Iran–Turkmenistan border

The border starts at the Caspian coast just to the south of the Turkmen town of Esenguly. It then goes overland in an eastwards directions in a series of straight lines through barren salt flats for 50 km (31 mi) until reaching the Atrek river, the course of which it follows for 124 km (77 mi) to a point just south of the Turkmen village of Chat.{{citation |url= http://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS025.pdf|title=International Boundary Study No. 25 - Iran-USSR Boundary|date=28 February 1978|access-date=15 September 2018}} The border then continues overland eastwards/north-eastwards across the Kopet Dag mountain range for 151 km (94 mi) before reaching the Sumbar river, the course of which it then follows for 41 km (26 mi).{{citation |url= http://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS025.pdf|title=International Boundary Study No. 25 - Iran-USSR Boundary|date=28 February 1978|access-date=15 September 2018}} It then continues overland across mountain ridges in a broadly south-eastern arc for 455 km (283 mi) to the vicinity of the Iranian village of Chahchaheh.{{citation |url= http://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS025.pdf|title=International Boundary Study No. 25 - Iran-USSR Boundary|date=28 February 1978|access-date=15 September 2018}} From here a roughly straight line section runs for 77 km (48m) to the Harirud river (Tedzhen in Turkmen), the course of which it follows south for 120 km (75 mi) to the Afghan tripoint.{{citation |url= http://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS025.pdf|title=International Boundary Study No. 25 - Iran-USSR Boundary|date=28 February 1978|access-date=15 September 2018}}

The immediate border area is largely uninhabited, except for the central section around Ashgabat on the Turkmen side; this area of the border, plus the western section, is roughly paralleled by highways. The Turkmen section of the Trans-Caspian Railway also roughly parallels the frontier in the central section, coming less than half a mile north of the boundary in the vicinity of Lotfabad. On the Iranian side, roughly 50 miles south of the border runs the major highways connecting the towns of Gorgan, Bojnurd and Mashhad, with roads connecting the smaller towns to the north.

The border was inherited from the old Persia-USSR border, which largely took its current shape during the 19th Century after the Russian conquest of Central Asia and its annexation of the Khanate of Kokand and the Emirate of Bukhara in 1865–68. In 1869 Persia and Russia agreed that the Atrek river would be the border between them.{{citation |url= http://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS025.pdf|title=International Boundary Study No. 25 - Iran-USSR Boundary|date=28 February 1978|access-date=15 September 2018}}{{citation |url= http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/boundaries-ii|title=Encyclopædia Iranica – Border with Russia |access-date=15 September 2018}} This boundary was confirmed and then extended eastwards to the vicinity of Ashgabat in 1881 following further Russian advances into Turkmen lands, and then to the border with Afghanistan in 1893; various further delimitations of this border occurred in the following years.{{citation |url= http://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS025.pdf|title=International Boundary Study No. 25 - Iran-USSR Boundary|date=28 February 1978|access-date=15 September 2018}}{{citation |url= http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/boundaries-ii|title=Encyclopædia Iranica – Border with Russia |access-date=15 September 2018}} Further small changes were made in the period 1954-57 when Iran and the USSR (as they now were) agreed to more clearly demarcate their common border, including the Atrek delta region which had since altered due to the shrinking of the Caspian Sea.{{citation |url= http://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS025.pdf|title=International Boundary Study No. 25 - Iran-USSR Boundary|date=28 February 1978|access-date=15 September 2018}}

• Bajgiran (IRN) – Bajgiran (TKM) (road){{citation |url= https://caravanistan.com/border-crossings/turkmenistan/#turkmenistan-iran-border-crossings |title=Caravanistan – Iran-Turkmenistan border crossings |access-date=15 September 2018}}
• Sarakhs (IRN) – Serakhs (TKM) (road){{citation |url= https://caravanistan.com/border-crossings/turkmenistan/#turkmenistan-iran-border-crossings |title=Caravanistan – Iran-Turkmenistan border crossings |access-date=15 September 2018}}
• Lotfabad (IRN) – Artyk (TKM) (road){{citation |url= https://caravanistan.com/border-crossings/turkmenistan/#turkmenistan-iran-border-crossings |title=Caravanistan – Iran-Turkmenistan border crossings |access-date=15 September 2018}}

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• Gomishan
• Incheh Borun
• Bachcheh Darreh
• Hesarcheh
• Robat
• Shuy
• Lotfabad
• Now Khandan
• Dargaz
• Giru
• Koshtani
• Qarah Takan (Razavi Khorasan)
• Chahchaheh
• Alamtu
• Sarakhs
• Shir Tappeh
• Jannatabad

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• Ashgabat
• Esenguly
• Ajyyap
• Gyzyletrek
• Chat
• Kuruzhdey
• Khodzhakala
• Kënekesir
• Shemli
• Kazgan
• Arab-Kala
• Hawdan
• Kaka
• Dushak
• Miana
• Imeni Kuliyev
• Akhchadepe
• Karaman Vtoroy
• Kichiga Vtoraya
• Serakhs
• Polekhatum

{{div col end}}

• Treaty of Akhal
• Iran–Turkmenistan relations

{{reflist}}

{{Borders of Iran}}

{{Borders of Turkmenistan}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iran-Turkmenistan border}}

Turkmenistan

Category:Borders of Turkmenistan

Category:International borders