Turkmenistan

 Cheetah status          Country Background

 Geography                 People

 Government               Economy

 Communication         References

Background: Annexed by Russia between 1865 and 1885, Turkmenistan became a Soviet republic in 1924. It achieved its independence upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Extensive hydrocarbon/natural gas reserves could prove a boon to this underdeveloped country if extraction and delivery projects were to be expanded. The Turkmenistan Government is actively seeking to develop alternative petroleum transportation routes in order to break Russia's pipeline monopoly. President for life Saparmurat NIYAZOV died in December 2006 and Turkmenistan held its first multi-candidate presidential electoral process in February 2007. A former NIYAZOV aide, Gurbanguly BERDIMUHAMMEDOV emerged as the country's new president.

Area: total: 488,100 km2

Climate: subtropical desert

Terrain: flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes rising to mountains in the south; low mountains along border with Iran; borders Caspian Sea in west

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, sulfur, salt

Land use: arable land: 4.51%; permanent crops: 0.14%; other: 95.35% (2005)

Irrigated land: 18,000 sq km (2003)

Environment - current issues: Contamination of soil and groundwater with agricultural chemicals, pesticides; salination, water-logging of soil due to poor irrigation methods; Caspian Sea pollution; diversion of a large share of the flow of the Amu Darya into irrigation contributes to that river's inability to replenish the Aral Sea; desertification.

Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note: landlocked; the western and central low-lying, desolate portions of the country make up the great Garagum (Kara-Kum) desert, which occupies over 80% of the country; eastern part is plateau

Population: 5,042,920 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 35.2% (male 913,988/female 863,503), 15-64 years: 60.7% (male 1,501,486/female 1,557,155)
65 years and over: 4.1% (male 79,227/female 127,561) (2006 est.)

Median age: total: 21.8 years, male: 20.9 years, female: 22.7 years
(2006 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.83% (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate: total: 72.56 deaths/1,000 live births, male: 76.9 deaths/1,000 live births, female: 68 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)  

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 61.83 years, male: 58.43 years, female: 65.41 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate: 3.37 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1% (2004 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: less than 200 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths: less than 100 (2003 est.)

Distribution of the human population in Turkmenistan

Ethnic groups: Turkmen 85%, Uzbek 5%, Russian 4%, other 6% (2003)

Religions: Muslim 89%, Eastern Orthodox 9%, unknown 2%

Languages: Turkmen 72%, Russian 12%, Uzbek 9%, other 7%                                                                  

Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write; total population: 98.8%; male: 99.3%; female: 98.3% (1999 est.)

Data Code: TM

Government type: republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little power outside the executive branch

Independence: 27 October 1991 (from the Soviet Union)

 Legal system: based on civil law system

Political pressure groups and leaders: Democratic Party of Turkmenistan or DPT
note: formal opposition parties are outlawed; unofficial, small opposition movements exist underground or in foreign countries; the two most prominent opposition groups-in-exile have been National Democratic Movement of Turkmenistan (NDMT) and the United Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (UDPT); NDMT was led by former Foreign Minister Boris SHIKHMURADOV until his arrest and imprisonment in the wake of the 25 November 2002 assassination attempt on President NIYAZOV; UDPT is led by former Foreign Minister Abdy KULIEV and is based out of Moscow

Economy - overview: Turkmenistan is a largely desert country with intensive agriculture in irrigated oases and large gas and oil resources. One-half of its irrigated land is planted in cotton; formerly it was the world's tenth-largest producer. Poor harvests in recent years have led to an almost 50% decline in cotton exports. With an authoritarian ex-Communist regime in power and a tribally based social structure, Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to economic reform, hoping to use gas and cotton sales to sustain its inefficient economy. Privatization goals remain limited. In 1998-2005, Turkmenistan suffered from the continued lack of adequate export routes for natural gas and from obligations on extensive short-term external debt. At the same time, however, total exports rose by an average of 15% per year in 2003-06, largely because of higher international oil and gas prices. In 2006, Ashgabat raised its natural gas export prices to its main customer, Russia, from $66 per thousand cubic meters (tcm) to $100 per tcm. Overall prospects in the near future are discouraging because of widespread internal poverty, a poor educational system, government misuse of oil and gas revenues, and Ashgabat's unwillingness to adopt market-oriented reforms. Turkmenistan's economic statistics are state secrets, and GDP and other figures are subject to wide margins of error. In particular, the rate of GDP growth is uncertain. President BERDYMUKHAMMEDOV's election platform included plans to build a gas-line to China, to complete the AmuDarya railroad bridge in Lebap province, and to create special border trade zones in southern Balkan province - a hint that the new post-Niyozov government will work to create a friendliery foreign investment environment.

GDP - real growth rate: IMF estimate: 13%
note: official government statistics show 21.4% growth, but these estimates are widely regarded as unreliable (2006 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 24.4%; industry: 33.9%; services: 41.7% (2006 est.)

Labor force: 2.32 million (2003 est.)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 48.2%; industry: 13.8%; services: 37% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate: 60% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line: 58% (2003 est.)

Agriculture - products: cotton, grain; livestock

Industries: natural gas, oil, petroleum products, textiles, food processing

Industrial production growth rate: 22% (2003 est.)

Exports: $5.421 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)

Exports - commodities: gas, crude oil, petrochemicals, cotton fiber, textiles)

Exports - partners: Ukraine 42.8%, Iran 14.8%, Hungary 5.3% (2005)

Imports: $$3.936 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs

Imports - partners: UAE 12.7%, Azerbaijan 11.1%, US 9.6%, Russia 9.1%, Ukraine 7.6%, Turkey 7.3%, Iran 6.2%,
Germany 5.4% (2005)

Currency (code): Turkmen manat (TMM)

Exchange rates: 11,100 (2006)
note: in recent years the unofficial rate has hovered around 24,000 to 25,000 Turkmen manats to the dollar; the official rate has consistently been 5,200 manat to the dollar )

Telephone system: general assessment: poorly developed
domestic: Turkmenistan's telecommunications network remains woefully underdeveloped; Turkmentelekom, in cooperation with foreign investors, is planning to upgrade the country's telephone exchanges and install a new digital switching system
international: country code - 993; linked by cable and microwave radio relay to other CIS republics and to other countries by leased connections to the Moscow international gateway switch; a new telephone link from Ashgabat to Iran has been established; a new exchange in Ashgabat switches international traffic through Turkey via Intelsat; satellite earth stations - 1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat

Radio broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 8, shortwave 2 (1998)

Television broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 8, shortwave 2 (1998)

Internet country code: .tm

Internet hosts: 585 (2006)

Internet users: 36,000 (2005)

Breitenmoser U. 2002. Feasability study of cheetah reintroduction in Turkmenistan. Cat News 36, 13-15.

Mallon D. 2007. History of cheetahs in Central Asia. Cat News 46, 4-7.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/turkmenistan.html                                                              https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ag.html                                                                                            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/turkmenistan