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

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

The last living person to be officially proclaimed president for life was Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan.

Modern Turkmenistan was radically transformed by the invasion of the Russian Empire, which conquered the region in the late 19th century.

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.

Turkmenistan was until recently a single-party state wherein only the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan ( Türkmenistanyň Demokratik partiýasynyň ) was legally allowed to contest elections.

Since all opposition was banned within Turkmenistan, it was forced to form and operate from abroad.

During the Soviet era gas was exported mainly to other Soviet republics, as Turkmenistan steadily increased delivery from about 9. 2 million m³ in 1940 to about 234 million m³ in 1960 and about 51 billion m³ in 1975.

In 2006 Turkmenistan had eight merchant marine vessels of more than 1, 000 tons displacement, of which four were cargo ships, two were oil tankers, one was for refrigerated cargo, and one was a combination ore and oil ship.

Iran was the first nation to recognize Turkmenistan as an independent nation.

* Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognise the independence of Turkmenistan in December 1991.

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.

Bactria was the Greek name for Old Persian Bāxtriš ( from native * Bāxçiš ) ( named for its capital Bactra, modern Balkh ), in what is now northern Afghanistan, and Margiana was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, the capital of which was Merv, in today's Turkmenistan.

Buddhism was spread among the Turkic people during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE into modern-day Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan, eastern and coastal Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

The countries receiving a score of 7, indicating those where religious freedom was least respected, were Turkmenistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Myanmar and North Korea.

* Turkmenistan-same gauge ( former Soviet Union railway system ) ( No direct link, passing through Uzbekistan, but proposed railway will pass throgh Turkmenistan and link Kazakhstan to Iran )

While the ancient history of Turkmenistan is largely shrouded in mystery, its past since the arrival of Indo-European Iranian tribes around 2000 BC is often the starting point of the area's discernible history.

* lowest point: Akjagaýa Depression ( Sarygamysh Lake ) in north-western Turkmenistan, – 81 m ( the actual water level in Sarygamysh Lake fluctuate widely from – 110 m at its shallowest to – 60 m ).

The extreme points of the Soviet Union were identical, except that the southernmost point of the Soviet Union was Kushka in Turkmenistan, and the extreme elevation was the Communism Peak in Tajikistan, at 7, 495 m.

Kushka in present-day Turkmenistan has been the southernmost point of the Empire since 1885.

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.

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 %.

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.

Fossil-based sulfur deposits from salt domes have until recently been the basis for commercial production in the United States, Poland, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.

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.

President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov, a former bureaucrat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, ruled Turkmenistan from 1985, when he became head of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, until his death in 2006.

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.

Until the end of 1993, Turkmenistan had experienced less economic disruption than other former Soviet states because its economy received a boost from higher prices for oil and gas and a sharp increase in hard currency earnings.

Prior to one month of the beginning of the financial year the President of Turkmenistan submits to the Medjlis of Turkmenistan ( Parliament ) the State budget draft for consideration and adoption

Turkmenistan is a member of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Economic Cooperation Organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Islamic Development Bank, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The rise of India as an economic giant and its increasing energy needs make Turkmenistan and Central Asia energy markets of choice for that country and also China.

In addition, Afghanistan depends on Turkmenistan for meeting a large part of the country's electricity needs.

The bribes also took the form of luxury European vacations, armored Mercedes vehicles for high-ranking government officials and a birthday gift to the then notorious dictator of Turkmenistan, Turkmenbashi ( Saparmurat Niyazov ), including a golden box and 10, 000 copies of his personal manifesto, Ruhnama, translated into German.

He ruled Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and southern Kazakhstan for almost half a century from 1411 to 1449 and occupied the Herat province in Afghanistan for a short time in 1448.

* Central Asia ( since 19th century ) ( Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Xinjiang )-19th Russian officers and soldiers, tradesmen, religious emigrants, 1920-1930s-industrialization, Soviet education program for Central Asia peoples, 1948, 1960-help for Ashgabat and Tashkent ruined by earthquakes-re-emigration in 1980s

Shia Muslims, the other main branch of Islam, are not numerous in Turkmenistan, and the Shia religious practices of the Azerbaijani and Kurdish minorities are not politicized.

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.

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.

Soon afterward, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia extended official recognition to the regime, while Turkmenistan resumed relations – although the Taliban were not officially recognized by Turkmenbashi as the rulers of Afghanistan.

The Kopet Dag Range is a region characterized by foothills, dry and sandy slopes, mountain plateaus, and steep ravines ; Mount Şahşah ( 2, 912 m ), also known as Mount Rizeh, southwest of Ashgabat, is the highest elevation of the Kopet Dag Range in Turkmenistan.

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 is dominated by a pervasive cult of personality extolling the late president as Türkmenbaşy (" Leader of all Turkmen "), a title he assumed in 1993.

Election results: Mejlis – DPT 100 %; seats by party – DPT 50 ; note – all 50 elected officials are members of the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan and are preapproved by President Niyazov.

Foreign policy of Turkmenistan is based on the status of permanent positive neutrality recognized by the UN General Assembly Resolution on Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan on 12 December 1995.

However the price growth continued and by November 1996 the total price level in Turkmenistan had increased tens of thousands times in comparison with December 1991.

In 1993 – 1995 Turkmenistan increased monetary base by 20-28 % monthly ; thus prices reacted by a monthly growth of 25 – 43 %. The cash growth in circulation in 1993 – 1995 constituted 47. 8 %.

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.

These institutions have the same basic division of responsibility as in the Soviet era, overseen by the Central Bank of Turkmenistan.

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.

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