500 Manat 5th Anniversary of Neutrality

Turkmenistan's permanent neutrality status was formally recognized by the United Nations in December 1995 — an unusual distinction, shared at the time only by Switzerland and Austria, and one President Niyazov pursued aggressively as a foreign policy cornerstone. This coin marks the fifth anniversary of that recognition. Niyazov's government used such commemorative issues partly for hard currency revenue through collector sales abroad, as the domestic economy remained heavily state-controlled and the manat was not freely convertible.