{"id":6287,"date":"2018-05-31T06:21:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T03:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/?page_id=6287"},"modified":"2019-02-05T11:03:12","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T05:03:12","slug":"general-information","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/destinations\/turkmenistan\/general-information\/","title":{"rendered":"General information"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Turkmenistan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Turkmenistan (formerly known as Turkmenia) is a sovereign state in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the north-west, Uzbekistan to the north and east, Afghanistan to the south-east, Iran to the south and south-west, and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ashgabat is the capital and the largest city.<br \/>\nTurkmenistan has been at the crossroads of civilizations for centuries. In medieval times, Merv was one of the great cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road, a caravan route used for trade with China until the mid-15th century. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan later figured prominently in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Central Asia. In 1925, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR); it became independent upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.<br \/>\nTurkmenistan possesses the world\u2019s sixth largest reserves of natural gas resources. Most of the country is covered by the Karakum (Black Sand) Desert. Since 1993, citizens have been receiving government-provided electricity, water and natural gas free of charge.<br \/>\nTurkmenistan was ruled by President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov (also, known as Turkmenbashi) until his death in 2006. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was elected president in 2007. According to Human Rights Watch, \u201cTurkmenistan remains one of the world\u2019s 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.\u201d After suspending the death penalty, the use of capital punishment was formally abolished in the 2008 constitution.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turkmenistan Turkmenistan (formerly known as Turkmenia) is a sovereign state in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the north-west, Uzbekistan to the north and east, Afghanistan to the south-east, Iran to the south and south-west, and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ashgabat is the capital and the largest city. Turkmenistan has been at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1081,"parent":6283,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page_country.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6287"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11360,"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6287\/revisions\/11360"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ak-sai.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}