Türkmenbaşy, Turkmenistan
Türkmenbaşy (Russian Туркменбашы / Turkmenbashy; until 1993 Krasno / Красноводск ) is a port city in western Turkmenistan, in the province Balkans. It is the terminus of the Trans-Caspian railway.
Geography
Türkmenbaşy lies on a bay on the eastern edge of the Caspian Sea.
Population
The city has about 68,300 inhabitants ( 2005). The population consists mainly of Turkmen, Azeris, Armenians and Russians.
History
1717 Russian settlement was established on the site of the present city, which was abandoned after a few years. After the site was abandoned more than 150 years, the place Krasno was founded in 1869 in its place. In 1896 he became a town. On November 21, 1939, the Oblast Krasno was established with its center in the city. Krasno at that time had about 21,000 inhabitants, this number increased to 1989 to just under 59,000. After the independence of Turkmenistan in 1991 the city became part of the newly established province of Balkan, whose provincial capital is now in Balkanabat. Let the Turkmen dictator Saparmurat 1993 rename Niyazov Krasno after his honorary title in Turkmenbashi.
Economy
From Türkmenbaşy from there ferry across the Caspian Sea to Baku and Astrakhan. It is connected by an airline with its capital Ashgabat. Economic base of the city are oil refining, food processing ( particularly fishing ), light industry and shipyards.
The state service for sea and inland transport was the design and construction of a new major port facility in order. For a total investment of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars freight terminals and investors for ferries and passenger ships on a quay length of 3.6 kilometers will be created. The project includes the construction of five port terminals and modernization of the existing railway ferry on a total of 120 hectares. The container terminal is to receive a handling capacity of 400,000 TEUs. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in December 2013, completion is expected in 2017.
Near the town is a tourist zone " Awaza ". The Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said in 2007 that he wanted to Türkmenbaşy turn into a tourist resort, with more than 60 modern hotels and a 16 km long coastline on the Caspian Sea. This gigantic project was inter alia on the computer game Battlefield: Bad Company parodies.
Culture
In Türkmenbaşy there is a history and a natural history museum. Near the town is a large nature reserve.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Hacıbala Abutalıbov (* 1944), Azerbaijani politician and physicist, the mayor of Baku
- Vladimir Morozov ( born 1940 ), Russian canoeist