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This digital document is an article from Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 3660 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Comprehensive and written clearly, the Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations features consistent coverage of all countries while allowingfor easy comparison on the different nations of the world. ... Read more

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Chapters: Freedom of Religion in Turkmenistan. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 36. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Constitution provides for freedom of religion and does not establish a state religion; however, in practice the Government continued to restrict all forms of religious expression. All groups must register in order to gain legal status; unregistered religious activity is illegal and may be punished by administrative fines. While the 2003 law on religion and subsequent 2004 amendments had effectively restricted registration to only the two largest groups, Sunni Muslim and Russian Orthodox, and criminalized unregistered religious activity, presidential decrees issued in 2004 dramatically reduced the numerical thresholds for registration and abolished criminal penalties for unregistered religious activity; civil penalties remain. As a result, nine minority religious groups were able to register, and the Government allowed some other groups to meet quietly with reduced harassment. There was no improvement in the status of respect for religious freedom by the Government during the period covered by this report, and there were troubling developments in the treatment of some unregistered groups. Following a sharp decrease in harassment of both registered and unregistered groups in late 2006, mistreatment of some registered and many unregistered religious minority group members, similar to that in previous reporting periods, resumed in February 2007. On December 21, 2006, President Saparmurat Niyazov died. The State Security Council appointed Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Minister of Health Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov Acting President; Berdimuhammedov was elected President in February, 2007. During the reporting period there were no indications the Gove...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=16144181 ... Read more

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Describes the history, development, current status, and possible future of the four former Soviet republics which have strong ties to neighboring Muslim states. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 11515 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents easy-to-understand information on 200 countries and dependencies from around the world. Entries discuss a variety of topics in detail, from banking and securities to climate, from government data to demographic statistics. Also includes biographical essays on national leaders. ... Read more

Product Description
Saparmurat Niyazov, President of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist
Republic of Turkmenistan, died early on 21st December 2006 in a
strange new world of his own creation.
His official title, bestowed on himself, was Turkmenbashi , or
leader of Turkmen .
Coming from a humble orphaned background, he soon worked
his way up through the Communist party, and was eventually
made President of a newly independent Turkmenistan from the
collapsing Soviet Union.
The surreal reality that followed was a twenty-year long
dictatorship, considered one of the hardest in the world, where he
gave his people free salt, electricity and gas - but also the lowest
minimum wage possible.
Even the months of the year were renamed to pay homage to
Niyazov and his family.
By 2001 all internet cafes were closed and ballet and opera
were banned, and in 2004, the state even forbade young men
from growing long hair or beards and it was prohibited for news
readers to wear make-up
LOVE ME Turkmenistan is a vivid, colourful and often very
humorous depiction of a country dominated by the dark shadow
of its ex-leader, with full-technicolour depictions of its capital, its
monuments, and its people, now released from a surreal chapter
in their country s history.
Each vivid image is accompanied by an actual quote from
Niyazov, forming a strong and often outrageous commentary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Photo essay
This book will certainly appeal to some people, but it really is not a book on Turkmenistan as much as a thrown together photo essay with not much of a narrative.The book is beautifully formatted but surprisingly short.The photos are interesting for five or maybe even ten minutes, but it's certainly not worth the price. ... Read more

Product Description
The book gives a complete account of the biogeography, animaland plant ecology and natural conservation in Turkmenistan. This region within the former USSR borders on Iran and Afghanistan andincludes both deserts and arid mountains. Turkmenistan, and especiallythe mountains of Kopetdagh, is an extremely important region forhistorical biogeography, as a corridor and filter between theMediterranean region, the Middle East and the great deserts of Asia. This remote area was studied exclusively by Soviet scientists and allinformation was published in Russian. This book is the first to bringdata on the biogeography and conservation of Turkmenistan to thegeneral scientific community. ... Read more

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This collection traces how pastoralists have coped with the challenges of change in their precarious position in a part of the world with a long-tradition of livestock keeping. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Author's review
Dismantling the Soviet Union had rarely-examined effects on remote rural families. This book documents the impacts of transition on pastoralists,through multidisciplinary field studies at several sites between 1998-2000. Topics include: Asian agrarian reform, vegetation dynamics, livestock nutrition, grazing patterns, marketing and pastoral income, land degradation, institutions for managing pasture and livestock. The fourteen authors include five Central Asian scientists, and range from social anthropologists, animal scientists, economists, pasture agronomists and climate ecologists. The book will be of interest to researchers on range and livestock in semi-arid areas and to policy analysts of transition in the rural areas of the former Soviet Union. ... Read more

