Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Iran is to its south, Uzbekistan to its east, and the Caspian Sea is on its western side. It was part of the Soviet Union and became independent in 1991. The capital is Ashgabat, a city famous for its white marble buildings. Most of the country is the Karakum Desert, so the population is small for the size of the land — around five to six million people. It has very large reserves of natural gas, which is what it is mainly known for in business news. As a word, it behaves like any country name: capital T, no "the" in front of it, and the adjective is Turkmen (Turkmen gas, the Turkmen government) — there is no word "Turkmenistani" in normal use, though you will occasionally see it. The tricky part for a learner is simply saying it: five syllables, TURK-men-i-STAN, with the main push at the start and a second push on the last part. One thing worth knowing culturally: it is one of the most closed countries in the world, very difficult to get a visa for, so when it appears in English news it is usually in a story about isolation, gas pipelines, or an unusual government decision.