Turkmenistan document photos online

In a desert capital where 543 buildings are sheathed in 4.5 million square metres of imported white marble, Turkmenistan holds the Guinness World Record for the highest density of marble-clad buildings on Earth. But the document story is even stranger: in 2008 Turkmenistan became the first country in Central Asia to issue biometric passports, then used that rollout to dismantle dual citizenship overnight. Ethnic Russians holding two passports were forced to choose one nationality or be refused the new travel document entirely, and for years residents needed an exit visa simply to leave the country. Few passports on the planet carry such a tightly controlled identity behind them.

• Passport power The Turkmen passport ranks around 87th on the 2025-2026 Henley Passport Index, granting visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to roughly 45 destinations worldwide.
• Biometric first Turkmenistan was the first Central Asian state to roll out biometric passports, beginning on 10 July 2008, years ahead of its neighbours.
• Dual citizenship When the biometric passport launched, the government refused to issue it to dual nationals unless they renounced their Russian citizenship, effectively ending dual citizenship for thousands.
• Exit visas For long stretches Turkmen citizens needed a government exit visa just to board a flight abroad, one of the world's most restrictive freedom-of-movement regimes.
• Currency The manat, introduced in 1993 and subdivided into 100 teňňe, was so battered by hyperinflation that in 2009 it was redenominated at 5,000 old manat to 1 new manat.
• Banknotes Turkmen banknotes feature Ahmed Sanjar, Oghuz Khan and the poet Magtymguly Pyragy, and a designed 500-manat note bearing the former president's portrait was never released into circulation.
• Marble record Ashgabat holds the Guinness World Record for the highest density of white marble-clad buildings: 543 structures wrapped in over 4.5 million square metres of marble.
• Door to Hell The Darvaza gas crater, a fiery pit in the Karakum Desert nicknamed the 'Door to Hell,' has burned continuously since 1971 after a Soviet drilling rig collapsed.
• Neutrality In December 1995 the UN General Assembly unanimously recognised Turkmenistan's permanent neutrality, a status unique enough that it shapes the country's foreign and identity policy to this day.