The history of Turkmenbashi

In 1717, the Russian Central Asian explorer Prince Alexander Bekovic-Cherkassky (Russian: Александр Бекович-Черкасский), who was of Circassian descent, landed here and secretly An armed settlement was established at the mouth of the Amu Darya River where it once entered the Caspian Sea, leaving only a dry river bed. Prince Alexander Bekovych-Cherkassky's intention was to lead his army to this dry riverbed and invade the Khiva Khanate. However, the conquest failed and the Russians abandoned the settlement over the next 150 years.

In 1869, the Russians made their second and latest attempt. They named the port Krasnovodsk (Russian: Красноводск), after the city’s real name Kizilsu (Turkish). Kman: Russian translation of Kyzyl-Su (meaning red water), Krasnovodsk was a supply base for the Russian Empire in its war against the Khiva and Bukhara Khanates and the nomadic Turkman tribes, 1920 In February of that year, the Soviet Red Army entered the city.

In 1993 Krasnovodsk was proclaimed by the then President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov under his personal title Turkmenbashi (meaning leader of all Turkmen) renamed. In July 2007 Niyazov's successor Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov pledged to invest a billion dollars in future funding into a project that would make Turkmenbashi an important tourist attraction and make it the center of the Avaza tourist area, which will build 60 modern hotels along 16 kilometers of Caspian Sea coastline.