title: Pol Pot

text: The fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent end of the Cold War had repercussions for Cambodia. With the Soviet Union no longer a threat, the U.S. and its allies no longer saw Vietnamese domination of Cambodia as an issue. The U.S. announced that it no longer recognised the CGDK as the legitimate government of Cambodia at the UN General Assembly. In June, the various Cambodian factions agreed a ceasefire, to be overseen by the United Nations, with the formation of a new Supreme National Council to facilitate the implementation of democratic elections. Pol Pot agreed to these terms, fearing that if he refused the other factions would all unite against the Khmer Rouge. In November, Sihanouk returned to Cambodia. There, he praised the Vietnamese-backed leader, Hun Sen, and stated that the Khmer Rouge's leaders should be put on trial for their crimes. When Samphan arrived in Phnom Penh with the Khmer Rouge's delegation, he was beaten by a mob.


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot established a new headquarters along the border, near Pailin. He called on the Khmer Rouge to redouble their efforts in gaining support across Cambodia's villages. In June, Samphan announced that in contravention of earlier agreements its troops would not disarm, stating that it refused to do so while Vietnamese soldiers remained in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge became increasingly confrontational, expanding its territory across western Cambodia. It carried out massacres of the Vietnamese settlers who had recently arrived in the area. Hun Sen's forces also carried out military activities, with UN peacekeepers proving ineffective in preventing the violence. In January 1993, Sihanouk returned to Beijing, declaring that Cambodia was unprepared for elections. The Khmer Rouge had formed a new party, the Cambodian National Union Party, through which it could take part in the election, but in March Pol Pot announced that they would boycott the vote. At this point he moved his headquarters to Phnom Chhat; Samphan joined him there, having withdrawn his Khmer Rouge delegation from Phnom Penh.


title: Pol Pot

text: In the May 1993 elections, Norodom Ranariddh's FUNCINPEC won 58 of the 120 available seats in the National Assembly; Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party came second. Sen, who was backed by the Vietnamese, refused to acknowledge defeat. Sihanouk negotiated the formation of a coalition government between the two parties, introducing a system whereby Cambodia would have two prime ministers, Ranariddh and Sen. The new Cambodian National Army then launched an offensive against the Khmer Rouge. By August, it had captured Phnom Chhat, with Pol Pot fleeing back into Thailand. The Khmer Rouge launched a counter-offensive, having regained much of the territory they recently lost by May 1994. Pol Pot moved to Anlong Veng, but as that was overrun in 1994 he relocated to Kbal Ansoang, on the crest of the Dangrek Mountains. The Khmer Rouge nevertheless faced growing levels of desertion over the first half of the 1990s.


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot placed renewed emphasis on those living in Khmer Rouge territory imitating the lives of the poorest peasants and in 1994 ordered the confiscation of private transport and an end to cross-border trade with Thailand. In September he ordered the execution of a Briton, a Frenchman, and an Australian who had been captured in a Khmer Rouge attack on a train. In July 1996, a mutiny broke out among the Khmer Rouge and in August it was announced that Ieng Sary, Y Chhean, and Sok Pheap were breaking away from the movement, taking troops loyal to them. This meant that around 4,000 soldiers left, almost halving the troop forces that the Khmer Rouge then commanded. By the end of 1996, the Khmer Rouge had lost almost all the territory they held in the interior of Cambodia, being restricted to a few hundred miles along the northern border. Pol Pot commented to his aides: "We are like a fish in a trap. We cannot last like this for very long". Pol Pot's health was declining. He suffered from aortic stenosis and no longer had access to follow-up treatment for his earlier cancer. A stroke left him paralysed on the left side of his body, and he eventually required daily access to oxygen. He spent increasing amounts of time with his family, in particular his daughter.


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot had grown suspicious of Son Sen and in June 1997 ordered his assassination. Khmer Rouge cadres subsequently killed Sen and 13 of his family members and aides; Pol Pot later stated that he had not sanctioned all of these killings. Ta Mok was concerned that Pol Pot could turn on him too. Mok rallied troops loyal to him at Anlong Veng, informing them that Pol Pot had betrayed their movement, and then headed to Kbal Ansoang. Fearing Mok's troops, on 12 June Pol Pot, his family, and several bodyguards fled on foot. Pol Pot was very frail and had to be carried. After Mok's troops apprehended them, Pol Pot was placed under house arrest. Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea sided with Mok.


title: Pol Pot

text: American journalist Nate Thayer conducted Pol Pot's last interview while Pol Pot was under house arrest. Pol Pot stated that his "conscience is clear" but acknowledged that mistakes were made and told Thayer that "I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country". He also rejected the idea that millions had died saying "To say that millions died is too much" and that "You know, for the other people, the babies, the young ones, I did not order them to be killed".


title: Pol Pot

text: In late July, Pol Pot and the three Khmer Rouge commanders who remained loyal to him were brought before a mass meeting near Sang'nam. Thayer was invited to film the event. There, the Khmer Rouge sentenced Pol Pot to life imprisonment; the three other commanders were sentenced to death. Three months later, Ta Mok permitted Thayer to visit and interview Pol Pot.


title: Pol Pot

text: On 15 April 1998, Pol Pot died in his sleep of heart failure. Thayer, who was present, claimed that Pol Pot killed himself when he became aware of Ta Mok's plan to hand him over to the United States, saying that "Pol Pot died after ingesting a lethal dose of a combination of Valium and chloroquine". His body was preserved with ice after an improvised embalming with formaldehyde had failed, so that his death could be verified by journalists attending his funeral. Three days later, his wife cremated his body on a pyre of tyres and rubbish, utilising traditional Buddhist funerary rites.


title: Pol Pot

text: In May, Pol Pot's widow and Tep Khunnal fled to Malaysia, where they married. The Khmer Rouge themselves continued to face territorial losses to the Cambodian Army and in March 1999 Ta Mok was also captured.


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot considered himself a communist, and described his CPK as adhering to a "Marxist–Leninist viewpoint", albeit one that had been adapted to Cambodian conditions. According to "New York Times" journalist Christopher Jones, Pol Pot, at some time in his life, had imbibed a heady mixture of Marx's "Das Kapital" and Hitler's "Mein Kampf". According to key Khmer Rouge figure Khieu Samphan, a key concept was "zero for him, zero for you - that is communism", in that in a society where all things were the possession of the state and no individual owned anything, everyone would be equal.


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot took up ideas of orthodox Marxism–Leninism but, contrary to Marx and Lenin's concepts, he believed in the ideal of an entirely self-sufficient and agrarian socialist society that would be entirely free from all foreign influences. Joseph Stalin's work has been described as a "crucial formative influence" on Pol Pot. Even more influential was the work of Mao Zedong, particularly his New Democracy. Following Mao's thoughts and political example, in the mid-1960s Pol Pot reformulated his ideas about Marxism–Leninism to better suit the Cambodian situation. Due to these alterations, various other Marxist–Leninists said that he was not truly adhering to Marxist–Leninist ideas. For instance in 1979, Deng Xiaoping criticised the Khmer Rouge for engaging in "deviations from Marxism-Leninism".


title: Pol Pot

text: In re-interpreting the revolutionary role of classes and questioning the Marxist focus on the proletariat, Pol Pot embraced the idea of a revolutionary alliance between the peasantry and the intellectuals, an idea that Short linked to his reading of Peter Kropotkin while he was in Paris. Contrary to the principles of historical dialectics, he believed that peasants could develop a proletarian consciousness as an effect of the communist party's education of the masses, which resembles orthodox Marxist–Leninist thought. In addition to that, Philip Short maintained that "the grammar of Theravada Buddhism permeated" Pol Pot's thought as much as Confucianism had influenced the development of Maoism in China.


title: Pol Pot

text: Short also thought that the Khmer Rouge's ideology stood apart from other forms of Marxism due to its "monastic stress on discipline", with "the systematic destruction of the individual" being a "hallmark" of its ideology. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge believed that in order to crush the individualistic attitude that they thought was endemic in Cambodian society, they need to use coercion in order to ensure the creation of a collectivized state. Short noted that an underlying doctrinal view among the Khmer Rouge was that "it is always better to go too far than not far enough", an approach that was "at the root of many of the abuses" which occurred under their regime. Within the Communist Party itself, hunger, lack of sleep, and long hours of labour were employed at training camps to ramp up the physical and mental pressure and thus facilitate indoctrination. Short commented that "no other communist party" in history ever went "so far in its attempts directly to remould the minds of its members".


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot disbanded his Communist Party during the 1980s because he wanted to emphasise his desire to wage a unified national struggle against the Vietnamese occupation. During that decade, Pol Pot frequently commented that "We chose communism because we wanted to restore our nation. We helped the Vietnamese, who were communist. But now the communists are fighting us. So we have to turn to the West and follow their way." This action led Short to suggest that "the veneer of Marxism-Leninism which had cloaked Cambodian radicalism had only ever been skin-deep."


title: Pol Pot

text: Short observed that decision-making in Pol Pot's Cambodia was "unruly", making it dissimilar from the centralised, organised processes which were found in other Marxist–Leninist states.


title: Pol Pot

text: Within Democratic Kampuchea, there was much regional and local variation in how party cadres implemented Pol Pot's orders.


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot desired autarky, or complete self-sufficiency, for Cambodia. Short suggested that Pol Pot had been "an authentic spokesman" for the yearning that many Khmer felt for "the return of their former greatness", the era of the Khmer Empire. Chandler noted that Pol Pot, like previous Cambodian leaders, emphasised the belief that Cambodia was purer than other nations. The party leadership has been described as xenophobic. Pol Pot repeatedly stated or implied that Cambodians were an intrinsically superior group to other ethnic or national groups and that they were immune to foreign influences. Short also noted that the Khmer Rouge generally regarded foreigners as enemies; during the Cambodian civil war, they killed numerous foreign journalists whom they captured, whereas the Vietnamese Marxists typically let them go. Native religions were banned as part of the Khmer Rouge's attempt to eliminate religion in the country.


