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
and near Istanbul; government maintains strict controls over areas
of legal opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw
concentrate; lax enforcement of money-laundering controls
This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007
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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 Saparmurat 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