The
Turkmen (
Türkmen or
Түркмен, plural
Türkmenler or
Түркменлер) are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
,
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, northern Iraq and in northeastern
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. They speak the
Turkmen languageTurkmen is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,000,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 380,000 in northwestern Afghanistan and 500,000 in northeastern Iran.- Classification, related languages and dialects :Turkmen is in the...
(though the
Yörük TurkmensThe Yörük, also Yürük or Yuruk , are a Turkish people ultimately of Oghuz descent, some of whom are still nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia and partly Balkan peninsula...
in
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
and the Balkan peninsula use the
Turkish languageTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
) which is classified as a part of the Western
OghuzThe Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family, are spoken by more than 110 million people in an area spanning from the Balkans to China.Oghuz in old Turkic means thirty, in terms of the thirty tribes.-Linguistic Features:...
branch of the
Turkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
family; together with
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
,
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
,
QashqaiQashqai is a Turkic language spoken by the Qashqai, an ethnic group living mainly in the Fars region of Iran. Estimates of the number of Qashqai speakers vary, Ethnologue gives a figure of one and a half million...
,
GagauzThe Gagauz language is a Turkic language, spoken by the Gagauz people, and the official language of Gagauzia, Republic of Moldova. It is spoken by approximately 150,000 people. There are two dialects, Bulgar Gagauzi and Maritime Gagauzi. This is a different language from Balkan Gagauz Turkish...
and
SalarSalar is a Turkic language spoken by the Salar people, who mainly live in the provinces of Qinghai and Gansu in China; some also live in Ghulja, Xinjiang...
.
Origins
Originally, all Turkic tribes that were not part of the Turkic dynastic mythological system (for example, Uigurs, Karluks, Kalaches and a number of other tribes) were designated
"Turkmens". Only later did this word come to refer to a specific ethnonym. The etymology of the term derives from
Türk plus the Sogdian affix of similarity
-myn ,-men, and means "resembling a Türk" or "co-Türk" . A prominent Turkic scholar
Mahmud KashgariMahmud ibn Hussayn ibn Muhammad al-Kashgari was an 11th century Turkic scholar and lexicographer of Turkic languages from Kashgar....
also mentions the etymology
Türk manand (like Turks). The language and ethnicity of the Turkmen were much influenced by their migration to the west. Kashgari calls the Karluks Turkmen as well, but the first time the etymology Turkmen was used was by Makdisi in the second half of the 10th-century AD. Like Kashgari, he wrote that the Karluks and Oghuz Turks were called Turkmen. Modern scholars agree that the element
-man/-men acts as an intensifier, and have translated the word as "pure Turk" or "most Turk-like of the Turks" . Among Muslim chroniclers such as
Ibn KathirIsmail ibn Kathir was an Islamic scholar and renowned commentator on the Qur'an.-Biography:His full name is Abu Al-Fida, 'Imad Ad-Din Isma'il bin 'Umar bin Kathir Al-Qurashi Al-Busrawi. He was born in 1301 in Busra, Syria . He was taught by Ibn Taymiyya in Damascus, Syria and Abu al-Hajjaj...
the etymology was attributed to the mass conversion of two hundred thousand households in AH 349 (971 CE), causing them to be named
Turk Iman, which is a combination of "Turk" and "Iman" إيمان (faith, belief), meaning "believing Turks", with the term later dropping the hard-to-pronounce
hamzaHamza is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters, and owes its existence to historical orthographical inconsistencies in early Islamic times...
.
Historically, all of the Western or
Oghuz TurksThe Oghuz were a group of Turkic peoples. In the ninth century the Oghuz Turks from the Aral steppes drove the Pecheneg Turks of the Emba region and the River Ural toward the west...
have been called
Türkmen or derisive
Turkoman; however, today the terms are usually restricted to two Turkic groups: the Turkmen people of
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
and adjacent parts of
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
, and the Turkomans of Iraq and Syria.
During the Ottoman period these nomads were known by the names of Türkmen and
YörükThe Yörük, also Yürük or Yuruk , are a Turkish people ultimately of Oghuz descent, some of whom are still nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia and partly Balkan peninsula...
or Yürük (Türkic
"Nomad", other phonetic variations include
Iirk, Iyierk, Hiirk, Hirkan, Hircanae, Hyrkan, Hyrcanae, the last four known from the Greek annals) . These names were generally used to describe their nomadic way of life, rather than their ethnic origin. However, these terms were often used interchangeably by foreigners. At the same time, various other exoethnonym words were used for these nomads, such as 'Konar-göçer', 'Göçebe', 'Göçer-yörük',
'Göçerler', and 'Göçer-evliler'. The most common one among these was 'Konar-göçer' - nomadic Turcoman Turks. All of these words are found in Ottoman archival documents and carry only the meaning of 'nomad'.
