Bereket, formerly Gazanjyk or ''Kazandzhik'' (russian: Казанджик or tk, Газанҗык gɑˈzɑnd͡ʒik), is a
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
in
Balkan Province
Balkan Region ( tk, Balkan welaýaty, Балкан велаяты) is the westernmost of the five regions of Turkmenistan. Clockwise from north it borders Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (north); two provinces of Turkmenistan (east), Iran (south), and ...
in western
Turkmenistan. Bereket is the administrative centre of
Bereket District.
Bereket is located in an oasis in the foothills of the
Kopetdag Mountains and on the edge of the
Karakum Desert.
Bereket is a strategic
junction
Junction may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Junction'' (film), a 2012 American film
* Jjunction, a 2002 Indian film
* Junction (album), a 1976 album by Andrew Cyrille
* Junction (EP), by Basement Jaxx, 2002
* Junction (manga), or ''Hot ...
of the
Trans-Caspian Railway (
Caspian Sea-
Turkmenistan-
Uzbekistan-
Kazakhstan) and
North-South Transnational Railway (
Russia-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-
Iran-
Persian Gulf.
The city has a large locomotive repair depot and a modern railway station.
The city is located approximately west of the Turkmen capital of
Ashgabat and east of the
Caspian Sea port of
Turkmenbashy. The largest cities nearby are
Balkanabat
, other_name = Neftedag Nebit-Dag
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to the west, and
Serdar to the east.
The estimated population of the city is 24,500 as of March 2015.
Etymology
''Gazanjyk'' is probably derived from the
Turkic language word ''gazan'' or ''kazan'' (meaning a large
cooking pot used throughout Central Asia, roughly equivalent to a
cauldron) and ''-jyk'', a suffix to denote "small in size". The name can be translated into English as "small cauldron". Atanyyazow notes that Gazanjyk is the name of a spring near the city, and it was named after its shape.
On 29 December 1999, by Parliamentary Resolution XM-66, the city and district (''etrap'') of Gazanjyk were renamed Bereket. ''Bereket'' means in the
Turkmen language ''abundance'' or ''prosperity''. The word ''bereket'' is borrowed from the
Persian word ''Barakat'' (برکت), which in turn is borrowed from the Arabic ''Barakah'' (برکة).
History
Since ancient times the area where city is now located was known as an important junction on the
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
that connected
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
with the
Middle East and
Europe.
Aleksey Kuropatkin, the
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...
commander of the Turkestan Rifle Brigade, who led an 18-day march in 1880–1881 across of Karakum Desert, wrote in his memoirs,
After the conquest of
Transcaspian Oblast the
Russian Empire started to build the
Trans-Caspian railway including towns and settlements along the route. Gazanjyk, as an urban settlement, was founded in 1895 to serve as an important junction on the railway.
Between 1916 and 1924 Gazanjyk and the surrounding area were the scene of furious battles between Russian Imperial forces, and after 1918 the Soviet Red Army, and local nationalist Muslims of the
Basmachi movement
The Basmachi movement (russian: Басмачество, ''Basmachestvo'', derived from Uzbek: "Basmachi" meaning "bandits") was an uprising against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the Muslim peoples of Central Asia.
The movement's roots l ...
.
During Soviet period the 61631st Army garrison was built on the outskirts of the city. In 1988 it was the station of the 231st tank regiment, the 160th motorized rifle regiment and the 405th artillery regiment.
The December
2000 Turkmenistan earthquake
The 2000 Turkmenistan earthquake took place at 8:11 p.m. Moscow Time on December 6 and had a magnitude of 7.0. The intensity of the earthquake reached VII at its epicenter, and IV at the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat. The epicentre was locate ...
(7.0 on the moment magnitude scale) devastated the city centre.
Geography
See satellite image of Bereket.
The city is located on the westernmost foothills of the
Kopetdag mountains, called
Kyurendag, on the edge of the
Karakum deserts. he maximum height of the Kyurendag ridge is . The vegetation of the ridge is quite poor and is represented primarily by species of desert flora:
sagebrush, semi-desert and dry
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
and rocky outcroppings. Soils are grey soils. One can occasionally find
juniper trees, single or large groups of ''tamarisk'' and small shrubs.
Wildlife in recent years has become greatly impoverished. Ungulates are few in number. ''Argali'' sheep are seen occasionally, as are
bezoar goats,
wild boar, and
gazelles. Predators include
wolves,
jackals,
foxes, and
hyenas. Among birds klik are rarely seen and stone curlews and jacks very rarely. Reptile species are represented by the steppe tortoise, monitor lizard, boa, agam, etc.
The major source of water for irrigation is the
Karakum Canal, which runs dry near Bereket and delivers water to points west via a pipeline.