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot had a thirst for power. He was introspective, self-effacing, and displayed self-control. He was also highly reclusive, obsessed with secrecy, and fearful of the threat of assassination. He was often in control while pretending not to be; Short stated that he "delighted in appearing to be what he was not – a nameless face in the crowd". During his political career, he used a wide array of pseudonyms: Pouk, Hay, Pol, 87, Grand-Uncle, Elder Brother, First Brother and in later years he used the pseudonyms 99 and Phem. He told a secretary that "the more often you change your name the better. It confuses the enemy". In later life he concealed and falsified many details of his life. He never explained why he chose the pseudonym "Pol Pot".


title: Pol Pot

text: According to the official biography of Pol Pot published in September 1978 by the "Department of Press and Information Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Democratic Kampuchea", Pol Pot liked to live and work in the calm, he had "a large spirit of union", he showed "revolutionary optimism" and he was "deeply and firmly confident in the people, the masses, especially in the poor peasants". Pol Pot displayed what Chandler called a "genteel charisma", and what Short described as a "magnetic personality". As a child, his brother characterized him as having been sweet tempered and equable, while fellow school pupils recalled that Pol Pot was mediocre but pleasant. As a teacher, he was characterized by his pupils as having been calm, honest and persuasive, having an "evident good nature and an attractive personality". Chandler noted that he had the "common touch" when interacting with people; according to Short, Pol Pot's varied and eclectic upbringing meant that he was "able to communicate naturally with people of all sorts and conditions, establishing an instinctive rapport that invariably made them want to like him". Many observers commented on his distinctive smile. When speaking to audiences he usually carried a fan, which in Cambodian culture was traditionally associated with monkhood.


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot was softly spoken. During speeches he was serene and calm, even in the midst of using violent rhetoric. Chandler noted that when meeting with people, Pol Pot displayed an "apparent warmth" and was known for his "slowly uttered words". Kong Duong, who worked with Pol Pot in the 1980s, said that he was "very likeable, a really nice person. He was friendly, and everything he said seemed very sensible. He would never blame you or scold you to your face."


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot suffered from insomnia and was frequently ill. He suffered from malaria and intestinal ailments, which left him ill several times a year whilst he was in power. As well as having a love of traditional Khmer music, in childhood he became interested in romantic French poetry, with the work of Paul Verlaine being among his favorites.


title: Pol Pot

text: Chandler suggested that the seven years that Pol Pot primarily spent in jungle encampments among his fellow Marxists had a significant effect on his world-view, and they "probably reinforced his sense of destiny and self-importance". Pol Pot had a nationalistic attitude and displayed little interest in events outside Cambodia. He was self-righteous, and typically rejected compromise or attempts to gain a consensus.


title: Pol Pot

text: Short related that "Pol did believe he was acting for the common good and that sooner or later everyone would recognise that." Chandler noted that Pol Pot displayed "a tendency" towards violence and terror.


title: Pol Pot

text: Short suggested that Pol Pot, along with other senior members of the Khmer Rouge, engaged in the "glorification of violence" and saw bloodshed as a "cause for exultation". This, Short suggested, marked the Khmer Rouge's leadership out as being different from those who led the Chinese and Vietnamese Marxist movements, who tended to see violence as a necessary evil rather than something to embrace joyfully.


title: Pol Pot

text: Pol Pot wanted his followers to develop a "revolutionary consciousness" that would allow them to act without his guidance and was often disappointed when they failed to display this. Partly because he did not fully trust subordinates he micro-managed events, scrutinising things such as menus for state receptions or the programming schedules for radio broadcasts. Although some of Pol Pot's supporters wanted a personality cult devoted to him akin to those in other Marxist-governed countries, this never successfully emerged in Cambodia. Although some busts and paintings of him were produced during the start of the war with Vietnam, Cambodia never saw songs and plays written about him, his photograph was not included in party literature, and there were no publication of his "thoughts", as had been seen with leaders in countries like China and North Korea. Chandler thought that the proposed personality cult "never became full-blown" in large part because "self-advertisement did not come easily to Pol Pot." It may also have reflected his sincere opposition to individualism.


title: Pol Pot

text: Chandler described Pol Pot as one of "the visionary leaders of Cambodian history" for his attempts to radically transform the country. By 1979, his name was internationally recognised as a byword for mass killings and chaos. In its obituary notice for Pol Pot, "The New York Times" referred to him as the creator of "one of the 20th century's most brutal and radical regimes".


title: Pol Pot

text: Both the BBC News and "Time" magazine blamed his government for "one of the worst mass killings of the 20th century". In 2009, Deutsche Welle described Pol Pot's government as having initiated one of the "world's most infamous political experiments", while Short referred to the Khmer Rouge as "the most radical revolutionary movement of modern times". Writing for the U.S. socialist magazine "Jacobin" in 2019, the Dutch socialist Alex de Jong characterised Pol Pot's government as a "genocidal regime" and noted that the name of the Khmer Rouge had become "synonymous with murder and repression". Many Cambodians who lived through his administration later referred to it as "samai a-Pot" ("the era of the contemptible Pot").


title: Pol Pot

text: The idea that the deaths which occurred under Pol Pot's government should be considered genocide was first put forward by the Vietnamese government in 1979 after the revelations of the killings committed at Tuol Sleng prison. The Vietnamese-backed PRK administration swiftly opened the prison to visitors as the "Genocide Museum". Short argued that while Pol Pot's administration was clearly responsible for crimes against humanity, it was misleading to accuse it of genocide because it never sought to eradicate an entire population.


title: Pol Pot

text: Chandler noted that while "Cambodia's revolution" under Pol Pot produced "millions of victims", it also had some beneficiaries. Those who were empowered by the Khmer Rouge administration either "probably believed" Pol Pot's claims regarding the construction of a socialist society or "vigorously pretended that they did", according to Chandler. Chandler also noted that Pol Pot's supporters believed that it was "his clear-sighted strategies and tactics that had wrested control of Cambodia from the United States and its feudal puppets" and that he had "uprooted enemies from the party, encouraged vigilance, built the alliance with China, and masterminded the Four Year Plan." During the war with Vietnam, many Cambodians revered Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge forces as nationalists who were defending the country. Internationally, his movement received support from such countries as China, Thailand, and the United States during that conflict because they saw it as a bulwark against Vietnam and thus Vietnam's key ally, the Soviet Union.


title: Pol Pot

text: Various Marxist–Leninist groups endorsed Pol Pot's government while it was in power. The small Canadian Communist League (Marxist–Leninist), for instance, praised his government and sent a delegation to meet with him in Phnom Penh in December 1978. Another sympathiser who visited Pol Pot that year was the Scottish communist Malcolm Caldwell, an economic historian based at London's School of Oriental and African Studies. He met with Pol Pot, but was murdered shortly afterward; the culprit was never identified. Also in 1978, the Khmer Rouge met with delegates of the Swedish Cambodian Friendship Association, whose members openly sympathised with Pol Pot's regime. One of its members, Gunnar Bergström, later noted that in the 1970s he had been a Marxist–Leninist who had become dissatisfied with the Soviet Union and believed that the Cambodian government was building a society based on freedom and equality. In his view, the Khmer Rouge regime was "an example to the Third World". Bergström noted that he and his fellow members had heard about atrocities that were taking place but "did not want to believe them".


title: Pol Pot

text: A number of cultic activities and practices have been observed around Pol Pot's grave. People from Anlong Veng, but also from other parts of Cambodia, go to his grave to make offerings of food on certain holy days, including the Festival of the Dead and the Cambodian New Year. Some people make daily offerings of food, as well as more significant offerings such as a pig's head and court music sang by an orchestra. Amanda Pike, an investigative journalist who has visited Cambodia, states that some of Pol Pot's supporters still cling to his memory and ideology and she also states that some fervent believers still worship him. She reports that these people dig through Pol Pot's ashes and snatch up fragments of his bones to take away as talismans. Cambodian villagers say that they dream of Pol Pot and afterwards they win the lottery or become cured from malaria. In addition, people kneel down near his grave and start praying. They chant: "All your children are here, Grandpa. Don't say that we've forgotten you". They ask for good health and for their children to be educated, just like Pol Pot was. When asked about why they go to Pol Pot's grave, some say they knew him personally. Others say that they go to pay their respects to a former leader. Most seem to perceive that some part of the world thinks of Pol Pot in a negative light, however they insist that he was a supporter of the common farmer and a defender of Cambodia. There have also been cases of people dreaming of Pol Pot and sleepwalking all the way to his grave. Amanda Pike talks about an old woman named Chou Kitt – a Cambodian genocide survivor that lost most of her family under the Khmer Rouge – who says that Pol Pot visited her in her dream. Pike reports: Chou Kitt says that Pol Pot appeared to her at night, looking frail and sad. He told her he was hot during the day and cold at night. He complained that he was hungry. When she woke up, she found that she had sleepwalked most of the way to his grave So Chou scraped together most of her worldly funds and built the corrugated shelter that today covers Pol Pot's ashes. She also held a feast in his honor, slaughtering a pig at his gravesite. Later, Chou dreamed that Pol Pot came to thank her -- he was finally comfortable and content.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan ( or ; / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ashgabat is the capital and largest city. The population is about 6 million, the lowest of the Central Asian republics, and Turkmenistan is one of the most sparsely populated nations in Asia.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan has long served as a thoroughfare for other nations and cultures. Merv is one of the oldest oasis-cities in Central Asia, and was once the biggest city in the world. It was also one of the great cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan figured prominently in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Central Asia. In 1925, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR); it became independent after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan possesses the world's fifth largest reserves of natural gas. Most of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert. From 1993 to 2017, citizens received government-provided electricity, water and natural gas free of charge.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan is an observer state in the Organisation of Turkic States, the Türksoy community and a member of the United Nations. It is also the only permanent neutral country recognized by the UN General Assembly in Asia.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The country is widely criticized for its poor human rights, its treatment of minorities, press and religious freedoms. Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkmenistan has been ruled by repressive totalitarian regimes, that of President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov (also known as "Türkmenbaşy" or "Head of the Turkmens") until his death in 2006, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who became president in 2007 after winning a non-democratic election (he had been vice-president and then acting president previously) and ruled the country until he stepped down in 2022 in favour of his son Serdar, who won a subsequent presidential election described by international observers as neither free nor fair. The use of the death penalty was suspended in 1999, before being formally abolished in 2008.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The name of Turkmenistan () can be divided into two components: the ethnonym Türkmen and the Persian suffix -stan meaning "place of" or "country". The name "Turkmen" comes from Turk, plus the Sogdian suffix -men, meaning "almost Turk", in reference to their status outside the Turkic dynastic mythological system. However, some scholars argue the suffix is an intensifier, changing the meaning of Türkmen to "pure Turks" or "the Turkish Turks."


