Date
Meaning & History
Gallicization of TURKMENIYA, the Russian name for the country of TURKMENISTAN. In the Francophone world, this name was primarily used during the Soviet era. It referred to the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, which after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 became the independent country of Turkmenistan. Today, the name continues to be used to refer to what is now Turkmenistan, but it is quite rare and will eventually fall out of use.