The history of Turkmenistan traditionally began with the arrival of Indo-European Iranian tribes around 2000 BC. Early tribes were nomadic or semi-nomadic due to the arid conditions of the region, preventing widespread adoption of agriculture. The steppe culture in Central Asia was an extension of a larger Eurasian series of horse cultures which spanned the entire spectrum of language families, including the Indo-Europeans and Turko-Mongol groups. Some of the known early Iranian tribes included the Massagatae, the Scythians/Sakas, and early Soghdians, who were most likely precursors of the Khwarezmians. Turkmenistan was a passing point for numerous migrations and invasions by tribes, which gravitated towards the settled regions of the south, including ancient Mesopotamia, Elam, and the Indus Valley civilization.
Ashgabat is the capital and largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies between the Karakum Desert and the Kopetdag mountain range in Central Asia, approximately 50 km (30 mi) away from the Iran-Turkmenistan border. The city has a population of 1,030,063.
The music of contemporary nomadic and rural Turkmen people is closely related other Central Asian folk forms and is descended from Arab and Persian forms of the Middle Ages. Important musical traditions in Turkmen music include traveling singers and shamans called bagshy, who act as healers and magicians and sing either a cappella or accompanied by the dutar, a two-stringed lute. The Central Asian classical music tradition, mugam, is also present in Turkmenistan under the name mukamlar.
Ashgabat International Airport, formerly known as Saparmyrat Türkmenbaşy International Airport, is one of five international airports in Turkmenistan. It is located within the city limits of Ashgabat (Ashkhabad). The old airport, with its air traffic control tower and a 3,700-metre-long (12,000 ft) precision approach runway (12L-30R), opened in 1994 and was named after the country's first president, Saparmyrat Niyazov. The new airport terminal opened in September 2016, after being completely redesigned and rebuilt and after the south runway was moved and lengthened to parallel the north runway.
Dmitry Vasilyevich Nalivkin was a Soviet geologist. He was primarily interested in stratigraphy, but was also responsible in large part for mapping the geology of the Soviet Union.
The 1703 Genroku earthquake occurred at 02:00 local time on December 31. The epicenter was near Edo, the forerunner of present-day Tokyo, in the southern part of the Kantō region, Japan. An estimated 2,300 people were killed by the destruction and subsequent fires. The earthquake triggered a major tsunami which caused many additional casualties, giving a total death toll of at least 5,233, possibly up to 200,000. Genroku is a Japanese era spanning from 1688 through 1704.
The 1948 Fukui earthquake occurred in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. The magnitude 6.8 quake struck at 4:13:31 p.m.(JDT) on June 28, 1948. The quake's hypocenter was approximately 10 km north-northeast of Fukui, in the present-day neighborhood of Maruoka, Sakai City. The strongest shaking occurred in the city of Fukui, where it was recorded as 6 on the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale.
The Damghan earthquake or the Qumis earthquake occurred on 22 December 856. The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.9, and a maximum intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The meizoseismal area extended for about 350 kilometres (220 mi) along the southern edge of the eastern Alborz mountains of present-day Iran including parts of Tabaristan and Gorgan. The earthquake's epicenter is estimated to be close to the city of Damghan, which was then the capital of the Persian province of Qumis. It caused approximately 200,000 deaths and is listed by the United States Geological Survey as the sixth deadliest earthquake in recorded history. This death toll has been debated.
The Transcaspian Government was a "Menshevik-Socialist Revolutionary" coalition set up by the railway workers of the Trans-Caspian Railway in 1918. It was based at Ashgabat, Transcaspian Oblast.
The list of Turkmenistan-related articles is below
Ashgabat railway station is the main railway station in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. It was originally built in 1888, but had to be rebuilt after an earthquake in 1948. The station is operated by the Türkmendemirýollary.
Halk Hakydasy Memorial Complex is a memorial complex to the honour of those killed in the Battle of Geok Tepe in 1881, in World War II, and in the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake. It is in the southwestern part of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Saparmurat Turkmenbashi the Great Avenue is the main avenue and one of the largest arteries of Ashgabat.
The Day of Remembrance is an official holiday of Turkmenistan, commemorating those who were killed in the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake on 6 October 1948. It is one of two mourning days in Turkmenistan.
Atamyrat Nyýazow was a soldier in the Red Army during World War II from the Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan who was the father of the first post-Soviet president of Turkmenistan, Saparmyrat Nyýazow,. He was also a school teacher and a financial officer.
Western Henan and southern Shanxi in northern China were struck by an earthquake of estimated magnitude 6.8 on 23 October 1815. The epicentre was in Pinglu County in southernmost Shanxi, which was the worse affected area. It had a maximum felt intensity of IX (violent) on the Modified Mercalli scale. It caused the collapse of many houses and cave dwellings and led to the deaths of at least 13,000 people.
Erzincan in Turkey, then part of the Ottoman Empire, was struck by a major earthquake on 18 July 1784. It caused widespread damage between Erzincan and Muş. It had an estimated magnitude of 7.6 . More than 90% of the houses in Erzincan collapsed and at least 5,000 people died, with some reports of more than 10,000 deaths. A 150 km long zone of surface rupture was observed. It ruptured the Yedisu segment at the eastern end of the North Anatolian Fault, which has not ruptured since then and is now regarded as a seismic gap. In 2013 it was estimated that about 2.67 m of displacement deficit has accumulated on this fault segment since 1784, sufficient to drive an earthquake of up to 7.5.
Ivan Ivanovich Cherinko was a Ukrainian artist who moved to Turkmenistan, after visiting Ashgabat in 1933 and finding the city beautiful and picturesque. He was among the Russian-trained artists who came to Turkmenistan and created works of art the captured the nature and culture of the republic. He founded the Union of Artists of Turkmenistan in the 1930s and co-founded the Sh. Rustaveli Turkmen Art School. In 1945, he was named an Honored Art Worker of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.
The 1997 Bojnurd earthquake occurred on 4 February at 14:07 IRST in Iran. The epicenter of the 6.5 earthquake was in the Kopet Dag mountains of North Khorasan, near the Iran–Turkmenistan border, about 579 km (360 mi) northeast of Tehran. The earthquake is characterized by shallow strike-slip faulting in a zone of active faults. Seismic activity is present as the Kopet Dag is actively accommodating tectonics through faulting. The earthquake left 88 dead, 1,948 injured, and affected 173 villages, including four which were destroyed. Damage also occurred in Shirvan and Bojnord counties. The total cost of damage was estimated to be over US$ 30 million.