title: Turkmenistan

text: Muslim chroniclers like Ibn Kathir suggested that the etymology of Turkmenistan came from the words Türk and Iman (, "faith, belief") in reference to a massive conversion to Islam of two hundred thousand households in the year 971.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan declared its independence from the Soviet Union after the independence referendum in 1991. As a result, the constitutional law was adopted on 27 October of that year and Article 1 established the new name of the state: Turkmenistan ("Türkmenistan" / Түркменистан).


title: Turkmenistan

text: A common name for the Turkmen SSR was Turkmenia (), used in some reports of the country's independence.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Historically inhabited by the Indo-Iranians, the written history of Turkmenistan begins with its annexation by the Achaemenid Empire of Ancient Iran. Later, in the 8th century AD, Turkic-speaking Oghuz tribes moved from Mongolia into present-day Central Asia. Part of a powerful confederation of tribes, these Oghuz formed the ethnic basis of the modern Turkmen population. In the 10th century, the name "Turkmen" was first applied to Oghuz groups that accepted Islam and began to occupy present-day Turkmenistan. There they were under the dominion of the Seljuk Empire, which was composed of Oghuz groups living in present-day Iran and Turkmenistan. Oghuz groups in the service of the empire played an important role in the spreading of Turkic culture when they migrated westward into present-day Azerbaijan and eastern Turkey.


title: Turkmenistan

text: In the 12th century, Turkmen and other tribes overthrew the Seljuk Empire. In the next century, the Mongols took over the more northern lands where the Turkmens had settled, scattering the Turkmens southward and contributing to the formation of new tribal groups. The sixteenth and eighteenth centuries saw a series of splits and confederations among the nomadic Turkmen tribes, who remained staunchly independent and inspired fear in their neighbors. By the 16th century, most of those tribes were under the nominal control of two sedentary Uzbek khanates, Khiva and Bukhoro. Turkmen soldiers were an important element of the Uzbek militaries of this period. In the 19th century, raids and rebellions by the Yomud Turkmen group resulted in that group's dispersal by the Uzbek rulers. In 1855 the Turkmen tribe of Teke led by Gowshut-Khan defeated the invading army of the Khan of Khiva Muhammad Amin Khan and in 1861 the invading Persian army of Nasreddin-Shah.


title: Turkmenistan

text: In the second half of the 19th century, northern Turkmens were the main military and political power in the Khanate of Khiva. According to Paul R. Spickard, "Prior to the Russian conquest, the Turkmen were known and feared for their involvement in the Central Asian slave trade."


title: Turkmenistan

text: Russian forces began occupying Turkmen territory late in the 19th century. From their Caspian Sea base at Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy), the Russians eventually overcame the Uzbek khanates. In 1879, the Russian forces were defeated by the Teke Turkmens during the first attempt to conquer the Ahal area of Turkmenistan. However, in 1881, the last significant resistance in Turkmen territory was crushed at the Battle of Geok Tepe, and shortly thereafter Turkmenistan was annexed, together with adjoining Uzbek territory, into the Russian Empire. In 1916, the Russian Empire's participation in World War I resonated in Turkmenistan, as an anticonscription revolt swept most of Russian Central Asia. Although the Russian Revolution of 1917 had little direct impact, in the 1920s Turkmen forces joined Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Uzbeks in the so-called Basmachi Rebellion against the rule of the newly formed Soviet Union. In 1921 the tsarist province of Transcaspia (, 'Transcaspian Oblast') was renamed Turkmen Oblast (), and in 1924, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed from it. By the late 1930s, Soviet reorganization of agriculture had destroyed what remained of the nomadic lifestyle in Turkmenistan, and Moscow controlled political life. The Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 killed over 110,000 people, amounting to two-thirds of the city's population.


title: Turkmenistan

text: During the next half-century, Turkmenistan played its designated economic role within the Soviet Union and remained outside the course of major world events. Even the major liberalization movement that shook Russia in the late 1980s had little impact. However, in 1990, the Supreme Soviet of Turkmenistan declared sovereignty as a nationalist response to perceived exploitation by Moscow. Although Turkmenistan was ill-prepared for independence and then-communist leader Saparmurat Niyazov preferred to preserve the Soviet Union, in October 1991, the fragmentation of that entity forced him to call a national referendum that approved independence. On 26 December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Niyazov continued as Turkmenistan's chief of state, replacing communism with a unique brand of independent nationalism reinforced by a pervasive cult of personality. A 1994 referendum and legislation in 1999 abolished further requirements for the president to stand for re-election (although in 1992 he completely dominated the only presidential election in which he ran, as he was the only candidate and no one else was allowed to run for the office), making him effectively president for life. During his tenure, Niyazov conducted frequent purges of public officials and abolished organizations deemed threatening. Throughout the post-Soviet era, Turkmenistan has taken a neutral position on almost all international issues. Niyazov eschewed membership in regional organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and in the late 1990s he maintained relations with the Taliban and its chief opponent in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance. He offered limited support to the military campaign against the Taliban following the 11 September 2001 attacks. In 2002 an alleged assassination attempt against Niyazov led to a new wave of security restrictions, dismissals of government officials, and restrictions placed on the media. Niyazov accused exiled former foreign minister Boris Shikhmuradov of having planned the attack.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Between 2002 and 2004, serious tension arose between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan because of bilateral disputes and Niyazov's implication that Uzbekistan had a role in the 2002 assassination attempt. In 2004, a series of bilateral treaties restored friendly relations. In the parliamentary elections of December 2004 and January 2005, only Niyazov's party was represented, and no international monitors participated. In 2005, Niyazov exercised his dictatorial power by closing all hospitals outside Ashgabat and all rural libraries. The year 2006 saw intensification of the trends of arbitrary policy changes, shuffling of top officials, diminishing economic output outside the oil and gas sector, and isolation from regional and world organizations. China was among a very few nations to whom Turkmenistan made significant overtures. The sudden death of Niyazov at the end of 2006 left a complete vacuum of power, as his cult of personality, comparable to the one of eternal president Kim Il-sung of North Korea, had precluded the naming of a successor. Deputy Prime Minister Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who was named interim head of government, won a non-democratic special presidential election held in early February 2007. His appointment as interim president and subsequent run for president violated the constitution. Berdimuhamedow won two additional non-democratic elections, with approximately 97% of the vote in both 2012 and 2017. His son Serdar Berdimuhamedow won a non-democratic snap presidential election in 2022, establishing a political dynasty in Turkmenistan. On 19 March 2022, Serdar Berdimuhamedov was sworn in as Turkmenistan’s new president to succeed his father.


title: Turkmenistan

text: After over a century of being a part of the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union (including 67 years as a union republic), Turkmenistan declared its independence on 27 October 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Saparmurat Niyazov, a former official of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, ruled Turkmenistan from 1985, when he became head of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, until his death in 2006. He retained absolute control over the country as President after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 28 December 1999, Niyazov was declared President for Life of Turkmenistan by the Mejlis (parliament), which itself had taken office a week earlier in elections that included only candidates hand-picked by President Niyazov. No opposition candidates were allowed.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Since the December 2006 death of Niyazov, Turkmenistan's leadership has made tentative moves to open up the country. His successor, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, repealed some of Niyazov's most idiosyncratic policies, including banning operas and circuses for being ""insufficiently Turkmen"", though other such rules were later put into place such as the banning of non-white cars. In education, Berdimuhamedow's government increased basic education to ten years from nine years, and higher education was extended from four years to five.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The politics of Turkmenistan take place in the framework of a presidential republic, with the President both head of state and head of government. Under Niyazov, Turkmenistan had a one-party system; however, in September 2008, the People's Council unanimously passed a resolution adopting a new Constitution. The latter resulted in the abolition of the council and a significant increase in the size of Parliament in December 2008 and also permits the formation of multiple political parties.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The former Communist Party, now known as the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, is the dominant party. The second party, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, was established in August 2012, and an agrarian party appeared two years later. Political gatherings are illegal unless government sanctioned. In 2013, the first multi-party parliamentary elections were held in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan was a one-party state from 1991 to 2012; however, the 2013 elections were widely seen as rigged. In practice, all parties in parliament operate jointly under the direction of the DPT. There are no true opposition parties in the Turkmen parliament.


