Serdar (city)

Serdar
Serdar
Location in Turkmenistan
Coordinates:
Country  Turkmenistan
Province Balkan Province
Population (1989 census)[1]
 • Total 33,388

Serdar (formerly Kyzyl-Arvat or Gyzylarbat)[2] is a location in Turkmenistan, located north-west of the capital, Ashkhabad on the road to the Caspian Sea. The population of Serdar is 50,000 people, mainly Turkmen. The languages spoken in the region are mainly Turkmen.

Serdar is close to the old Persian city of Farava. The region was inhabited by the Iranian Dahae people.

The modern city was established in 1881 with a station on the Trans-Caspian Railway.[3]

In July 1918, following his declaration of martial law in Ashgabat, Commissar V. Frolov, head of the Tashkent Cheka came to Kyzyl-Arvat to impose the authority of the Tashkent Soviet. However the railway workers had heard of his execution of strike leaders in Ashgabat and organised an armed response. He was shot with some of his followers and the rest were disarmed. This action opened the way to the formation of the Transcaspian Government.[4]

References

  1. ^ Population census 1989, Demoscope Weekly, No. 359-360, 1-18 January 2009 (search for Туркменская ССР) (Russian)
  2. ^ Kyzyl-Arvat as the former name
  3. ^ Columbia-Lippincott Gazeteer, p. 958
  4. ^ The British Intervention in Transcaspia, 1918-1919 by C. H. Ellis, University of California Press, 1963 p26
Capital
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