The Ali Ili were one of the ten major tribal divisions in
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
. Prior to the rise of the Soviet Union, they considered themselves to be a distinct ethnic group. However, the Soviets pressured them into the category of
Turkmen
Turkmen, Türkmen, Turkoman, or Turkman may refer to:
Peoples Historical ethnonym
* Turkoman (ethnonym), ethnonym used for the Oghuz Turks during the Middle Ages
Ethnic groups
* Turkmen in Anatolia and the Levant (Seljuk and Ottoman-Turkish desc ...
.
References
*Wixman, Ronald. ''The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook''. (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 1984) p. 9
*Olson, James S., ''An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires''. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994) p. 31
Ethnic groups in Turkmenistan
Ethnic groups in Asia
Ethnic groups in Central Asia
Ethnic Turkmen people
Turkmenistan people
{{Turkmenistan-stub