The Turkic states are countries where most of its people speak a Turkic language as their first language or have Turkic ancestry. There are six countries considered to be Turkic states: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The last 4 countries are commonly known as "the Stans". All of them except Turkey used to be part of the Soviet Union until its fall in 1991. While most of the people of all these countries are Muslim, none of these countries use the Arabic alphabet to read and write their own language. Either they use the Latin alphabet, like Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, or they use the Cyrillic alphabet, like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. While the people of Xinjiang, the Uighurs, are part of the Turkic peoples, it is not officially considered part of the Turkic states because it is controlled by China. While Northern Cyprus, which is most made of Turkish people, calls itself its own country, Turkey is the only other country that recognizes its statehood, or its being a state.