title: Turkmenistan

text: In September 2020 the Turkmenistan Parliament adopted a constitutional amendment creating an upper chamber and thus making the Parliament bicameral. The upper chamber is named the People's Council () and consists of 56 members, 48 of whom are elected and 8 of whom are appointed by the president. Together with the previous unicameral parliament, the 125-seat Mejlis, as the lower chamber, the Parliament is now called the National Council (). Elections to the upper chamber were held 28 March 2021. Elections to the Mejlis were last held 25 March 2018.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Outside observers consider the Turkmen legislature to be a rubber stamp parliament. The 2018 OSCE election observer mission noted,The 25 March elections lacked important prerequisites of a genuinely democratic electoral process. The political environment is only nominally pluralist and does not offer voters political alternatives. Exercise of fundamental freedoms is severely curtailed, inhibiting free expression of the voters' will. Despite measures to demonstrate transparency, the integrity of elections was not ensured, leaving veracity of results in doubt


title: Turkmenistan

text: Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index placed Turkmenistan in a tie with Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 169th place globally, between Chad and Equatorial Guinea, with a score of 19 out of 100.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Opposition media and foreign human rights organizations describe Turkmenistan as suffering from rampant corruption. A non-governmental organization, Crude Accountability, has openly called the economy of Turkmenistan a kleptocracy. Opposition and domestic state-controlled media have described widespread bribery in education and law enforcement. In 2019, the national chief of police, Minister of Internal Affairs Isgender Mulikov, was convicted and imprisoned for corruption. In 2020 the deputy prime minister for education and science, Pürli Agamyradow, was dismissed for failure to control bribery in education.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The illegal adoption of abandoned babies in Turkmenistan is blamed on rampant corruption in the agencies involved in the legal adoption process which pushes some parents to a "cheaper and faster" option. One married couple in the eastern Farap district said that they had to provide documents and letters from 40 different agencies to support their adoption application, yet three years later there was still no decision on their bid. Meanwhile, wealthier applicants in Farap received a child for legal adoption within four months after applying because they paid up to 50,000 manats (about $14,300) in bribes.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The judiciary in Turkmenistan is not independent. Under Articles 71 and 100 of the constitution of Turkmenistan, the president appoints all judges, including the chairperson (chief justice) of the Supreme Court, and may dismiss them with the consent of the Parliament. Outside observers consider the Turkmen legislature to be a rubber stamp parliament, and thus despite constitutional guarantees of judicial independence under Articles 98 and 99, the judiciary is "de facto" firmly under presidential control. The chief justice is considered a member of the executive authority of the government and sits on the State Security Council. The U.S. Department of State stated in its 2020-human rights report on Turkmenistan,Although the law provides for an independent judiciary, the executive controls it, and it is subordinate to the executive. There was no legislative review of the president's judicial appointments and dismissals. The president had sole authority to dismiss any judge. The judiciary was widely reputed to be corrupt and inefficient.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan's declaration of "permanent neutrality" was formally recognized by the United Nations in 1995. Former President Saparmurat Niyazov stated that the neutrality would prevent Turkmenistan from participating in multi-national defense organizations, but allows military assistance. Its neutral foreign policy has an important place in the country's constitution. Turkmenistan has diplomatic relations with 139 countries, some of the most important allies being Afghanistan, Armenia, Iran, Pakistan and Russia. Turkmenistan is a member of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Economic Cooperation Organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Islamic Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Organization of Turkic Culture and observer member of Organisation of Turkic States.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan has been widely criticised for human rights abuses and has imposed severe restrictions on foreign travel for its citizens. Discrimination against the country's ethnic minorities remains in practice. Universities have been encouraged to reject applicants with non-Turkmen surnames, especially ethnic Russians. It is forbidden to teach the customs and language of the Baloch, an ethnic minority. The same happens to Uzbeks, though the Uzbek language was formerly taught in some national schools.


title: Turkmenistan

text: According to Human Rights Watch, "Turkmenistan remains one of the world's most repressive countries. The country is virtually closed to independent scrutiny, media and religious freedoms are subject to draconian restrictions, and human rights defenders and other activists face the constant threat of government reprisal."


title: Turkmenistan

text: According to Reporters Without Borders's 2014 World Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan had the 3rd worst press freedom conditions in the world (178/180 countries), just before North Korea and Eritrea. It is considered to be one of the "10 Most Censored Countries". Each broadcast under Niyazov began with a pledge that the broadcaster's tongue will shrivel if he slanders the country, flag, or president.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Religious minorities are discriminated against for conscientious objection and practicing their religion by imprisonment, preventing foreign travel, confiscating copies of Christian literature or defamation. Many detainees who have been arrested for exercising their freedom of religion or belief were tortured and subsequently sentenced to imprisonment, many of them without a court decision. Homosexual acts are illegal in Turkmenistan.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Despite the launch of Turkmenistan's first communication satellite, the TurkmenSat 1, in April 2015, the Turkmen government banned all satellite dishes in Turkmenistan the same month. The statement issued by the government indicated that all existing satellite dishes would have to be removed or destroyed—despite the communications receiving antennas having been legally installed since 1995—in an effort by the government to fully block access of the population to many "hundreds of independent international media outlets" which are currently accessible in the country only through satellite dishes, including all leading international news channels in different languages. The main target of this campaign is Radio Azatlyk, the Turkmen-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (which is run by the U.S. government).


title: Turkmenistan

text: Internet access is filtered and websites to which the government objects are blocked. Blocked websites include opposition news media, YouTube, many social media including Facebook, and encrypted communications applications. Use of virtual private networks to circumvent censorship is prohibited.


title: Turkmenistan

text: At , Turkmenistan is the world's 52nd-largest country. It is slightly smaller than Spain and larger than Cameroon. It lies between latitudes 35° and 43° N, and longitudes 52° and 67° E.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Over 80% of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert. The center of the country is dominated by the Turan Depression and the Karakum Desert. Topographically, Turkmenistan is bounded by the Ustyurt Plateau to the north, the Kopet Dag Range to the south, the Paropamyz Plateau, the Koytendag Range to the east, the Amu Darya Valley, and the Caspian Sea to the west. Turkmenistan includes three tectonic regions, the Epigersin platform region, the Alpine shrinkage region, and the Epiplatform orogenesis region. The Alpine tectonic region is the epicenter of earthquakes in Turkmenistan. Strong earthquakes occurred in the Kopet Dag Range in 1869, 1893, 1895, 1929, 1948, and 1994. The city of Ashgabat and surrounding villages were largely destroyed by the 1948 earthquake.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The Great Balkhan Range in the west of the country (Balkan Province) and the Köýtendag Range on the southeastern border with Uzbekistan (Lebap Province) are the only other significant elevations. The Great Balkhan Range rises to at Mount Arlan and the highest summit in Turkmenistan is Ayrybaba in the Kugitangtau Range – . The Kopet Dag mountain range forms most of the border between Turkmenistan and Iran.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Major rivers include the Amu Darya, the Murghab River, the Tejen River, and the Atrek (Etrek) River. Tributaries of the Atrek include the Sumbar River and Chandyr River.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The Turkmen shore along the Caspian Sea is long. The Caspian Sea is entirely landlocked, with no natural access to the ocean, although the Volga–Don Canal allows shipping access to and from the Black Sea.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Major cities include Aşgabat, Türkmenbaşy (formerly Krasnovodsk), Balkanabat, Daşoguz, Türkmenabat, and Mary.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan is in a temperate desert zone with a dry continental climate. Remote from the open sea, with mountain ranges to the south and southeast, Turkmenistan's climate is characterized by low precipitation, low cloudiness, and high evaporation. Absence of mountains to the north allows cold Arctic air to penetrate southward to the southerly mountain ranges, which in turn block warm, moist air from the Indian Ocean. Limited winter and spring rains are attributable to moist air from the west, originating in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Winters are mild and dry, with most precipitation falling between January and May. The Kopet Dag Range receives the highest level of precipitation.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The Karakum Desert is one of the driest deserts in the world; some places have an average annual precipitation of only . The highest temperature recorded in Ashgabat is and Kerki, an extreme inland city located on the banks of the Amu Darya river, recorded in July 1983, although this value is unofficial. is the highest temperature recorded at Repetek Reserve, recognized as the highest temperature ever recorded in the whole former Soviet Union. Turkmenistan enjoys 235–240 sunny days per year. The average number of degree days ranges from 4500 to 5000 Celsius, sufficient for production of extra long staple cotton.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan contains seven terrestrial ecoregions: Alai-Western Tian Shan steppe, Kopet Dag woodlands and forest steppe, Badghyz and Karabil semi-desert, Caspian lowland desert, Central Asian riparian woodlands, Central Asian southern desert, and Kopet Dag semi-desert.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan's greenhouse gas emissions per person (17.5 tCO2e) are considerably higher than the OECD average: due mainly to natural gas seepage from oil and gas exploration.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan is divided into five provinces or "welayatlar" (singular "welayat") and one capital city district. The provinces are subdivided into districts ("etraplar", sing. "etrap"), which may be either counties or cities. According to the Constitution of Turkmenistan (Article 16 in the 2008 Constitution, Article 47 in the 1992 Constitution), some cities may have the status of "welaýat" (province) or "etrap" (district).


title: Turkmenistan

text: The country possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil resources.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to economic reform, hoping to use gas and cotton sales to sustain its economy. In 2014, the unemployment rate was estimated to be 11%.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Between 1998 and 2002, Turkmenistan 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 rose sharply due to increases in international oil and gas prices. The subsequent collapse of both hydrocarbon and cotton prices in 2014 cut revenues from export sales severely, causing Turkmenistan to run trade deficits from 2015 through 2017. Economic prospects in the near future are discouraging because of widespread internal poverty and the burden of foreign debt, coupled with continued low hydrocarbon prices and reduced Chinese purchases of natural gas. One reflection of economic stress is the black-market exchange rate for the Turkmen manat, which though officially set at 3.5 manats to the US dollar, reportedly was trading in January 2021 at 32 manats to the dollar.


title: Turkmenistan

text: President Niyazov spent much of the country's revenue on extensively renovating cities, Ashgabat in particular. Corruption watchdogs voiced particular concern over the management of Turkmenistan's currency reserves, most of which are held in off-budget funds such as the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund in the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, according to a report released in April 2006 by London-based non-governmental organization Global Witness.


title: Turkmenistan

text: According to a decree of the Peoples' Council of 14 August 2003, electricity, natural gas, water and salt were to have been subsidized for citizens until 2030. Under implementing regulations, every citizen was entitled to 35 kilowatt hours of electricity and 50 cubic meters of natural gas each month. The state also provided 250 liters (66 gallons) of water per day. As of 1 January 2019, however, all such subsidies were abolished, and payment for utilities was implemented.


