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Turkmenistan - Permanently Neutral?

Overview

Hearing about events in the middle east is common in the United States, but it is rare that we have good news reported from this region of the world. It is quite easy to get caught up in the headlines, they are captivating and our media resources know what makes us watch the news. My goal in this lesson/unit is to bring more exposure to countries that are forgotten or unknown to those in America. The country that I am focusing on in this unit Turkmenistan. This country is right in the middle of a region that has been the focus of the U.S. for a long time, yet we know very little about it. Turkmenistan is one of only two countries in the world that shares a border with Iran and Afghanistan, yet they are not in headlines or of interest to our news media. I have had the privilege to have met Daniyar, a FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) from Turkmenistan, who will be sharing information about his way of life and how his country has developed since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Activities and Awareness

Activity to Introduce and Explore:

Required - Internet - Access to Google Maps
Optional but preferred - Google Earth installed on computer(s)

Use Google Maps or Earth to have students explore Turkmenistan (geography, cities, photos)

Have students work in individually or in pairs to locate the following - simply copy the checklist and paste into a Word or Excel sheet to check off students as they locate the items (if you are able to use Google Earth - provide the sheet and have students enter the Coordinates) - It will be much easier for students to locate the landmarks by activating the "photo" option in Google Earth or Maps.

Turkmenistan Landmark Scavenger Hunt

Located in or around the Capital of Ashgabat

Presidental Palace
Bashkent Turkmen Turkish High School
Church of St. Alexander Nevski
Ashgabat Airport Roundabout Statue
Kurtlinskoe Reservoir
Ashgabat Olympic Stadium
West Gate of Ashgabat
Statue of President Naizov

Outlying Areas

Dikcha Cape Valley
Sarygamysh Lake
Red Lake
The Door to Hell
Karakum Clift
Garabogazkol Basin
Gonur Depe

While students search have the look at various pictures near the items and have them observe characteristics that stand out.

When finished with scavenger hunt start a discussion on what things they observed that we different from what they have seen in America, did they see anything that stood out or was surprising to them.

Use the following links to discuss the political, economic, and other information about Turkmenistan

Some items that should be noted in discussion:

The presidential process and democracy in a Muslim nation
Use of resources to improve infrastructure, quality of life, education.
Geographical location and proximity to Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Population, size of country, independence and Constitution.
"Permanently Neutrality"

Links:

Wikipedia - Turkmenistan
Department of State Information
Travel and Turkmenistan
Politics of Turkmenistan

Life in Turkmenistan - Student Perspective

Turkmenistan is unique in many ways compared to other countries in the region. In 1998 the United Nations recognized the "permanent neutrality" status of Turkmenistan. The country will not engage in any military or political issues outside of their country and they celebrated their 20th anniversary of independence last year. The country is 80% desert, has the Caspian Sea on their eastern shores, and temperatures reaching 120 degrees is not uncommon in the capital Ashgabat.

It is fairly easy in the electronic age to find information on almost anything, but we were able to talk directly to a current FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) student that was here for the pas 10 months as an exchange student through CIEE. Daniyar is a student that spend his time in the U.S. on a rural farm in Michigan and he was able to offer information that only a resident of Turkmenistan would know.

Information on the FLEX program

1. You have lived your life in Turkmenistan free of being a part of the Soviet Union, do you have any information on how life is different since the Turkmen people were given back their freedom as country? Are there people in your country that feel that it was better to be part of the Soviet Union?

Our people's lives have been changed positively a lot since we gained our Independence. When the Soviets were in power, we didn’t have safe borders it was just open, where everybody could come in and get whatever they wanted to from our people with the force, everything went to Soviet Union like all the resources that we were producing. The economy was bad then, because everything was for Center (Soviet Union). They renamed the previous names of places that we had, also People from the different part of Soviet Union came to our country and lived at very good places. Our government or people didn’t select leaders to our congress; Center selected them and put them positions as judges. Moreover our mother nature got kind of really bad, because of using those resources without any thinking at that time, cutting all the trees we had on our mountains. They used the rivers too much for their irrigation system which made their water level to drop as well as the level of the Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea.

Life is way better now, we have a time that people are happy and glad to have our independence. I have not heard anyone that says Soviets time was better than now and I don't think many would say it was better under Soviet rule. We call this age of our country Golden Age, where people can make their own decisions and make up their own life.

2. In the U.S. we tend to forget how having certain freedoms is a privilege, do you know of any rights or freedoms that the people of your country lost while under the Soviet Union?

As I said people lost the right to make their own decisions in their own country, all the orders came from the Center (Soviet Union), they didn’t have a lot of choices, they worked really hard and got paid very little, job times were very long sometimes they didn’t have weekends either. My grandma tells stories looking back at those hard times they had, they didn't even choose what to do on their own property. Transportation was pretty bad and people had to drive their bikes, horses, sometimes cars for long distances to get the groceries and sell their stuff that they grow on their garden to make a living money.

