My Dear Nation,

For the last three or four centuries, the small Türkmen population has been unable to regain its former glory and magnificence, living scattered in distant villages and small towns, barely able to survive, their way of life, traditions and costumes threatened with eradication, their boiling pans of food on festive days knocked to the ground in contempt for their beliefs and festivities, their feast days systematically turned into days of mourning. However, the closeness of their life style to nature and naturalness has given great insight and purity to the nature of our people, who have absorbed naturalness, honesty and integrity into themselves.

Our people call people they admire “Är” (brave man, ) but the term is not used to refer to people who are very brave and fearless. A person designated “Är” should also have many other commendable attributes; in addition to showing bravery or courage, he should have integrity and be humane, compassionate, and generous. The term “Är” derives from the word “arı” (pure), as in Garajaoglan’s assertion: “Our essence is pure Türkmen”. The Türkmen word “Är” is widely used in the languages of other countries as “ser, her, gerr”.

In our past, when our people were looking for a new site to settle and establish a village community, the leading figures of the community would go out, find and agree upon a few sites. They would leave in each site an earthenware pitcher full of fresh water and embed a long pole on the ground with a piece of meat tied to the top. When it was time to migrate and settle, those wise and respected people would go and check the freshness of the water and the chunk of meat. If the water and meat were spoiled and rotten they did not settle down in that area. That is, even if they did not use scientific terms to think