan, on the Krasnovodsk Gulf of the Caspian Sea.

The rarest and costliest is from beluga sturgeon that swim in the Caspian Sea, which is bordered by Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

It is found primarily in the Caspian Sea, the world ’ s largest salt-water lake, which is bordered by Iran and the CIS countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan.