Independence Day in Turkmenistan

People all across TURKMENISTAN recently celebrated their country's Independence Day on Tuesday, October 27th. This Central Asian country achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Happy belated Independence Day!

Turkmenistan Exports

According to National Geographic MapMaker (mapmaker.nationalgeographic.org), the following items are major exports of TURKMENISTAN: clothing and textiles, cotton fiber, cotton, grain, livestock, melons, natural gas, packaged food, peat, petrochemicals, petroleum, salt, sulfur, and wheat flour. According to February 2017 statistics from the International Monetary Fund (data.imf.org), countries and territories buying and importing most of those exports include China (top importer), Afghanistan, Turkey, Romania, Georgia, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belarus, Italy, Bulgaria, Belgium, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, and Azerbaijan.

Turkmenistan Endangered Species

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ for TURKMENISTAN in Central and West Asia lists 1 extinct-in-the-wild species (Beloribitsa fish, still surviving in fishing-stock captivity), 11 critically endangered species, and 9 endangered species. Turkmenistan's eleven endangered species are the Dreissena caspia freshwater mussel, Dwarf Sturgeon (Little Amu Darya Shovelnose) fish, Great Sturgeon fish, Persian Sturgeon fish, Phrynocephalus golubewii lizard, Russian Sturgeon fish, Saiga antelope, Shovelfish, Snow Crane, Sociable Plover, and Star Sturgeon. Here are Turkmenistan's endangered species: Alosa volgensis (Volga Shad) fish, Astragalus bobrovii milk vetch plant, Calligonum molle shrub plant, Caspian Seal, Egyptian Eagle, Saker Falcon, Steppe Eagle, Tiger, and White-Headed Duck. Species named after Turkmenistan and the Turkmen people include the Melanopsis turkmenica snail, Turkmenamnicola smaragdovae snail, and Turkmenistan Eyelid Gecko.

Bridge of the Caspian Sea

It would be a difficult feat to build a bridge across the Caspian Sea of Western Asia due to its approximately 200 kilometer width and 800 kilometer length. However, there is a thin, vertical isthmus serving as a natural bridge, allowing a road to connect two peninsulas in western TURKMENISTAN. This isthmus and road are found along the Caspian Sea's eastern coast and west of Garabogaz Aylagy lagoon. North of the town of Bekdash in northwest Turkmenistan, the highway eventually crossed the border and heads into KAZAKHSTAN. In addition to Turkmenistan's natural bridge with a road, a man-made bridge is found hovering over the Caspian Sea in eastern AZERBAIJAN on the other side of the Caspian Sea.

"Stan" Countries in the World

Have you noticed that many Central and South Asian countries have the suffix of -stan? This generally means 'country' and is added to the ethnic group that makes each 'Stan Country' unique. For example, -stan is added to Uzbek, the largest ethnic group in UZBEKISTAN. The remaining 'Stan Countries' are AFGHANISTAN, KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN, PAKISTAN (unlike the others, Pakistan's name isn't derived from ethnic group + stan; people are called Pakistanis, not Pakis or Paks), TAJIKISTAN, and TURKMENISTAN.

Former Names of Capitals

Quite a few capitals previously had different names. The following is a list of many, definitely not all, of the capitals that had different names in the past — they are categorized by continent.

AFRICA
Bujumbura, BURUNDI's former capital (Gitega is the new capital since 2019), was called Usumbura until 1962.
N'Djamena, CHAD's capital, was called Fort Lamy until 1973.
Kinshasa, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO's capital, was called Léopoldville until 1966.
Banjul, the capital of GAMBIA, was named Bathurst until 1973.
Antananarivo, MADAGASCAR's capital, was named Tananarive until 1975.
Maputo, MOZAMBIQUE's capital, was named Lourenço Marques until Mozambique's independence in 1976.
Harare, ZIMBABWE's capital, was named Salisbury until 1982.

ASIA
Tbilisi, GEORGIA's capital, was known as Tpilisi (Georgian) or Tiflis (Russian) until 1936.
Jakarta, INDONESIA's highly-populated capital, was known as Sunda Kelapa, then Jayakata, then Batavia, then Djakarta from 1949 to 1972.
Tokyo, JAPAN's capital located on the island of Honshu, was previously named Edo until 1868.
Astana, KAZAKHSTAN's capital, was known as Tselinograd, then Aqmola.
Bishkek, KYRGYZSTAN's capital, was named Pishpek until 1926 and Frunze until 1991, the fall of the Soviet Union.
Ulaanbaatar, MONGOLIA's capital, was known as Ugra until 1924.
Dushanbe, TAJIKISTAN's capital, was called Dyushambe until 1929 and received the name Stalinagrad until 1961.
Ankara, TURKEY's capital, was called Angora until 1930.
Ashgabat, TURKMENISTAN's capital, was called Poltoratsk from 1919 until 1927.

EUROPE
Belgrade, SERBIA's capital, was known as Singidunum in ancient times.
Podgorica, MONTENEGRO's capital, was known as Birziminium before the 11th century, Ribnica during the Middle Ages, and Titograd from 1946 to 1992. The capital possessed the name Podgorica in 1326 until 1946, resuming in 1992.

SOUTH AMERICA
Sucre, one of two capitals of BOLIVIA and named in honor of Antonio José de Sucre, was called Chuquisaca until 1825.

Credit goes to the New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd Edition, which conveniently listed former capital names.

Towns with Numbers

Did you know that there are some towns that have numbers in them? Two examples are Imeni 26 (Dvadtsati Shesti) Bakinskikh Komissarov in TURKMENISTAN and 26 (İyirmi Altı in Azerbaijani language) Bakı Komissarı in AZERBAIJAN. If you know of any others, feel free to comment!

Caspian Sea

The largest lake and enclosed water body in the world, the Caspian Sea is located in Central Asia. The 5 countries of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan share borders with this sea. There are at least four major sources of water flowing into the Caspian Sea, as detailed below.


● Kura (Kür) River — flows through Azerbaijan, meeting the Caspian Sea's southwest shore at the towns of Bankä and Neftçala.

● Terek River — flows through SW Russia, meeting the west shore at the Agrakhanskiy Poluostrov peninsula — the town of Lopatin is located at the tip of that peninsula.

● Ural (Zhayyq) River — flows through Kazakhstan, meeting the north shore at the towns of Atyraū, Balyqshy, and Zhumysker.

● Volga River (longest river in Europe) — flows through western Russia, meeting the northwest shore at the city of Astrakhan.

Turkmenistan

TURKMENISTAN is a former-Soviet country in Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea. There are four bordering countries: Afghanistan (SE), Iran (SW), Kazakhstan (N), and Uzbekistan (N). According to the Encyclopædia Britannica website, Turkmenistan's population in the year 2020 is about 6,031,000 — ranked 112nd among populations of the whole world’s countries, dependencies, and territories. The capital is Ashgabat. The currency is the Turkmen Manat, and its ISO 4217 currency code is TMM.