title: Turkmenistan

text: , the Galkynysh Gas Field was estimated to possess the second-largest volume of gas in the world, after the South Pars field in the Persian Gulf. Reserves at the Galkynysh Gas Field are estimated at around 21.2 trillion cubic metres. The Turkmenistan Natural Gas Company (Türkmengaz) controls gas extraction in the country. Gas production is the most dynamic and promising sector of the national economy. In 2009 the government of Turkmenistan began a policy of diversifying export routes for its raw materials.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Prior to 1958 gas production was limited to associated gas from oil wells in western Turkmenistan. In 1958, the first gas wells were drilled at Serhetabat (then Kushky) and at Derweze. Oil and gas fields were discovered in the Central Karakum Desert between 1959 and 1965. In addition to Derweze, these include Takyr, Shyh, Chaljulba, Topjulba, Chemmerli, Atabay, Sakarchage, Atasary, Mydar, Goyun, and Zakli. These fields are located in Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments. The Turkmen gas industry got underway with the opening of the Ojak gas field in 1966. To put this in perspective, associated gas production in Turkmenistan was only 1.157 billion cubic meters in 1965, but by 1970 natural gas production reached 13 billion cubic meters, and by 1989, 90 billion cubic meters. The USSR exported much of this gas to western Europe. Following independence, natural gas extraction fell as Turkmenistan sought export markets but was limited to existing delivery infrastructure under Russian control: Turkmenistan-Russia in two lines (3087 km, originating at Ojak, and another of 2259 km, also originating at Ojak); the Gumdag line (2530 km); and the Shatlyk line (2644 km) to Russia, Ukraine, and the Caucasus. On 1 January 2016, Russia halted natural gas purchases from Turkmenistan after reducing them step by step for the previous years. Russia's Gazprom announced resumption of purchases in April 2019, but reported volumes remained low compared to previous delivery levels.


title: Turkmenistan

text: In 1997, the Korpeje-Gurtguy natural gas pipeline was built to Iran. It is 140 kilometers in length and was the first gas pipeline to a foreign customer constructed after independence. Turkmenistan's exports of natural gas to Iran, estimated at 12 bcma, ended on 1 January 2017, when Turkmengaz unilaterally cut off deliveries, citing payment arrears.


title: Turkmenistan

text: In December 2009 the first line, Line A, of the Trans-Asia pipeline to China opened, creating a second major market for Turkmen natural gas. By 2015 Turkmenistan was delivering up to 35 billion cubic meters per annum (bcma) to China. China is the largest buyer of gas from Turkmenistan, via three pipelines linking the two countries through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In 2019, China bought over 30bcm of gas from Turkmenistan, making China Turkmenistan's main external source of revenue.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The East–West pipeline was completed in December 2015, with the intent of delivering up to 30 bcm of natural gas to the Caspian shore for eventual export through a yet-to-be-built Trans-Caspian natural gas pipeline connecting the Belek-1 compressor station in Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The Turkmenistan government continues to pursue construction of the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline, or TAPI. The anticipated cost of the TAPI pipeline is currently estimated at $25 billion. Turkmenistan's section of the pipeline was started in 2015 and was completed in 2019, though the Afghanistan and Pakistan sections remain under construction.


title: Turkmenistan

text: 6 billion dollars worth of methane, a greenhouse gas which causes climate change, was estimated to leak in 2019/20.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Oil was known to exist in western Turkmenistan as early as the 18th century. General Aleksey Kuropatkin reported in 1879 that the Cheleken Peninsula had as many as three thousand oil sources. Turkmen settlers in the 19th century extracted oil near the surface and shipped it to Astrakhan by ship and to Iran by camel caravan. Commercial oil drilling began in the 1890s. The oil extraction industry grew with the exploitation of the fields in Cheleken in 1909 (by Branobel) and in Balkanabat in the 1930s. Production leaped ahead with the discovery of the Gumdag field in 1948 and the Goturdepe field in 1959. By 1940 production had reached two million tons per year, by 1960 over four million tons, and by 1970 over 14 million tons. Oil production in 2019 was 9.8 million tons.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Oil wells are mainly found in the western lowlands. This area also produces associated natural gas. The main oilfields are Cheleken, Gonurdepe, Nebitdag, Gumdag, Barsagelmez, Guyujyk, Gyzylgum, Ordekli, Gogerendag, Gamyshlyja, Ekerem, Chekishler, Keymir, Ekizek, and Bugdayly. Oil is also produced from offshore wells in the Caspian Sea. Most oil is extracted by the Turkmenistan State Company (Concern) Türkmennebit from fields at Goturdepe, Balkanabat, and on the Cheleken Peninsula near the Caspian Sea, which have a combined estimated reserve of 700 million tons. Much of the oil produced in Turkmenistan is refined in the Türkmenbaşy and Seydi refineries. Some oil is exported by tanker vessel across the Caspian Sea en route to Europe via Baku and Makhachkala. Foreign firms involved in offshore oil extraction include Eni S.p.A. of Italy, Dragon Oil of the United Arab Emirates, and Petronas of Malaysia.


title: Turkmenistan

text: On 21 January 2021, the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan signed a memorandum of understanding to develop jointly an oil field in the Caspian Sea that straddles the nations' border. Known previously as Kyapaz in Azeri and Serdar in Turkmen, the oil field, now called Dostluk ("friendship" in both languages), potentially has reserves of up to 60 million tons of oil as well as associated natural gas.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan's first electrical power plant was built in 1909 and went into full operation in 1913. As of 2019 it was still in operation. The original triple-turbine Hindukush hydroelectric plant, built by the Austro-Hungarian company Ganz Works on the Murghab River, was designed to produce 1.2 megawatts at 16.5 kilovolts. Until 1957, however, most electrical power in Turkmenistan was produced locally by small Diesel generators and Diesel-electric locomotives.


title: Turkmenistan

text: In 1957 Soviet authorities created a republic-level directorate for power generation, and in 1966 Turkmenistan entered the first phase of connecting its remote regions to the regional Central Asian electrical grid. By 1979 all rural areas of Turkmenistan were brought on line. Construction of the Mary thermal power plant began in 1969, and by 1987 the eighth and final generator block was completed, bringing the plant to its design capacity of 1.686 gigawatts. In 1998 Turkmenenergo commissioned its first gas-turbine power plant, using GE turbines.


title: Turkmenistan

text: As of 2010 Turkmenistan featured eight major power plants operating on natural gas, in Mary, Ashgabat, Balkanabat, Buzmeyin (suburb of Ashgabat), Dashoguz, Türkmenbaşy, Turkmenabat, and Seydi. As of 2013, Turkmenistan had 10 electrical power plants equipped with 32 turbines, including 14 steam-driven, 15 gas powered, and 3 hydroelectric. Power output in 2011 was 18.27 billion kWh, of which 2.5 billion kWh was exported. Major power generating installations include the Hindukush Hydroelectric Station, which has a rated capacity of 350 megawatts, and the Mary Thermoelectric Power Station, which has a rated capacity of 1,370 megawatts. In 2018, electrical power production totaled more than 21 billion kilowatt-hours.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Since 2013, additional power plants have been constructed in Mary and Ahal province, and Çärjew District of Lebap province. The Mary-3 combined cycle power plant, built by Çalık Holding with GE turbines, commissioned in 2018, produces 1.574 gigawatts of electrical power and is specifically intended to support expanded exports of electricity to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Zerger power plant built by Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, and Rönesans Holding in Çärjew District has a design capacity of 432 megawatts from three 144-megawatt gas turbines and was commissioned in September 2021. It is also primarily intended for export of electricity. The Ahal power plant, with capacity of 650 megawatts, was constructed to power the city of Ashgabat and in particular the Olympic Village.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan is a net exporter of electrical power to Central Asian republics and southern neighbors. In 2019, total electrical energy generation in Turkmenistan reportedly totaled 22,521.6 million kilowatt-hours (22.52 terawatt-hours).


title: Turkmenistan

text: Following independence in 1991, Soviet-era collective- and state farms were converted to "farmers associations" (). Virtually all field crops are irrigated due to the aridity of the climate. The top crop in terms of area planted is wheat (761 thousand hectares in 2019), followed by cotton (551 thousand hectares in 2019).


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan is the world's tenth-largest cotton producer. Turkmenistan started producing cotton in the Murghab Valley following conquest of Merv by the Russian Empire in 1884. According to human rights organizations, public sector workers, such as teachers and doctors, are required by the government to pick cotton under the threat of losing their jobs if they refuse.


title: Turkmenistan

text: During the 2020 season, Turkmenistan reportedly produced roughly 1.5 million tons of raw cotton. In 2012, around 7,000 tractors, 5,000 cotton cultivators, 2,200 sowing machines and other machinery, mainly procured from Belarus and the United States, were used. Prior to imposition of a ban on export of raw cotton in October 2018, Turkmenistan exported raw cotton to Russia, Iran, South Korea, United Kingdom, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Ukraine, Singapore and the Baltic states. Beginning in 2019, the Turkmenistan government shifted focus to export of cotton yarn and finished textiles and garments.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan reported arrival of 14,438 foreign tourists in 2019. Turkmenistan's international tourism has not grown significantly despite creation of the Awaza tourist zone on the Caspian Sea. Every traveler must obtain a visa before entering Turkmenistan (see Visa policy of Turkmenistan). To obtain a tourist visa, citizens of most countries need visa support from a local travel agency. For tourists visiting Turkmenistan, organized tours exist providing visits to historical sites in and near Daşoguz, Konye-Urgench, Nisa, Ancient Merv, and Mary, as well as beach tours to Avaza and medical tours and holidays in the sanatoria in Mollagara, Bayramaly, Ýylysuw and Archman.