Demographics
The city is divided into several neighbourhoods, called by the traditional name for a semi-nomadic village, ''aul''. The majority of the inhabitants are
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 ...
from the
Yomud tribes, with a minority of
Teke. Previously strong communities of Azeris, Armenians, Russians, Ukrainians and Persians are now reduced to several families. In the 1990s most of them migrated to larger cities for better economic opportunities. Many Russian families also emigrated to the
Russian Federation.
Economy
The city is the semi-industrial and semi-agricultural centre of Bereket District. It is an important railway and automobile junction,
the city has a large
railroad yard and
locomotive repair depot, a brick yard,
Turkmen carpet
A Turkmen rug ( tk, Türkmen haly; or Turkmen carpet or Turkoman carpet) is a type of handmade floor-covering textile traditionally originating in Central Asia. It is useful to distinguish between the original Turkmen tribal rugs and the rugs pr ...
weaving factory, wheat and cotton processing and storage facilities. Animal husbandry (camels, cows, sheep) is another source of income.
In September 2014 a poultry complex with production capacity of 8 million eggs and 1000 tons of poultry meat a year was constructed.
Finance
The State Commercial Bank Dayhanbank has a branch in Bereket.
Communication
The postal code for the city is 745130.
The city has mobile coverage from the state-owned
Altyn Asyr.
City and national transportation
The city has a small public transportation network. Several small buses run scheduled routes connecting the eastern and western parts of the city (some 5–6 km.)
Bereket is an important railway junction and station for commercial and freight transportation on the
Turkmenistan national railway system.
Role in transnational transportation
Bereket is a strategically important junction of the
Trans-Caspian Railway (
Caspian Sea,
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and eastern
Kazakhstan) and North-South Transnational Railway (
Russia-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-
Iran-
Persian Gulf). The city has a large locomotive repair depot and a modern passenger railway station.
The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway link is part of the
North–South Transport Corridor and is a long railway line connecting Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan with Iran and the
Persian Gulf. It links
Uzen in Kazakhstan with Bereket–
Etrek in Turkmenistan and ends at
Gorgan in Iran's Golestan province. In Iran, the railway is linked to the national network making its way to the ports of the Persian Gulf.
The project is estimated to have cost $620 million, which was jointly funded by the governments of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
In May 2013, the Bereket – Uzen section of the
North-South Transnational Railway was completed.
In February 2014 long section between Bereket and
Etrek was completed. Currently railway stations along the new railway are being constructed such as
Däneata,
Dövletýar,
Bugdaýly,
Balguýi,
Madaw
Madaw or Madau is a village in Balkan Province in Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, ea ...
,
Akjadepe.
The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway link was be officially inaugurated in October 2014.
The city is located on the
M37 Highway (Turkmenistan's section of the
European route E60 which connects
Brest, France to
Irkeshtam,
Kyrgyzstan on the border with the
People's Republic of China).
Education, health, culture
The city has three public schools, kindergartens, a small hospital, and medical emergency centre.
In 2012 several new buildings were constructed within the State Development Program including the mayor's office (''
häkimlik''), two schools, a hotel, cultural center, a hospital and a knitting factory.
Until 2000, the city had a library, two open-air and one winter cinema. All are currently closed.
Climate
Bereket has a
cool desert climate (
Köppen ''BWk''), with generally chilly winters and very hot summers. Rainfall is generally light and erratic, and occurs mainly in the winter and autumn months. In summer, day temperatures may reach between , and during nights fall to between . The air flow is windy, chilly in winters and dusty in summers.
Sightseeing
In its storage area, the Bereket Depot museum, has a relic Russian made class T locomotive ''ТЭ-189'' (built between 1857–1915).
FD class steam locomotives ''ФД20-2526, ФД20–2494 (ФД20–1441)'' (built between 1931–1942), and
Russian class E locomotives ''Эр796-88, Эм734–66 (Эм733–96), Эу705–41, Эм725–30, Э-13'' (built between 1912–1957).
There are also several ''ТЭ1'' class locomotives, whose prototype was the famous
US made
ALCO RSD-1 locomotive.
Bereket Railway Station
Bereket Railway Station ( tk, Bereket demirýol menzili) is the main railway station in the city. It was built in 1885. The station is operated by the
Türkmendemirýollary.
See also
*
Bereket District
*
Balkan Province
Balkan Region ( tk, Balkan welaýaty, Балкан велаяты) is the westernmost of the five regions of Turkmenistan. Clockwise from north it borders Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (north); two provinces of Turkmenistan (east), Iran (south), and ...
*
List of cities in Turkmenistan
*
References
{{Cities of Turkmenistan
Populated places in Balkan Region
Populated places established in 1895
Cities and towns built in the Soviet Union
Populated places along the Silk Road
1895 establishments in the Russian Empire