Lebap Region () is one of the

regions of Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is divided into five regions, or ''welaýatlar'' (singular ''Wilaya, welaýat'') and one capital city (''şäher'') with provincial legal status. They are Ahal Region, Ahal, Balkan Region, Balkan, Daşoguz Region, Dashoguz, Lebap Re ...

. It is in the northeast of the country, bordering

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

along the

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

. Its

administrative centre An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

is Türkmenabat (formerly named Çärjew). It has an area of 93,727 square kilometers, and a population of 1,447,298 people (2022 census).''Statistical Yearbook of Turkmenistan 2000-2004'', National Institute of State Statistics and Information of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, 2005. The name Lebap is a Turkmenized form of the Persian ''Lab-e āb'' (), which means "riverside" and has long been used to designate the middle reaches of the

. It contains the Repetek Nature Reserve as well as the

Köýtendag Nature Reserve Köýtendag Nature Reserve (), formerly Kugitang Nature Reserve, is a nature reserve ('' zapovednik'') in the extreme east of Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbe ...

, which includes Turkmenistan's highest mountain, Aýrybaba (3137 meters). Lebap is also home to the Dayahatyn caravansaray. The region is located along the Amu Darya. The Kyzylkum Desert is located on the east side of the river and Karakum Desert is located on the west side of the river. About three-quarters of the region's land area is in the Karakum Desert. The region's sunny weather and abundance of water resources help produce high-quality long-staple cotton.

History

The region of present-day Lebap once occupied a spot along the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

. The 9th-10th century caravansaray of Dayahatyn is located within Lebap.

Bukhara and Khiva khanates

Prior to the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, much of today's Lebap Region was part of either the Khanate of Bukhara or the

Khanate of Khiva The Khanate of Khiva (, , uz-Latn-Cyrl, Xiva xonligi, Хива хонлиги, , ) was a Central Asian polity that existed in the historical region of Khwarazm, Khorezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Afsharid Iran, Afsharid occupat ...

. The last khan of Bukhara, Sayyid Mir Muhammad Alim Khan, nominally submitted to Soviet authority, but in reality joined the Basmachi movement and rebelled against the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

. He fled in 1920, and the area was declared a people's republic until

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

power was firmly established in 1924. In that same year, the settlements at Çärjew and Kerki were formally assigned to the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, along with the western parts of the Khiva khanate along the Amu Darya.

Recent history

On April 27, 2020, the region was hit by a severe windstorm. RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty alleged that the storm disrupted much of the region's electrical grid, public water supplies, natural gas connections, cell service, and internet connection. A local human rights website, Turkmen.news, reported that many people were admitted to the regional hospital in Türkmenabat after suffering injuries. They also alleged that there was sporadic looting in the storm's aftermath and that food prices in the region rose as a result of the storm. Local Turkmen media reported 10 deaths resulting from the storm, while Turkmen.news suggested that the true death toll was likely in the dozens, and dozens remained unaccounted for in the storm's aftermath. The rights group

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

condemned what it perceived as "censorship" by local officials following the storm, noting that one group alleged that local police were watching out for people filming the storm's damage, and another group reported that dozens of people were detained for allegedly sending videos "abroad". In December 2020, RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty reported that regional officials threatened to cut off the region's population from subsidized food if they were not up to date on their utility bills. The agency reported that many in the region received seasonal income from farming, and often did not earn money in the winter, and such matters were complicated by a decrease in remittances to the region as a result of the economic fallout from COVID-19.

Demographic

Table of National composition of the population of Lebap region (2022)

Table:

Administrative divisions

As of 2021, according to the official website of the regional government, Lebap Region included one city with status equivalent to a district, 10 districts, 14 cities "in the district" (), 24

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

, 105 rural councils, and 429

villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

Districts

As of 9 November 2022 Lebap Region () is subdivided into eight districts (''etrap'', plural ''etraplar''): This document is reproduced online at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Districts_in_Turkmenistan. :* Çarjew (formerly Serdarabat) :* Darganata (formerly Birata) :* Dänew (formerly Galkynyş) :* Halaç :* Hojambaz :* Kerki (formerly Atamyrat) :* Köýtendag (formerly Çarşaňňy) :* Saýat In November 2017 four districts, ( Beýik Türkmenbaşy, Garaşsyzlyk, Garabekwül, and Sakar), were abolished and their territories absorbed by other districts. In November 2022 another two districts,

Döwletli Döwletli is a town in Hojambaz District in Lebap Province, Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the south ...

and Farap, were similarly abolished.

Municipalities

As of January 1, 2017, the region included 15 cities (, ), 23 towns (, ), 106 rural or village councils (, ), and 430 villages (, , or ). In the list below, the lone city with "district status" is bolded: :* Dänew (formerly Galkynyş) :* Darganata (formerly Birata) :* Dostluk (formerly Yuzhnyy) :* Farap :* Garabekewül :* Gazojak :* Halaç :* Hojambaz :* Kerki (formerly Atamyrat) :* Köýtendag (formerly Çarşaňňy) :* Magdanly (formerly Gowurdak) :* Sakar :* Saýat :* Seýdi (formerly Neftezavodsk) :* Türkmenabat (formerly Çärjew)

Economy

Agriculture

Crop production in Lebap is heavily dependent on irrigation from the

. Fields are cultivated when one-and-a-half to two meters above the floodplains of the river, primarily cereal grains and cotton.

Extraction industries

Lebap is rich in various natural resources, most notably, natural gas. The region is home to the Malai Gas Field and the Bagtyýarlyk Gas Field, which both serve as major suppliers of natural gas to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The Garlyk Mining and Enrichment Amalgamate in

Köýtendag District Köýtendag District (formerly Çarşaňňy District) is a Districts of Turkmenistan, district of Lebap Province in Turkmenistan. The administrative center of the district is the city of Köýtendag. Administrative subdivisions * Cities (şäh ...

produces

potash Potash ( ) includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water- soluble form.

fertilizer, and the Seýdi Oil Refinery is one of two petroleum refineries in Turkmenistan. From antiquity, local residents quarried sulfur, zinc and lead in the Köýtendag (Kungitang) foothills for domestic needs, including casting of bullets. During the Soviet period, a lead mine was dug and the town of Svintsovyy Rudnik was founded.Way: Gurshun Magdan Kani (531255297)
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Construction materials

The Lebap Cement Plant in Turkmenabat has a design capacity of one million tons per year. Polimeks built it in 2012. In 2020, construction of a second plant, in

, also with a design capacity of one million tons, got underway.

Power generation

The Zerger power plant under construction by Sumitomo,

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

, and Rönesans Holding in Çärjew District will have a design capacity of 432 megawatts. It is primarily intended for export of electricity. The Zerger plant will use natural gas from the Üçajy Gas Field (), delivered via a 125-km high-pressure pipeline.

Nature preserves and reservations

* Amudarya State Nature Reserve *

* Repetek Biosphere State Reserve

Tourist attractions

* Aýrybaba * Dayahatyn caravansaray (in use 9th to 16th centuries) * Dinosaur Plateau

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Regions of Turkmenistan