astern provinces) (2004)

Illicit drugs:
key transit route for Southwest Asian heroin to Western Europe and
- to a far lesser extent the US - via air, land, and sea routes;
major Turkish, Iranian, and other international trafficking
organizations operate out of Istanbul; laboratories to convert
imported morphine base into heroin are in remote regions of Turkey
as well as near Istanbul; government maintains strict controls over
areas of legal opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw
concentrate

This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005

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@Turkmenistan

Introduction Turkmenistan

Background:
Annexed by Russia between 1865 and 1885, Turkmenistan became a
Soviet republic in 1924. It achieved its independence upon the
dissolution of the USSR in 1991. President NIYAZOV retains absolute
control over the country and opposition is not tolerated. Extensive
hydrocarbon/natural gas reserves could prove a boon to this
underdeveloped country if extraction and delivery projects were to
be expanded. The Turkmenistan Government is actively seeking to
develop alternative petroleum transportation routes in order to
break Russia's pipeline monopoly.

Geography Turkmenistan

Location:
Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea, between Iran and Kazakhstan

Geographic coordinates:
40 00 N, 60 00 E

Map references:
Asia

Area:
total: 488,100 sq km
land: 488,100 sq km
water: negl.

Area - comparative:
slightly larger than California

Land boundaries:
total: 3,736 km
border countries: Afghanistan 744 km, Iran 992 km, Kazakhstan 379
km, Uzbekistan 1,621 km

Coastline:
0 km; note - Turkmenistan borders the Caspian Sea (1,768 km)

Maritime claims:
none (landlocked)

Climate:
subtropical desert

Terrain:
flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes rising to mountains in the
south; low mountains along border with Iran; borders Caspian Sea in
west

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Vpadina Akchanaya -81 m; note - Sarygamysh Koli is a
lake in northern Turkmenistan with a water level that fluctuates
above and below the elevation of Vpadina Akchanaya (the lake has
dropped as low as -110 m)
highest point: Gora Ayribaba 3,139 m

Natural resources:
petroleum, natural gas, sulfur, salt

Land use:
arable land: 3.72%
permanent crops: 0.14