World Country Guide

General Information

Area
488,100 sq km (188,456 sq miles).

Population
4,794,000 (official estimate 2002).

Population Density
9.8 per sq km.

Capital
Ashgabat. Population: 605,000 (official estimate 1999).

Geography
Turkmenistan shares borders with Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the east, Afghanistan to the southeast and Iran to the south. To the west is the Caspian Sea. Nearly 80 per cent of the country is taken up by the Kara-Kum (Black Sand) Desert, the largest in the CIS. The longest irrigation canal in the world stretches 1100km (687 miles), from the Amu-Darya River in the east, through Ashgabat, before being piped the rest of the way to the Caspian Sea.

Government
Republic. Gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Head of State and Government: President Saparmyrat Niyazov (Trkmenbashy) since 1992.

Language
Turkmen is the official state language, and is closer to Turkish, Azeri and Crimean Tartar than those of its neighbours Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The Turkmen script was changed from Latin to Cyrillic in 1940, but the process of changing back to the Turkish version of the Latin script is underway.

Religion
Predominantly Sunni Muslim with a small Russian Orthodox minority. Turkmenistan shares the Central Asian Sufi tradition.

Time
GMT + 5.

Electricity
220 volts AC, 50Hz. Round two-pin continental plugs are standard.

Communications

Telephone
Country code: 993. Area code for Ashgabat: 12. Outgoing international code: 810.

Mobile telephone
GSM 900/1800 network covers Ashgabat area. Operated by Altyn Asyr MC and BCTI.

Fax
Services are available in the main hotels for residents only.

Internet
ISPs include Turkmenistan Online (website: www.online.tm).

Telegram
Services are available from post offices in large towns. .

Post
Letters to Western Europe and the USA can take between two weeks and two months. Stamped envelopes can be bought from post offices. Mail addresses should be laid out in the following order: country, postcode, city, street, house number and lastly the person's name. Post office hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1800. The main Post Office in Ashgabat is open until 1900.

Press
The press in Turkmenistan is still censored. The main newspapers in Ashgabat are Turkmenistan and Vatan (both in Turkmen) and Neitralnyi Turkmenistan (Russian).

Radio
BBC World Service (website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice) and Voice of America (website: www.voa.gov) can be received. From time to time the frequencies change and the most up-to-date can be found online.