President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has decided to take another step to undo his predecessor’s personality cult. At the expanded government meeting on May 2, it was decided
to relocate the Neutrality Arch to the southern area of Ashgabat. It was noted that it would be expedient to locate this monument in the southern part of Ashgabat […]

The Turkmen government has announced it will take down the Arch of Neutrality monument topped by a revolving golden statue of former President Saparmurat Niyazov in what is possibly the most drastic act to date in the dismantling of the late leader’s cult of personality.
The 75-meter high monument will be relocated to a site […]

They were admired already by Alexander the Great, who had a horse of that breed called Bucephalus. Marco Polo, the famous Medieval traveller, also wrote about them. Beautiful, noble, tenacious, capable of surviving many days in the desert without water, they are the pride of the Turkmen and one of the symbols of their […]

On 20-25 April, Turkmen energy minister Baimyrat Khodzamuhammedov visited Islamabad where he took part in the 10th meeting of steering committee of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Apart from him, the meeting gathered Indian, Pakistani and Afghan officials. Few days later, on April 28th Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov traveled to Kabul (first time in independent […]

Central Asia is becoming increasingly more popular as a tourist destination, especially for tourists from the West. Monuments of Bukhara, Samarkand, Khiva, trips to the Tian Shan and Pamir mountains… They all attract adventure-seekers and tourists in search of exoticism. The Central Asian states are also en route for globetrotters traveling from Europe to […]

The NATO summit in Bucharest was completed a few days ago. For the first time, president of Turkmenistan participated in the event. During the summit, the Turkmen leader talked eye to eye to president George W. Bush. This is an undoubted success of Berdymukhammedov, first of all, in the propaganda sphere. Events such as […]

I took these photos in September last year in ancient Merv, located near modern town of Mary in eastern Turkmenistan. If you would like to read about Merv click here or here.

I found this short movie at Youtube by accident. Although I was initially a bit discouraged by quotations from the Rukhnama that appear in the very beginning of the video, I decided to watch it to the end. And I do not regret it! I must confess that despite its obvious propagandist purpose, the […]

Somewhere in the steppes surrounding the Caspian Sea …

On 29 February, News Central Asia website edited by the Pakistanis, published Tariq Saeedi’s piece wherein he harshly criticized Internet sites for reprinting the news announced by the Turkmenistan Chronicles. The news concerned alleged mass dismissals from the Turkmen TV, caused by a cockroach that supposedly crawled across the table during the news transmission. […]