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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Turkmenistan
Index
DURING MUCH OF ITS PAST, Turkmenistan has received little attention from
the outside world. Apart from its role in establishing the Seljuk dynasty
in the Middle East in the Middle Ages, for most of its history this
territory was not a coherent nation but a geographically defined region of
independent tribal groups and other political entities. Like other
republics of the former Soviet Union, Turkmenistan has emerged on the
world scene as a newly independent country in need of both national and
international acceptance, security, and development.
Turkmenistan's authoritarian regime and regional social structure have
produced the most politically and economically stable of the former Soviet
republics. Although its leadership has gained a reputation abroad for
repression of political opposition, it is perceived at home as promoting
the social benefits, national traditions, and security of the Turkmen
people. In addition, to ensure its national security and trade prospects,
Turkmenistan has charted an independent course in establishing a military
alliance with Russia and trade and security agreements with Iran and
Central Asian countries. In terms of natural assets, Turkmenistan is a
landlocked, desert country beneath whose surface lie substantial deposits
of oil and the fifth largest reserves of natural gas in the world. Foreign
investors, attracted by the republic's calm and receptive atmosphere, have
sidestepped human rights issues on their way to establishing joint
exploitation of Turkmenistan's rich energy resources.
Data as of March 1996
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