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Our knowledge of many groups or periods has benefited from systematic ceramic analysis, however as yet the Sasanian Empire of ancient Persia (224-651 AD) has not be subjected to the same examination. Merv, an expansive ancient city located in an oasis in the Central Asian steppes, was for millennia a gateway for travelers and traders along the Silk Road between east and west. Puschnigg’s detailed study of Merv’s Sasanian pottery creates a benchmark for other work on this ceramic corpus. She dissects the frequency, dates, wares, and profiles of hundreds of securely excavated pieces and compares them with the finds from earlier Russian studies, generally unavailable to western researchers. Puschnigg uses this material to provide insights into the social and economic dimensions of the Sasanian world, as well as providing researchers with a catalog of typical shapes and wares. ... Read more

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Turkmenistan was once the world's most feared territory. Since the time of the Mongols, the nomadic tribes of its vast desert wastes were deemed ungovernable. Russians and Persians were captured as slaves and carried off by the fierce Turkmen. Even now, as an independent country located between the hot spots of Afghanistan and Iran, with one of the planet's largest natural gas reserves, Turkmenistan remains virtually unknown to the outside world. Unknown Sands penetrates this remote and harsh land. This is a personal story that blends two years of adventure with Turkmenistan’s tumultuous history to present an intriguing profile of the country and its people. This former Soviet territory offers a target-rich environment for the unusual including a surreal cult of Presidential personality, ancient ruins of the Silk Road, and a unique, mystical brand of Islam. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Interesting Travelogue
This is not a scholarly work, a detailed history of Turkmenistan, or a comprehensive survey of modern Turkmenistan.It was written by a USAID employee, not a professional author, scholar or historian.

None of that diminishes the value of the book on its own terms.It is an eye-witness account of one man's work and travels in an unknown country.And because Turkmenistan is so closed and secretive, a comprehensive survey is probably not possible at this point.This book may be the best we will get for many years, and Kropf has done us a service in publishing it.

The book has some minor spelling and grammar errors, but is still very readable, has a good pace, and will keep the armchair adventurer's interest for all of its too-brief 202 pages.

Grammatical flubs make it a tough read
While the author deserves credit for his endeavor in this rare inside look at Niazov's Turkmenistan, the overt misuse of grammar throughout the book makes this almost impossible to read. For example: "wary of England's designs and xenophobic, the Russians outright closed Turkmenistan when they took it under control in 1881." "...about which T.E. Lawrence might have romanticized." Awkward phrasing like this is a constant throughout the book, which would be much improved with a thorough editing - perhaps in a later edition?

Additionally, Kropf's lengthy descriptions of long plane flights and jet lag are for the armchair traveler rather than the road warrior. Some of the "gee whiz, I work in a U.S. Embassy now" anecdotes sound tired to anyone who has actually been there. For a first-time Turkmenistan reader (and hey, there are a lot of those), this is a worthwhile read.

Average in Genre, Stands Alone on Subject Matter
John Kropf's 'Unknown Sands' was a pleasant book to read.It is more of a travelogue than a book about culture or history, but facets of both do appear in the text.Kropf's writing style is not bad, but it is evident that he is not primarily an author.While not having stated so, it seems the book was written to fill the void of information about Turkmenistan rather than because Kropf is an aspiring author.His efforts are much appreciated.

'Unknown Sands' is a very average book compared to others in the same genre, but as there are practically no other books about Turkmenistan in English it is a must read if one is interested about this little known country.Kropf was afforded an opportunity to visit all of the provinces of Turkmenistan giving his insights much value.

If you are interested in Turkmenistan this is an excellent book, if you are interested in Central Asia more generally there are many other books that would be as good or better as this one.

What a discovery!
I was researching books on Middle East and Asian politics and stumbled across Mr. Kropf's book through online research.Although not primarily a political discourse, Unknown Sands contains fascinating insight into the cultural, social, as well as political atmosphere of a country many don't know exists. I recommend the book highly not only for academics but as a casual read as well.

OUTSTANDING!
Kropf takes us on a journey which few will ever personally know,His insightful and sometimes witty writing style adds to a terrific read! ... Read more

Product Description

The excavations at the Bronze Age site of Altyn-Depe in southwest Soviet Central Asia (Turkmenistan) have revealed an urban community dating to the Middle Bronze Age. The region of Turkmenistan forms a natural crossroads between Eastern Iran and Central Asia, and between Siberia and southern Russia and the Indus Valley. Altyn-Depe was important not only for its development as a cultural center in its own right but as a link between the various Bronze Age cultures of Eurasia.

The volume is a translation of the 1981 Soviet publication with the addition of several plates representing the earliest strata at the site. The book will be of interest to scholars of the ancient Near East, and more particularly of the Bronze Age and development of urbanization.