The modern Turkmen people descend, at least in part, from the
Oghuz TurksThe Oghuz were a group of Turkic peoples. In the ninth century the Oghuz Turks from the Aral steppes drove the Pecheneg Turks of the Emba region and the River Ural toward the west...
of
TransoxianaTransoxiana is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it means the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers...
, the western portion of
TurkestanTurkestan, spelled also as Turkistan and Turkharistan is a region in Central Asia, which today is largely inhabited by Turkic peoples. It has been referenced in many Turkic and Persian sagas and is an integral part of Turan...
, a region that largely corresponds to much of Central Asia as far east as
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
. Oghuz tribes had moved westward from the
Altay mountainsThe Altai Mountains are a mountain range in central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their sources. The Altai Mountains are known as the Turkic peoples' birthplace...
in the 7th-century CE, through the Siberian steppes, and settled in this region. They also penetrated as far west as the Volga basin and the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. These early Turkmens are believed to have mixed with native Sogdian peoples and lived as pastoral nomads until the Russian conquest of the 19th-century..
History
| Major Ethnic Groups of Iran |
|
|
Signs of advanced settlements have been found throughout Turkmenistan including the
Djeitun settlement where
neolithicThe Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age...
buildings have been excavated and dated to the 7th millennium BCE. By 2000 BCE, various
Ancient Iranian peoplesAncient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. They remain dominant throughout Classical Antiquity in Scythia and Persia.-Origins:...
began to settle throughout the region as indicated by the finds at the
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological ComplexThe Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia, dated to ca. 2200–1700 BC, located in present day Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centered on the upper Amu Darya...
. Notable early tribes included the nomadic Massagatae and Scythians. The Achaemenid Empire annexed the area by the 4th century BCE and then lost control of the region following the invasion of
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
, whose Hellenistic influence had an impact upon the area and some remnants have survived in the form of a planned city which was discovered following excavations at Antiocheia (
MervMerv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan...
). The
ParniThe Parni were an "east Iranian people" of the Ochos/Ochus River valley, south-east of the Caspian Sea...
invaded the region as the
Parthian EmpireThe Parthian Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in the ancient Near East, and a counterweight to the Roman Empire in the region....
was established until it too fractured as a result of tribal invasions stemming from the north. Ephthalites,
HunsThe Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, migrated into Europe c.AD 370 and built up an enormous empire in Europe. They were possibly the descendants of the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of China three hundred years before and may be the first...
, and
GöktürksThe Göktürks were a powerful nomadic confederation of medieval Inner Asia. Known in Chinese sources as 突厥 , the Göktürks under the leadership of Bumin Khan The Göktürks (Old Turkic: Celestial Turks or "Blue Turks") were a powerful nomadic confederation of medieval Inner Asia. Known in Chinese...
came in a long parade of invasions. Finally, the Sassanid Empire based in Persia ruled the area prior to the coming of the
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s during the Umayyad Caliphate by 716 CE. The majority of the inhabitants were converted to
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
as the region grew in prominence. Next came the
Oghuz TurksThe Oghuz were a group of Turkic peoples. In the ninth century the Oghuz Turks from the Aral steppes drove the Pecheneg Turks of the Emba region and the River Ural toward the west...
, who imparted their language upon the local population. A tribe of the Oghuz, the Seljuks, established a
Turko-IranianTurko-Iranian can refer to:* The various Turkic and Iranian hybrid traits pertaining to culture, dynasties as well population genetics of various peoples in Central Asia, as well as parts of West Asia and South Asia...
culture that culminated in the Khwarezmid Empire by the 12th century. Mongol hordes led by
Genghis KhanGenghis Khan , ; 1162–1227), born , was the founder, Khan and Khagan of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history....
conquered the area between 1219 to 1221 and devastated many of the cities which led to a rapid decline of the remaining Iranian urban population.
The Turkmen largely survived the Mongol period due to their semi-nomadic life-style and became traders along the
CaspianThe Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres...