3. There are probably very few people in America that have any knowledge of Turkmenistan. In western media, there are daily references to Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan yet your country is right in the heart of this area. Your country has seemed to avoid the conflicts that affect the other three countries, what do you think has helped your country stay out of this political chaos?

Nowadays Turkmenistan is very quiet country we have very safe borders with those neighbor countries. We have two borders, what that means is they are one after the other like parallel to each other along the whole Turkmen borders, and there is a distance between them, it is like 0.5 km, both borders are like electric borders if someone touches the signal goes the Army forces. So if you pass one and get to the second one, you may get shot by our soldiers, but it is usually peace and quiet though. Also We have our Neutrality, for some countries’ people it is just meaningless, what that means is, we don’t get involved any other countries political or military issues. Our country’s doors are always open to other countries to those who want to make the world more peaceful and beautiful. Also United Nations has interest in our country to help out people to make their life better, they protect us too at the same time. As for Afghanistan, they don’t really fight with our soldiers, because of those borders and there is also mountains area through the borders. We had some conflicts before with them, but now it’s quiet though there is nothing really going on with us. Our government gives financial aid to the people who are suffering in that country from terrorism and help them through the United Nations. Iran is not really dangerous to us, I mean there is nothing really going on, like fighting or whatever, they've been friendly us and we export natural gas to Iran and there is going to be train system, starts in Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Arabic countries. In my opinion Iran has some problems with the US and with some other countries, but we don't have any with them.

4. Turkmenistan shares a large border with Afghanistan and Iran, Pakistan is the only other country to share borders with both countries. What does Turkmenistan do differently than Pakistan to protect its people and borders? Do you feel that these protections are sufficient to protect your borders over the next decade?

We establish peace in political ways, we don’t do anything bad to those countries, and so they don’t do anything to us. We prefer to keep the peace between us as any country would. Also we always protect our borders carefully and safely, just making sure no one goes in without going through the proper methods to enter a country.

5. Turkmenistan has a very long history in the world but is young as a nation (independent in 1991), what is happening in your country that has made the quality of living better over the last few years.

Yes, our nation’s history comes from a long ancient time, but country is still young since we received Independence from SU (Soviet Union), last year (2011) we celebrated our 20th anniversary of Independence. Turkmenistan has been in transition from dependence to independence and from socialism to market economy since 1991. As I said during the Soviets’ time our economy weakened, life style went down, and many other things did too. After we got our Independence nation started working hard on everything, the government established some luxuries for the people, including free natural gas to heat the house in winter time and free electricity for all citizens. During the last years the government said that they provide a certain amount of free gas for the citizens’ cars and they can get a coupon every 6 months for their gas, and then use it. Moreover a lot of construction work in going on and a lot of buildings have been built during the Independence years. There have been many improvements in manufacturing, schools, colleges, hospitals, hotels, and palaces. Now we have some nice cities to show our hard work and pride. We started planting millions of different kind of trees every year to make the nature look better. We gained many of achievements on people’s health issues. Furthermore so many highways have been built, and we are still building new ones too.

6. Your year in America has been a great experience, what are some of the main social differences you have seen between Turkmen people and the American People? How are teens different between the two countries.

This year has been one of the greatest years in my life; I experienced lots of things. One of my experiences was that Americans have more freedom; they have rights to speak up (freedom of speech), and to protect their rights. It’s actually better in our country compared to other countries around us. Teens are really different in our country than here for example: more teens go to college to continue their school education in the US than in Turkmenistan. Also we have drinking age issues - teens start drinking when they are younger than here, but no drug issues. A lot of teens have a car, and they drive more than our teens. We have a special school uniforms - for example for boys: white shirt with the black tie, black dressing pants with the black shoes, and our national hat which are for warmer seasons and for winter time they wear a black suit. The girls they have a special dress that they have to wear at school. School is harder in our country than it is here, more subjects and more homework. My day was always pretty busy with school and I took extra classes after school in English and Math. I also had to earn my own money to do things, I have my garden where I raise vegetables and fruits and sell them at the market to make a profit for myself. Moreover I love to spend my time with my family, playing sports and hanging out with friends

Summary

Hosting a student from Turkmenistan (a largely Muslim country) in the United States has been a wonderful experience for Daniyar's host family and all those who came in contact with him throughout his year here in America. The exchange program is meant to help with the understanding of other cultures and promote diplomacy one student at a time. Daniyar also worked over 100 hours in community service in his year here, an accomplishment of which he is very proud, and one which could be emulated by future exchange students and American students alike!

Turkmenistan is only one of many countries that we as Americans should take the time to learn more about, beyond the small amount of information that is presented by the mainstream media. If we look beyond the polarizing issues of politics and religion we will see that the people in other countries have the same dreams and hopes for their children, family, and friends. In the end people are really far more alike than different, regardless of where they live.