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Central AsiaThe desert, steppe and mountain ranges of Central Asia form a space as wide as an ocean, and almost as empty. Central Asia is the size of India, or half as big again as the Mediterranean Sea, but relatively few people live here -- only about 65m of them. Some are nomads, guiding flocks and herds between annual feeding grounds; others cluster in the oases or fertile valleys that speckle the lean plains like tiny islands and reefs. Old books refer to Central Asia as 'Turkestan'. What has endured among the peoples of Central Asia through the turbulent centuries is their Turkic-ness. This is a Turkic-ness of horses and cattle; mutton and mare's milk; close-knit families and close-woven carpets; flat bread and open skies; yurts and poetry. The Turkic speakers of Central Asia still speak a swatch of closely related, though distinct, languages. A Turkish native speaker from Ankara, in Turkey, can be understood quite well in Ashkabat, Turkmenistan, and may claim to have a good idea of of what is going on even in Urumqi, in China's northwest. |