, which led to contacts with
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. Following the decline of the Mongols, Tamerlane conquered the area and his Timurid Empire would rule, until it too fractured, as the Safavids,
UzbeksThe Uzbeks are a Turkic-speaking people in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
, and
Khanate of KhivaThe Khanate of Khiva was the name of a Central Asian state that existed in the historical region of Khwarezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Persian occupation by Nadir Shah between 1740–1746. It was ruled over by the Kungrads, a branch of the Astrakhans, themselves a Genghisid dynasty,...
all contested the area. The expanding
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
took notice of
Turkmenistan's extensive cotton industryTurkmenistan is largely desert country with nomadic cattle raising, intensive agriculture in irrigated oases, and huge gas and oil resources. One-half of its irrigated land is planted in cotton, placing the country in the top 10-15 producers . It also possesses the world's fifth largest reserves of...
, during the reign of Peter the Great, and invaded the area. Following the decisive
Battle of Geok-TepeGeok Tepe, Gökdepe or Gokdepe, is a former fortress of the Turkmens, in Turkmenistan, in the oasis of Ahal, on the Transcaspian railway, 28 miles north-west of Ashgabat....
in January 1881, Turkmenistan became a part of the Russian Empire. After the
Russian RevolutionThe Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the first revolution of February 1917 the Czar was deposed and replaced by a Provisional government...
, Soviet control was established by 1921 as Turkmenistan was transformed from a medieval Islamic region to a largely secularized republic within a totalitarian state. By 1991, with the
fall of the Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union's collapse into independent nations began early in 1985. After years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth was at a standstill. Failed attempts at reform, a stagnant economy, and war in Afghanistan led to a general feeling of...
, Turkmenistan achieved independence as well, but remained dominated by a one-party system of government led by the authoritarian regime of President
Saparmurat NiyazovSaparmyrat Ataýewiç Nyýazow was a Turkmen politician who served as President of Turkmenistan from 2 November 1990 until his death in 2006...
until his death in December 2006.
Language
Turkmen (Latin: Türkmen, Cyrillic:
Түркмен) is the name of the language of the titular nation of
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
. It is spoken by over 3,600,000 people in
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
, and by roughly 3,000,000 people in other countries, including
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
,
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, and Russia. Up to 50% of native speakers in Turkmenistan also claim a good knowledge of
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
, a legacy of the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
.
Turkmen is not a literary language in Iran and Afghanistan, where many Turkmen tend towards bilingualism, usually conversant in the local dialects of
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
. Variations of the
Perso-Arabic scriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
are, however, used in Iran.
Genetic evidence
Genetic studies on
Mitochondrial DNAMitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within cells that convert the energy from food into a form that cells can use...
(mtDNA) restriction polymorphism confirmed that Turkmen were characterized by the presence of European mtDNA lineages, similar to the Eastern Iranian populations, but strong northern Mongoloid genetic component observed in Turkmens and Eastern Iranian populations with the frequencies of about 20%.. Phenotype diversity can be discerned amongst the Turkmen, who exhibit full continuum between northern Mongoloid and Mediterranean Caucasoid physical types. This most likely indicates an ancestral combination of
IranianThe Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly on the Iranian plateau and beyond in central, southern, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. As a group of people, they are predominantly defined along linguistic lines as speaking the Iranian...
groups and
Turco-Mongolthumb|[[Tamerlane]]thumb|[[Babur]] founder of the [[Mughal Empire]] in [[India]] Turco-Mongols or Turko-Mongols are mainly the descendants of those Turks who were ruled over by the Mongols. Speaking mostly in Turkic they derived their ethnic and cultural origins from both groups...
that the modern Turkmen have inherited and which appears to correspond to the historical record which indicates that various Iranian tribes existed in the region prior to the migration of Turkic tribes who are believed to have merged with the local population and imparted their language and created something of a hybrid
Turko-IranianTurko-Iranian can refer to:* The various Turkic and Iranian hybrid traits pertaining to culture, dynasties as well population genetics of various peoples in Central Asia, as well as parts of West Asia and South Asia...
culture.
Nomadic heritage
The Turkmen were mainly a nomadic people for most of their history and they were not settled in cities and towns until the advent of the Soviet system of government, which severely restricted freedom of movement and collectivized nomadic herdsmen by the 1930s. Many pre-Soviet cultural traits have survived in Turkmen society however and have recently undergone a kind of revival.
Turkmen lifestyle was heavily invested in horsemanship and as a prominent horse culture, Turkmen horse-breeding was an ages old tradition. In spite of changes prompted by the Soviet period, a tribe in southern Turkmenistan has remained very well known for their horses, the
Akhal-TekeThe Akhal-Teke, 'Ahalteke' in the Turkmen language, is a breed of horse from Turkmenistan, where they are a national emblem. They are noted for their speed and for endurance on long marches. These "golden-horses" are adapted to severe climatic conditions and are thought to be one of the oldest...
desert horse - and the horse breeding tradition has returned to its previous prominence in recent years.
