TEHRAN – A cultural heritage museum dedicated to traditional arts of Turkmen tribes has been inaugurated in Gonbad-e Kavus in the northern Golestan province.

The official opening ceremony of the private museum was attended by Mohammadreza Kargar, the director of museums and historical properties at the tourism ministry, and several local officials on Monday.

Addressing the ceremony, Kargar said: “We are pleased that culture-loving people, who feel responsible for the history and culture of their region, are entering the field of museum management and creating museums at their own expense that can be a source of many [other] cultural services.

Turkmen are people who speak a language belonging to the southwestern branch of the Turkic languages. The majority live in Turkmenistan and neighboring parts of Central Asia and numbered more than six million at the beginning of the 21st century, according to Britannica.

About one-third of the total population lives in Iran, especially in the north, and another 500,000 live in northeastern and northwestern Afghanistan. These groups are called the Transcaspian Turkmen. Pockets of Turkmen are found in northern Iraq and Syria. Smaller groups live in central Turkey, where they have experienced minority discrimination, especially after 1958.

Golestan is home to hundreds of historical and natural sites, with UNESCO-registered Gonbad-e Qabus – a one-millennium-old brick tower – amongst its most famous. Narratives say the tower has influenced various subsequent designers of tomb towers and other cylindrical commemorative structures both in the region and beyond. The UNESCO comments that the tower bears testimony to the cultural exchange between Central Asian nomads and the ancient civilization of Iran.

AFM