The Republic of Turkmenistan is situated in south-western part of Central Asia. It borders on Republic of Kazakhstan in the north, in the north-east with Uzbekistan, and on Afghanistan in south-east, also with Caspian Sea to the west. Its area occupies 488, 1 km². The population is 4366,383 thousand people.

Turkmenistan consists of administrative – territorial structures: vilayets, etraps, shaxters.

The capital of Turkmenistan is Ashgabat city.

Official State language of Turkmenistan is the Turkmen language. All citizens are granted the right to use their native language. The religion is Islam and Orthodox.

National currency is manat.

Head of state and judicial branch, high ranked official is the president of Turkmenistan. He is the guarantee of national independence, territorial integrity, obeying the Constitution and international agreements.

The territory of Turkmenistan has a long and checkered history, as armies from one empire to another decamped on their way to more prosperous territories.
Alexander the Great conquered the territory in the 4th century B.C. on his way to India. One hundred and fifty years later Persia's Parthian Kingdom established its capital in Nisa, an area now located in the suburbs of the modern-day capital of Ashgabat. In the 7th century A.D. Arabs conquered this region, bringing with them Islam and incorporating the Turkmen into Middle Eastern culture. It was around this time that the famous Silk Road was established as a major trading route between Asia and Europe. The Turkmenistan region soon came to be known as the capital of Greater Khorasan when the caliph Al-Ma'mun moved his capital to Merv.

In the middle of the 11th century, the Turks of the Seljuk Empire concentrated their strength in the territory of Turkmenistan in an attempt to expand into Afghanistan. The empire broke down in the second half of the 12th century, and the Turkmen lost their independence when Genghis Khan took control of the eastern Caspian Sea region on his march west. For the next seven centuries, the Turkmen people lived under various empires and fought constant intertribal wars. Little is documented of Turkmen history prior to Russian engagement. However, from the 13th to the 16th centuries, Turkmen formed a distinct entholinguistic group. As the Turkmen migrated from the area around the Mangishlak peninsula in contemporary Kazakhstan toward the Iranian border region and Amu Darya river basin, tribal Turkmen society further developed cultural traditions that would become the foundation of Turkmen national consciousness.

Between the 17th and 19th centuries, control of Turkmenistan was fought over by Persian shahs, Khivan khans, the emirs of Bukhara and the rulers of Afghanistan. By this time, the region of Turkmenistan as well of the rest of the area in between the Persian-Afghan-Indian and Russian borders was unmapped and virtually unknown to Europe and the Western world. Rivalry for control of the area between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia led to the establishment of The Great Game. Throughout their conquest of Central Asia, the Russians were met with the stiffest resistance by the Turkmen. By 1894, however, Russia had gained control of Turkmenistan and incorporated it into its empire. The rivalry officially concluded with the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. Slowly, Russian and European cultures were introduced to the area. This was evident in the architecture of the newly-formed city of Aşgabat which was to be the country's capital. The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia and subsequent political unrest led to the declaration of the Turkmen Republic as one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union in 1924. At this time the modern borders of Turkmenistan were formed.

As a Soviet republic, Turkmenistan went through a process of further Europeanisation. The tribal Turkmen people were encouraged to become secular and adopt Western-style clothing. The Turkmen alphabet was changed from the traditional Arabic script to Latin and finally to Cyrillic. However, bringing the Turkmens to abandon their previous nomadic ways in favor of communism was not fully embraced until as late as 1948. Nationalist organizations in the region also existed during the 1920s and the 1930s.

According to Forum 18, despite international pressure, the authorities keep a very close eye on all religious groups and the legal framework is so constrictive that many prefer to exist underground rather than have to pass through all the official processes, which act as barriers. Protestant Christian adherents are affected, in addition to groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishna. The Hare Krishna are not allowed to seek donations at the country's main airport, the Ashgabat Airport.

According to the 2005 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan had the 3rd worst press freedom conditions in the world. No one is allowed to describe the President or his family negatively. Also, no reporters are permitted to mention that the President is a very short man (5 ft 1 in, approx. 154 cm), or that he wears a toupee.

At 188,457 mi² (488,100 km²), Turkmenistan is the world's 52nd-largest country (after Spain). It is comparable in size to Cameroon, and somewhat larger than the US state of California.

Some 90% of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert. The center of country is dominated by Turan Depression and the Karakum Desert which are mostly flatlands. The Kopet Dag Range, along the southwestern border, reaches 2,912 meters (9,553 ft). The Turkmen Balkan Mountains in the far west and the Kugitang Range in the far east are the only other appreciable elevations. Rivers include the Amu Darya, Murgap, and the Hari Rud.

The climate is subtropical desert, with little rainfall. Winters are mild and dry, with most precipitation falling between January and May. Heaviest precipitation is in the Kopetdag Range.

One-half of its irrigated land is planted in cotton, making it the world's 10th-largest producer; and it possesses the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas as well as substantial oil resources. [1] In 1994, Russia's refusal to export Turkmen gas to hard currency markets and mounting debts of its major customers in the former Soviet Union for gas deliveries contributed to a sharp fall in industrial production and caused the budget to shift from a surplus to a slight deficit.

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. Between 1998 and 2002, Turkmenistan has 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, the value of total exports has risen sharply because of higher international oil and gas prices. Economic prospects in the near future are discouraging because of widespread internal poverty and the burden of foreign debt.

The majority of Turkmenistan's citizens are ethnic Turkmen with sizeable minorities of Russians and Uzbeks. Smaller minorities include Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Azeris, Armenians and Tatars. Turkmen is the official language of Turkmenistan, though Russian still is widely spoken as a "language of inter-ethnic communication" (per the 1992 Constitution).