Many tribal customs still survive among modern Turkmen. Unique to Turkmen culture is
kalim which is a groom's "
dowryA dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage. Compare bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both dowry...
", that can be quite expensive and often results in the widely practiced tradition of
bridal kidnappingBride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice throughout history and around the world in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry...
. In something of a modern parallel, President Saparmurat Niyazov introduced a state enforced "
kalim", wherein all foreigners are required to pay a sum of no less than $50,000 to marry a Turkmen woman.
Other customs include the consultation of tribal elders, whose advice is often eagerly sought and respected. Many Turkmen still live in extended families where various generations can be found under the same roof, especially in rural areas.
The music of the nomadic and rural Turkmen people reflects rich oral traditions, where epics such as Koroglu are usually sung by itinerant bards. These itinerant singers are called
bakshyThe bakshy are traditional Turkmen musicians. Historically they have been traveling singers and shamans, acting as healers and spiritual figures, and also providing the music for celebrations of weddings, births and other important life events...
; they also act as healers and magicians and sing either a cappella or with instruments such as the two-stringed
luteLute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
called
dutarThe dutar is a traditional long-necked two-stringed lute found in Central Asia and South Asia. Its name comes from the Persian word for "two strings", dotar , although the Herati dutar of Afghanistan has 14 strings...
.
Society today
Since Turkmenistan's independence in 1991, a cultural revival has taken place with the return of a moderate form of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
and celebration of Novruz (an
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
ian tradition) or New Year's Day.
Turkmen can be divided into various social classes including the urban intelligentsia and workers whose role in society is different from that of the rural peasantry. Secularism and
atheismAtheism can be either the rejection of theism,or the position that deities do not exist.In the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities....
remain prominent for many Turkmen intellectuals who favor moderate social changes and often view extreme religiousity and cultural revival with some measure of distrust.
Self-proclaimed
President for Life Saparmurat NiyazovSaparmyrat Ataýewiç Nyýazow was a Turkmen politician who served as President of Turkmenistan from 2 November 1990 until his death in 2006...
was largely responsible for many of the changes that have taken place in modern Turkmen society. Mimicking the Turkish reformist policies of Atatürk in
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
, Niyazov made nationalism an important element in Turkmenistan, while contacts with Turkmen in neighboring Iran and Afghanistan have increased. Significant changes to the names of the cities as well as calendar reform were introduced by President Niyazov as well. The
calendar reformOn August 10, 2002, the government of Turkmenistan adopted a law to rename all the months and most of the days of week. The names were chosen according to Turkmen national symbols, as described in Ruhnama, a book written by Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan's first president for life.Since the law...
resulted in renaming months and days of the week from
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
or
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an-derived words into purely Turkmen ones, some of them eponymously related to the president or his
familyFamily denotes a group of people or animals affiliated by a consanguinity, affinity or co-residence...
. The policy was reversed in 2008.
The five traditional carpet designs that form motifs in the country's state emblem and flag represent the five major
tribeA tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists hold that...
s or houses. These Turkmen tribes in traditional order are
TekeTeke can refer to several things:*Teke, a peak in Hungary.*Telekinesis as in George R.R. Martin's Nightflyers.*The Teke are a tribe of southern Turkmenistan most famous for their horses, the Akhal-Teke desert horse....
(
TekkeTekke can refer to several things:*The Teke are a tribe of southern Turkmenistan most famous for their horses, the Ahal-Teke desert horse....
),
YomutThe Yomut carpet is a type of carpet traditionally handwoven by the Yomut, one of the major tribes of Turkmenistan. A Yomut design, along with designs of the four other major tribes, is featured on the coat of arms and the flag of Turkmenistan.-See also:...
(Yomud), Arsary (Ersary), Chowdur (
ChoudurThe Choudur were one of the ten major groups of people that merged after 1920 to form the modern Turkmen Republic. They live primarily around the Khorezm Oasis.-History:...
), and Saryk (Saryq). The Salyr (Salor), a tribe that declined as a result of military defeat before the modern period, are not represented, nor are several smaller tribes or subtribes.