title: Turkmenistan

text: In January 2022 President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow ordered that the fire at the Darvaza gas crater, known informally as the country's "Gateway to Hell", and one of Turkmenistan's most popular tourist attractions, should be extinguished. Many believe that the crater formed when a Soviet drilling operation went wrong in 1971, but Canadian explorer George Kourounis examined it in 2013 and discovered that no-one actually knows how it started.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Prior to the 1917 Russian Revolution only three automobiles existed in Turkmenistan, all of them foreign models in Ashgabat. No automobile roads existed between settlements. After the revolution, Soviet authorities graded dirt roads to connect Mary and Kushky (Serhetabat), Tejen and Sarahs, Kyzyl-Arvat (Serdar) with Garrygala (Magtymguly) and Chekishler, i.e., with important border crossings. In 1887–1888 the Gaudan Highway () was built between Ashgabat and the Persian border at Gaudan Pass, and Persian authorities extended it to Mashhad, allowing for easier commercial relations. Municipal bus service began in Ashgabat in 1925 with five routes, and taxicab service began in 1938 with five vehicles. The road network was extended in the 1970s with construction of republic-level highways connecting Ashgabat and Kazanjyk (Bereket), Ashgabat and Bayramaly, Nebit Dag (Balkanabat) and Krasnovodsk (Türkmenbaşy), Çärjew (Turkmenabat) and Kerki, and Mary and Kushka (Serhetabat).


title: Turkmenistan

text: The primary west–east motor route is the M37 highway linking the Turkmenbashy International Seaport to the Farap border crossing via Ashgabat, Mary, and Turkmenabat. The primary north–south route is the Ashgabat-Dashoguz Automobile Road (), built in the 2000s. Major international routes include European route E003, European route E60, European route E121, and Asian Highway (AH) routes AH5, AH70, AH75, AH77, and AH78.


title: Turkmenistan

text: A new toll motorway is under construction between Ashgabat and Turkmenabat by "Turkmen Awtoban" company, which will construct the 600-km highway in three phases: Ashgabat-Tejen by December 2020, Tejen-Mary by December 2022 and Mary-Turkmenabat by December 2023. A sister project to link Türkmenbaşy and Ashgabat was suspended when the Turkish contractor, Polimeks, walked away from the project, reportedly because of non-payment.


title: Turkmenistan

text: As of 29 January 2019, the Turkmen Automobile Roads state concern () was subordinated by presidential decree to the Ministry of Construction and Architecture, and responsibility for road construction and maintenance was shifted to provincial and municipal governments. Operation of motor coaches (buses) and taxicabs is the responsibility of the Automobile Services Agency () of the Ministry of Industry and Communication.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Air service began in 1927 with a route between Çärjew (Turkmenabat) and Tashauz (Dashoguz), flying German Junkers 13 and Soviet K-4 aircraft, each capable of carrying four passengers. In 1932 an aerodrome was built in Ashgabat on the site of the current Howdan neighborhoods, for both passenger and freight service, the latter mainly to deliver supplies to sulfur mines near Derweze in the Karakum Desert.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Airports serving the major cities of Ashgabat, Dashoguz, Mary, Turkmenabat, and Türkmenbaşy, which are operated by Turkmenistan's civil aviation authority's airline, Türkmenhowaýollary, feature scheduled domestic commercial air service. Under normal circumstances international scheduled commercial air service is limited to Ashgabat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, international flights take off from and land at Turkmenabat, where quarantine facilities have been established.


title: Turkmenistan

text: State-owned Turkmenistan Airlines is the only Turkmen air carrier. Turkmenistan Airlines' passenger fleet is composed of Boeing and Bombardier Aerospace aircraft. Air transport carries more than two thousand passengers daily in the country. Under normal conditions, international flights annually transport over half a million people into and out of Turkmenistan, and Turkmenistan Air operates regular flights to Moscow, London, Frankfurt, Birmingham, Bangkok, Delhi, Abu Dhabi, Amritsar, Kyiv, Lviv, Beijing, Istanbul, Minsk, Almaty, Tashkent, and St. Petersburg.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Small airfields serve industrial sites near other cities, but do not feature scheduled commercial passenger service. Airfields slated for modernization and expansion include those serving Garabogaz, Jebel, and Galaýmor. The new Turkmenabat International Airport was commissioned in February 2018. In June 2021, an international airport was opened in Kerki.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Since 1962, the Turkmenbashy International Seaport has operated a passenger ferry to the port of Baku, Azerbaijan as well as rail ferries to other ports on the Caspian Sea (Baku, Aktau). In recent years tanker transport of oil to the ports of Baku and Makhachkala has increased.


title: Turkmenistan

text: In May 2018 construction was completed of a major expansion of the Turkmenbashy seaport. Cost of the project was $1.5 billion. The general contractor for the project was Gap Inşaat, a subsidiary of Çalık Holding of Turkey. The expansion added 17 million tons of annual capacity, making total throughput including previously existing facilities of over 25 million tons per year. The international ferry and passenger terminals will be able to serve 300,000 passengers and 75,000 vehicles per year, and the container terminal is designed to handle 400,000 TEU (20-foot container equivalent) per year.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The first rail line in Turkmenistan was built in 1880, from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to Mollagara. By October 1881 the line was extended to Kyzyl-Arvat, by 1886 had reached Çärjew. In 1887 a wooden rail bridge was built over the Amu Darya, and the line was continued to Samarkand (1888) and Tashkent (1898). Rail service in Turkmenistan began as part of Imperial Russia's Trans-Caspian Railway, then of the Central Asian Railway. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the railway network in Turkmenistan was transferred to and operated by the state-owned Türkmendemirýollary. The rail gauge is the same as the Russian (and former Soviet) one-1520 millimeters.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The total length of railways is 3181 km. Only domestic passenger service is available, except for special trains operated by tour operators. The railway carries approximately 5.5 million passengers and moves nearly 24 million tons of freight per year.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmen Railways is currently constructing a rail line in Afghanistan to connect Serhetabat to Herat. Upon completion, it may connect to the proposed rail line to connect Herat to Khaf, Iran.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The last census to be published was held in 1995. Results of every census since then have been kept secret. Available figures indicate that most of Turkmenistan's citizens are ethnic Turkmens with sizeable minorities of Uzbeks and Russians. Smaller minorities include Kazakhs, Tatars, Ukrainians, Kurds (native to the Kopet Dagh mountains), Armenians, Azeris, Balochs and Pashtuns. The percentage of ethnic Russians in Turkmenistan dropped from 18.6% in 1939 to 9.5% in 1989. The "CIA World Factbook" estimated the ethnic composition of Turkmenistan in 2003 as 85% Turkmen, 5% Uzbek, 4% Russian and 6% other. According to official data announced in Ashgabat , 91% of the population were Turkmen, 3% were Uzbeks and 2% were Russians. Between 1989 and 2001 the number of Turkmen in Turkmenistan doubled (from 2.5 to 4.9 million), while the number of Russians dropped by two-thirds (from 334,000 to slightly over 100,000). As of 2021, the number of Russians in Turkmenistan was estimated at 100,000.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Opposition media reported that some results of the 2012 census had been surreptitiously released, including a total population number of 4,751,120. According to this source, as of 2012 85.6% of the population was ethnically Turkmen, followed by 5.8% ethnic Uzbek and 5.1% ethnic Russian. In contrast, an official Turkmen delegation reported to the UN in January 2015 some different figures on national minorities, including slightly under 9% ethnic Uzbek, 2.2% ethnic Russian, and 0.4% ethnic Kazakh. The 2012 census reportedly counted 58 different nationalities.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Official population estimates of 6.2 million are likely too high, given known emigration trends. Population growth has been offset by emigration in search of permanent employment. In July 2021 opposition media reported, based on three independent anonymous sources, that the population of Turkmenistan was between 2.7 and 2.8 million.


title: Turkmenistan

text: A once-in-a-decade national census will be taken in the year 2022 and will determine the size of the country's population.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Based on data from receiving countries, MeteoZhurnal estimated that at least 102,346 Turkmenistani citizens emigrated abroad in 2019, 78% of them to Turkey, and 24,206 apparently returned home, for net migration of 77,014. According to leaked results of a 2018 survey, between 2008 and 2018 1,879,413 Turkmenistani citizens emigrated permanently out of an estimated base population of 5.4 million.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The tribal nature of Turkmen society is well documented. The major modern Turkmen tribes are Teke, Yomut, Ersari, Chowdur, Gokleng and Saryk. The most numerous are the Teke.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmen is the official language of Turkmenistan (per the 1992 Constitution). Since the late 20th century, the government of Turkmenistan has taken steps to distance itself from the Russian language (which has been seen as a soft power tool for Russian interests). The first step in this campaign was the shift to the Latin alphabet in 1993, and Russian lost its status as the "language of inter-ethnic communication" in 1996. As of 1999 Turkmen was spoken by 72% of the population, Russian by 12% (349,000), Uzbek by 9% (317,000), and other languages by 7% (Kazakh (88,000), Tatar (40,400), Ukrainian (37,118), Azerbaijani (33,000), Armenian (32,000), Northern Kurdish (20,000), Lezgian (10,400), Persian (8,000), Belarusian (5,290), Erzya (3,490), Korean (3,490), Bashkir (2,610), Karakalpak (2,540), Ossetic (1,890), Dargwa (1,600), Lak (1,590), Tajik (1,280), Georgian (1,050), Lithuanian (224), Tabasaran (180), and Dungan.


title: Turkmenistan

text: According to the CIA World Factbook, Muslims constitute 93% of the population while 6% of the population are followers of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the remaining 1% religion is reported as "non-religious." According to a 2009 Pew Research Center report, 93.1% of Turkmenistan's population is Muslim.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The first migrants were sent as missionaries and often were adopted as patriarchs of particular clans or tribal groups, thereby becoming their "founders." Reformulation of communal identity around such figures accounts for one of the highly localized developments of Islamic practice in Turkmenistan.


title: Turkmenistan

text: In the Soviet era, all religious beliefs were attacked by the communist authorities as superstition and "vestiges of the past." Most religious schooling and religious observance were banned, and the vast majority of mosques were closed. However, since 1990, efforts have been made to regain some of the cultural heritage lost under Soviet rule.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Former president Saparmurat Niyazov ordered that basic Islamic principles be taught in public schools. More religious institutions, including religious schools and mosques, have appeared, many with the support of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Turkey. Under Niyazov, religious classes were held in both schools and mosques, with instruction in Arabic language, the Qur'an and the hadith, and history of Islam. At present, the only educational institution teaching religion is the theological faculty of Turkmen State University.


