Turkmenistan is the southernmost state in Central Asia and the second largest.

Throughout its history, the region has been conquered by such notable figures as Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great and Ghengis Khan. The Turkmen people first arrived in the area in about the 10th century, though there is some debate as to where they came from.

Turkmens first came under the gaze of the Russian Empire in the late 18th century, but resistance wasn’t finally broken until the Battle of Gök-Tepe (now Gökdepe) in 1881, after which the area of present-day Turkmenistan incorporated into Russian Turkestan.

After the Russian revolution, Turkmenistan formed part of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) in 1921, becoming a constituent republic of the USSR in 1925. 

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Turkmen Communist Party supported the failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, but declared independence on October 27th 1991.