Turkmen in Iran and Afghanistan
Turkmen in Iran and Afghanistan remain very conservative in comparison to their brethren in Turkmenistan. Islam plays a much more prominent role in Iran and Afghanistan where Turkmen follow many traditional Islamic practices that many Turkmen in Turkmenistan have abandoned as a result of decades of Soviet rule. In addition, many Turkmen in Iran and Afghanistan have remained at least semi-nomadic and traditionally work in agriculture/animal husbandry and the production of carpets.
Demographics and population distribution
The Turkmen people of Central Asia live in:
- Turkmenistan
Republic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
, where some 85% of the population of 5,042,920 people (July 2006 est.), are ethnic Turkmen. In addition, an estimated 1,200 Turkmen refugees from northern Afghanistan currently reside in Turkmenistan due to the ravages of the Soviet war in AfghanistanThe Soviet War in Afghanistan, also known as the Soviet–Afghan War, was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan at their own request, against the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance...
and factional fighting in Afghanistan which saw the rise and fall of the Taliban.
- Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, where over 1 million Turkmen are primarily concentrated in the provincesIran is subdivided into thirty provinces , each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital of that province...
of GolestānGolestān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran, located in the north-east of the country, south of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is Gorgan.Golestān was split off from the province of Mazandaran in 1997. It has a population of 1.7 million and an area of 20,380 km²...
and North KhorasanNorth Khorasan is a province located in northeastern Iran. Bojnourd is the centre of the province.Other counties are Shirvan, Esfarayen, Maneh-o-Samalqan , Jajarm , Faroj and Germeh....
. There is a noticeably large Turkmen community in the ciy of MashhadMashhad is one of the largest cities in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia world. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan...
.
- Afghanistan
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, where, as of 2006, over 900,000 are ethnic Turkmen and are largely concentrated primarily along the Turkmen-Afghan border in the provinces of FaryabFāryāb is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the north of the country. Its capital is Maymana. The majority of the population is Uzbek.-History:...
, JowzjanJowzjān or Jōzjān is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the north of the country. Its capital is Sheberghan.- Demographics :...
, and BaghlanBaghlan is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the north of the country. Its capital is Puli Khumri, but its name comes from the other major town in the province, Baghlan...
. There are smaller communities in BalkhBalkh is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the north of the country and its name derives from the ancient city of Balkh, near the modern town. Its capital is Mazar-e Sharif. Tajiks make up the majority of the province. The current governor of Balkh is Ustad Atta Mohammed Noor...
and Kunduz ProvinceKunduz is one of the provinces of Afghanistan, centered on the city of Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, with an area of 8,040 km square, and a population of about 820,000. Eng. Mohammad Omar is currently governor of Kunduz Province....
s.
- Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
As of 2005, as per official Pakistani census and UN estimates, there remain approximately 60,000 Turkmen refugees in PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, largely in the North-West Frontier ProvinceThe North-West Frontier Province is the smallest of the four provinces of Pakistan...
, BalochistanBalochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by geographical area, constituting approximately 48% of the total area of Pakistan. At the 1998 census, Balochistan had a population of roughly 6.5 million. Its neighbouring regions are Iran to the west, Afghanistan and the North West Frontier...
and in the country's urban centres of LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Historically the main city of the undivided Punjab, it is often called the Garden of Mughals because of its rich Mughal heritage...
, IslamabadIslām ābād is the capital of Pakistan, and is the tenth largest city in Pakistan with an estimated population of over 673,766 in 2009...
and Karachiis the largest city, main seaport and the financial capital of Pakistan, and the capital of the province of Sindh. It is the 3rd largest city in the world by population and 20th largest city of the world, in terms of metropolitan population. It is Pakistan's premier centre of banking, industry, and...
. The actual numbers could be up to 250,000 as many have avoided being counted for fear of being deported and have intermixed into Pakistan's cosmopolitan social dynamic. A few hundred Turkmen and Kyrgyz refugee families living in Pakistan were given asylum in Turkey in the 1980s.
There are also scattered communities of Turkmens in Russian province of
StavropolStavropol is a city located in south-western Russia and is the administrative center of Stavropol Krai. Population: 355,900 ; -History:...
and elsewhere in the
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
, descending from the tribes who emigrated from
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
in 18th century and call themselves "
TrukhmensThe Trukhmens are an ethnic group of Turkmens that mostly live in Stavropol Krai of Russia.- External links :*...
".
Age structure: 0–14 years: 35.7% (male 909,113; female 860,128),15–64 years: 60.2% (male 1,462,198; female 1,516,836),65 years and over: 4.1% (male 78,119; female 125,687) (2005 est.)
Population growth rate is 1.82% (2005 est.)