title: Turkmenistan

text: President Niyazov wrote his own religious text, published in separate volumes in 2001 and 2004, entitled the "Ruhnama" ("Book of the Soul"). The Turkmenbashy regime required that the book, which formed the basis of the educational system in Turkmenistan, be given equal status with the Quran (mosques were required to display the two books side by side). The book was heavily promoted as part of the former president's personality cult, and knowledge of the "Ruhnama" was required even for obtaining a driver's license. Quotations from the "Ruhnama" are inscribed on the walls of the Türkmenbaşy Ruhy Mosque, which many Muslims consider sacrilege.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Most Christians in Turkmenistan belong to Eastern Orthodoxy (about 5% of the population). There are 12 Russian Orthodox churches in Turkmenistan, four of which are in Ashgabat. An archpriest resident in Ashgabat leads the Orthodox Church within the country. Until 2007 Turkmenistan fell under the religious jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox archbishop in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, but since then has been subordinate to the Archbishop of Pyatigorsk and Cherkessia. There are no Russian Orthodox seminaries in Turkmenistan.


title: Turkmenistan

text: There are also small communities of the following denominations: the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Pentecostal Christians, the Protestant Word of Life Church, the Greater Grace World Outreach Church, the New Apostolic Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, and several unaffiliated, nondenominational evangelical Christian groups. In addition, there are small communities of Baháʼís, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, and Hare Krishnas.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The history of Baháʼí Faith in Turkmenistan is as old as the religion itself, and Baháʼí communities still exist today. The first Baháʼí House of Worship was built in Ashgabat at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was seized by the Soviets in the 1920s and converted to an art gallery. It was heavily damaged in the earthquake of 1948 and later demolished. The site was converted to a public park.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The Russian Academy of Sciences has identified many instances of syncretic influence of pre-Islamic Turkic belief systems on practice of Islam among Turkmen.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The Turkmen people have traditionally been nomads and equestrians, and even today after the fall of the USSR attempts to urbanize the Turkmens have not been very successful. They never really formed a coherent nation or ethnic group until they were forged into one by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. Rather they are divided into clans, and each clan has its own dialect and style of dress. Turkmens are famous for making "knotted Turkmen carpets", often mistakenly called "Bukhara rugs" in the West. These are elaborate and colorful hand-knotted carpets, and these too help indicate the distinctions among the various Turkmen clans. Ethnic groups throughout the region build yurts, circular houses with dome roofs, made of a wooden frame covered in felt from the hides of sheep or other livestock. Horses are an essential ingredient of recreational activities in most of the region, in such games as horseback fighting, in which riders grapple to topple each other from their horses; horse racing.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmen men wear traditional "telpek" hats, which are large black or white sheepskin hats. Traditional dress for men consists of these high, shaggy sheepskin hats and red robes over white shirts. Women wear long sack-dresses over narrow trousers (the pants are trimmed with a band of embroidery at the ankle). Female headdresses usually consist of silver jewelry. Bracelets and brooches are set with semi-precious stones.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Newspapers and monthly magazines are published by state-controlled media outlets, primarily in Turkmen. The daily official newspaper is published in both Turkmen ("Türkmenistan") and Russian ("Нейтральный Туркменистан"). Two online news portals repeat official content, Turkmenportal and Parahat.info, in addition to the official "Golden Age" (, ) news website, which is available in Turkmen, Russian, and English. Two Ashgabat-based private news organizations, Infoabad and Arzuw, offer online content.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Articles published by the state-controlled newspapers are heavily censored and written to glorify the state and its leader. Uncensored press coverage specific to Turkmenistan is provided only by news organizations located outside Turkmenistan: Azatlyk Radiosy, the Turkmen service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty based in Prague; Chronicles of Turkmenistan, the Vienna-based outlet of the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights; Turkmen.news, previously known as Alternative News of Turkmenistan, based in the Netherlands; and Gündogar. In addition, Mediazona Central Asia, Eurasianet and Central Asia News provide some reporting on events in Turkmenistan.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Turkmenistan currently broadcasts 7 national TV channels via satellite. They are Altyn Asyr, Ýaşlyk, Miras, Turkmenistan (in 7 languages), Türkmen Owazy (music), Aşgabat and Turkmenistan Sport. There are no commercial or private TV stations. The nightly official news broadcast, "Watan" (Homeland), is available on YouTube.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Although officially banned, widespread use of satellite dish receivers allows access to foreign programming, particularly outside Ashgabat. Due to the high mutual intelligibility of the Turkmen and Turkish languages, Turkish-language programs have grown in popularity despite official efforts to discourage viewership.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Internet services are the least developed in Central Asia. Access to Internet services is provided by the government's ISP company, Turkmentelekom. As of 27 January 2021, Turkmenistan reported an estimated 1,265,794 internet users or roughly 21% of the total population.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Holidays in Turkmenistan are laid out in the Constitution of Turkmenistan. Holidays in Turkmenistan practiced internationally include New Year's Day, Nowruz, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha. Turkmenistan exclusive holidays include Melon Day, Turkmen Woman's Day, and the Day of Remembrance for Saparmurat Niyazov.


title: Turkmenistan

text: Education is universal and mandatory through the secondary level. Under former President Niyazov, the total duration of primary and secondary education was reduced from 10 to 9 years. President Berdimuhamedov restored 10-year education as of the 2007–2008 school year. Effective 2013, general education in Turkmenistan was expanded to three-stages lasting 12 years: elementary school (grades 1–3), high school – the first cycle of secondary education with duration of 5 years (grades 4–8), and secondary school (grades 9–12).


title: Turkmenistan

text: At the end of the 2019–20 academic year, nearly 80,000 Turkmen pupils graduated from high school. As of the 2019–20 academic year, 12,242 of these students were admitted to institutions of higher education in Turkmenistan. An additional 9,063 were admitted to the country's 42 vocational colleges. An estimated 95,000 Turkmen students were enrolled in institutions of higher education abroad as of Autumn 2019.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The tasks for modern Turkmen architecture are diverse application of modern aesthetics, the search for an architect's own artistic style, and inclusion of the existing historico-cultural environment. Most major new buildings, especially those in Ashgabat, are faced with white marble. Major projects such as Turkmenistan Tower, Bagt köşgi, Alem Cultural and Entertainment Center, Ashgabat Flagpole have transformed the country's skyline and promote its identity as a modern, contemporary city.


