Modern Central Asia serves as a geographical, socioeconomic, and political definition for a region that includes five states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. These countries are situated in the centre of the Eurasian continent and have their own unique features and characteristics. The countries of Central Asia gained independence and began to shape their own history and develop as independent countries after the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which existed from 1922 to 1991 as a socialist state governed by the single ideology of communism. During different periods of time, depending on political, cultural, and geographic changes, the region carried different names: for instance, during Soviet times, this region was referred to as ‘Central Asia’ or ‘Turkestan’ after the collapse of the Mongolian Empire. The definition of ‘Central Asia’ designating the territory of the region was adopted in 1993 in Tashkent during a summit of the heads of the five countries. Since then, this name has become increasingly and firmly established in political, social, and economic terms.