title: Turkmenistan

text: The most popular sport in Turkmenistan is football. The national team has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup but has appeared twice at the AFC Asian Cup, in 2004 and 2019, failing to advance past the group stage at both editions. Another popular sport is archery, Turkmenistan holds league and local competitions for archery. International sports events hosted in Turkmenistan include; the 2021 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, and the 2018 World Weightlifting Championships.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Kamarudeen Usman (born May 11, 1987) is a Nigerian and American professional mixed martial artist, former freestyle wrestler and retired folkstyle wrestler. He currently competes in the welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the former UFC Welterweight Champion and was also tournament winner.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: As of November 14, 2022, he is #1 in the UFC men's welterweight rankings, and #4 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: As a freestyle wrestler, Usman primarily competed at , and was a 2010 U.S, University World Team Member. Collegiately, he competed at , and was the 2010 NCAA Division II national champion, a three–time NCAA Division II All-American, and a NAIA national qualifier.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman was born in Auchi, Nigeria. His father was a major in the Nigerian Army and his mother was a teacher. He has two brothers, Kashetu and Mohammed, the latter of whom is also a mixed martial artist and fellow (TUF) winner. Usman had a modest upbringing during his childhood. Usman's father Muhammed Nasiru Usman, who became a pharmacist in the United States, brought his family into the country when Usman was eight years old, immigrating to Dallas, Texas.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman started wrestling in his sophomore year in high school, at Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas. Because Usman's wrestling coach at the time had trouble pronouncing his first name Kamarudeen, he got the nickname "Marty" when he joined the team and it stuck with him during his amateur wrestling career. After compiling a 53–3 record as a senior and placing third at the Texas state championships, Usman wrestled alongside Jon Jones at the senior national tournament before leaving for college.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: In college, Usman wrestled in Iowa at William Penn University for one year, where he was an NAIA national tournament qualifier in 2007, but was unable to attend the tournament due to a snowstorm; half of his team and his head coach, however, left early for the tournament without him, which frustrated Usman and influenced him to leave William Penn. He later transferred to the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK), which previously tried to recruit him under advisement of then-UNK wrestler Tervel Dlagnev, and subsequently helped the Lopers win their first-ever team title in 2008. Usman placed top three in the nation all three years he attended UNK and was a two-time national finalist. He became the NCAA Division II national champion at 174 pounds in 2010, finishing the season with a 44–1 record and 30 straight wins.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Shortly after his folkstyle career was over, Usman turned his attention to freestyle wrestling and became a resident of the United States Olympic Training Center, with hopes of making the 2012 Olympic team. Despite making the U.S. University World Team in 2010, Usman was sidetracked by injuries and eventually abandoned his Olympic goal after failing to qualify for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, turning his attention to mixed martial arts instead. Former National Football League (NFL) star Christian Okoye, who has the nickname "The Nigerian Nightmare" trademarked, gave his blessing for Usman to use it.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: On 2011, Usman served as the wrestling coach for in . After failing to qualify for the 2012 US Olympic Team Trials in freestyle wrestling, Usman made his professional MMA debut in November 2012. He compiled a record of 5–1, competing for several regional promotions before trying out for The Ultimate Fighter in early 2015.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: In his TUF debut and quarterfinal bout of the bracket, Usman faced undefeated eventual Titan FC Welterweight Champion Michael Graves. He won the fight via majority decision.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: In the semifinals, Usman faced off against long-time veteran and former WSOF Welterweight Champion Steve Carl. He won the fight via unanimous decision and advanced to the finals.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: In the finals, Usman faced Hayder Hassan on July 12, 2015, at . He won the bout via submission in the second round, thus winning a six-figure contract with the UFC. He was also awarded the Performance of the Night award.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: In his official debut as a UFC athlete, Usman faced future champion Leon Edwards on December 19, 2015, at UFC on Fox 17. He won the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman was expected to face two-time World Jiu-Jitsu Champion Sérgio Moraes on May 14, 2016, at UFC 198. However, it was announced on May 1 that Usman had pulled out of the bout for undisclosed reasons and was replaced by promotional newcomer Luan Chagas.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: In his first bout of the year, Usman faced Alexander Yakovlev on July 23, 2016, at UFC on Fox 20. He won the one-sided fight via unanimous decision after out-grappling Yakovlev.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman faced tournament winner Warlley Alves on November 19, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 100. He won the match by unanimous decision for the third-straight time.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman faced former long-time KOTC Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland on April 8, 2017, at UFC 210. He once again won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: A rescheduled bout with a Sérgio Moraes on a seven-match unbeaten streak eventually took place on September 16, 2017, at UFC Fight Night 116. Usman won the fight via one-punch knockout in the first round.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman was scheduled to face Venator FC Welterweight Champion Emil Weber Meek on December 30, 2017, at UFC 219, however, Meek presented VISA problems and the pair was rescheduled for UFC Fight Night 124. Usman won the fight by unanimous decision after out-wrestling his opponent.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman was expected to face Santiago Ponzinibbio on May 19, 2018, at UFC Fight Night 129. However, on April 21, Ponzinibbio was pulled from the card due to injury and replaced by ADCC Grappling World Champion and two-time UFC title challenger Demian Maia. After denying all of Maia's fifteen attempts of takedowns and out-performing his opponent on the feet, Usman won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: On August 18, it was announced that Usman would serve as a back-up for the UFC 228 main event match between long-time champion Tyron Woodley and undefeated challenger Darren Till.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman faced former UFC Lightweight Champion Rafael dos Anjos on November 30, 2018, at .<ref name="RDA/Usman"></ref> He won the fight via unanimous decision. This win earned him his second Performance of the Night award.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Riding a nine-fight winning streak in the UFC, Usman next faced UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley on March 2, 2019, in the co-main event at UFC 235. He won the one-sided fight via unanimous decision after dominating Woodley for five rounds.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman made his first title defense and faced long-time rival Colby Covington at UFC 245 on December 14, 2019. Despite both athletes being mostly offensive wrestlers, the fight did not include any grappling and contained high-paced offense in the striking instead. After a fight often referred to as a five-round "slugfest", Usman was able to knockdown his opponent twice before finishing him with strikes in the fifth round to be declared the winner via technical knockout, which set the record for the latest finish in UFC welterweight history. This fight earned both participants the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman was scheduled to defend his title for the second time against long-time teammate and two-time No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu World Champion Gilbert Burns on July 12, 2020 at UFC 251. Both being originally from the same camp – Sanford MMA – Usman opted to train under Trevor Wittman heading into the fight. On July 3, 2020, it was revealed that Burns tested positive for COVID-19 and he was subsequently removed from the card. On July 5, 2020, it was reported that Jorge Masvidal stepped in on short notice to replace Burns. Usman won via unanimous decision. The card reportedly generated 1.3 million pay-per-view buys in the United States, the most since UFC 229 in October 2018.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman was once again scheduled to defend his title against BJJ World Champion Gilbert Burns, on December 12, 2020, at UFC 256. However, on October 5, 2020, It was reported that Usman had pulled out from the bout, citing more time needed to recover from undisclosed injuries and the bout was postponed for February 13, 2021, as the headliner for UFC 258. Usman defended his title for the third time, as he won the fight via technical knockout in the third round, surpassing the record of the former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre for the largest win-streak in the division with thirteen. This win earned him the Performance of the Night award.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: For his fifth title bout, Usman rematched against Jorge Masvidal for the UFC Welterweight Championship on April 24, 2021, at UFC 261 in Florida. He successfully defended his title after knocking out Masvidal in the second round, becoming the first to do so in the UFC. This win earned Usman his fourth "Performance of the Night" bonus award.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman rematched Colby Covington for the UFC Welterweight Championship on November 6, 2021 at UFC 268. Usman retained his championship, being declared the winner via unanimous decision.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman rematched Leon Edwards for his sixth title defense on August 20, 2022 at UFC 278. Usman entered the fight with a -425 winning favour while odd-makers saw Leon as a +315 underdog. Usman lost the fight and title via knockout 4 minutes into the fifth round, marking Usman's first loss inside the UFC.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Born to a Muslim father and Christian mother, Usman identifies as a Muslim. His father, Muhammed Nasiru Usman, who had previous convictions in Tarrant County for theft and drunk driving, was convicted in May 2010 of various offenses, including health care fraud and money laundering, related to a health care fraud scheme. He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment and ordered to pay $1,300,000 in restitution, and was released from FCI Seagoville on March 16, 2021.


title: Kamaru Usman

text: Usman has a younger brother named Mohammed who was also in , in the Heavyweight division, winning the UFC contract and becoming the first two brothers to do so.


title: Spider-Man: Far From Home

text: Spider-Man: Far From Home is a 2019 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the sequel to "" (2017) and the 23rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Jon Watts, written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, J. B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, and Jake Gyllenhaal. In the film, Parker is recruited by Nick Fury (Jackson) and Mysterio (Gyllenhaal) to face the Elementals while he is on a school trip to Europe.


title: Spider-Man: Far From Home

text: Discussions for a sequel to "Spider-Man: Homecoming" began by October 2016, and the project was confirmed later that year. Holland, Watts, and the writers were all set to return by the end of 2017. In 2018, Jackson and Gyllenhaal joined the cast as Fury and Mysterio, respectively. Holland revealed the sequel's title ahead of filming, which began that July and took place in England, the Czech Republic, Italy, and the New York metropolitan area. Production wrapped in October 2018. The marketing campaign is one of the most expensive for a film ever and attempted to avoid revealing spoilers for "" prior to its April 2019 release.


title: Spider-Man: Far From Home

text: "Spider-Man: Far From Home" premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre on June 26, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 2, as the last film in of the MCU. The film received positive reviews with praise for its humor, action sequences, visuals, and the performances of Holland and Gyllenhaal. It grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the first Spider-Man film to pass the billion-dollar mark, the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2019, and became Sony Pictures' highest-grossing film and the 24th-highest-grossing film of all time. A sequel, "", was released in December 2021.


title: Spider-Man: Far From Home

text: In Ixtenco, Mexico, Nick Fury and Maria Hill investigate an unnatural storm and encounter the Earth Elemental. Quentin Beck, a super-powered individual, arrives to defeat the creature, and is subsequently recruited by Fury and Hill. In New York City, the Midtown School of Science and Technology completes its year, which was restarted to accommodate the students who previously disintegrated five years earlier as a result of Thanos' actions. They had reappeared un-aged, thanks to the actions of the Avengers. The school organizes a two-week summer field trip to Europe, where Peter Parker—who is still mourning the death of his mentor Tony Stark—plans to reveal to classmate MJ his attraction to her. Happy Hogan informs Parker that Fury intends to contact him, but Parker ignores Fury's phone call.


title: Spider-Man: Far From Home

text: Parker and his classmates travel to Venice, Italy, where the Water Elemental attacks. Parker helps protect his classmates, while Beck arrives and defeats the creature. Fury meets with Parker and gives him Stark's glasses, which were meant for his successor. The glasses enable him to communicate with and take command of the artificial intelligence E.D.I.T.H., which has access to Stark Industries' databases and commands a large orbital weapons supply. Beck claims to have entered from an alternate reality within the multiverse, where the four Elementals killed his family and destroyed his civilization. With only the Fire Elemental left to destroy, Beck predicts it will attack Prague. Parker declines Fury's invitation to join the fight and returns to his class trip.


title: Spider-Man: Far From Home

text: Fury secretly changes the class's itinerary to divert the students to Prague. There, Parker is forced to help Beck fight the Fire Elemental to again protect his friends. Beck manages to destroy the creature with Parker's help. Fury and Hill invite Parker and Beck to Berlin to discuss the formation of a new superhero team, but Parker decides that Beck should go alone and transfers control of E.D.I.T.H. to him. Once Parker leaves, Beck celebrates alongside ex-Stark Industries employees, with whom he had been working to masquerade as a superhero. Beck, who was fired from his position as Stark's holographic-illusions specialist for his unstable nature, used advanced projectors to simulate his powers and the Elementals, and now hopes to use E.D.I.T.H.'s orbital weaponized drones to increase the scale of his illusions and fraudulently establish himself as an Avenger-level hero.


title: Spider-Man: Far From Home

text: After MJ tells Parker she knows he is Spider-Man, they discover that a piece of debris she retrieved during the battle with the Fire Elemental is a projector which shows the Air Elemental, leading them to realize Beck's deception. Parker travels to Berlin to warn Fury, only to be tricked by Beck with an illusory Fury into revealing the names of his friends who know about Beck's plan and is hit by a train. Left for dead by Beck, Parker contacts Hogan, who flies him to London, where his classmates are. Beck uses E.D.I.T.H. to orchestrate a fusion of all the Elementals, as a cover to kill Parker's friends. Parker is able to disrupt the illusions, so Beck attacks him with drones. Parker regains control of E.D.I.T.H. and defeats Beck, who is hit by a misfired gunshot from one of the drones; before he dies, Beck tells one of his associates to retrieve data from the drones. After returning to New York City, Parker begins a relationship with MJ.


title: Spider-Man: Far From Home

text: In a mid-credits scene, J. Jonah Jameson of "TheDailyBugle.net" broadcasts doctored footage of the London incident in which Beck frames Spider-Man for the drone attack and his death before exposing Spider-Man's secret identity to the world, much to Parker's shock. In a post-credits scene, Fury and Hill are revealed to be the Skrulls Talos and Soren in disguise, under orders from the real Fury while he is away commanding a Skrull spaceship.