The official name is the Republic of Tajikistan. Located in the southeast of Central Asia. The area is 143,100 km2, the population is 6463.8 thousand people. (2002). The state language is Tajik. The capital is Dushanbe (0.6 million people, 2002). Public holiday – Independence Day September 9 (1991). The monetary unit is somoni.
Member of the CIS (since 1991), OSCE (since 1992), UN (since 1992), CAC (since 1998), etc.
Geography of Tajikistan
Located between 68° and 74° east longitude and 41° and 37° north latitude. In the west and north it borders on Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. In the south and east with Afghanistan and China.
Mountains cover 93% of the territory. Western Tien Shan Kuraminsky Range, the highest peak Boboiob (3768 m). Mogoltau Ridge (1623 m). Fergana basin (height ranges from 320 to 800-1000 m). To the west of the basin is the plain of the Hungry Steppe.
Hissar-Alai includes the Turkestan, Zarafshan, Gissar, Karategin, Alai ranges. It is limited by valleys: from the north – Fergana, from the south – Gissar, the valley of the Surkhob and Alai rivers.
The largest ridges of the Tajik depression are Vakhshsky, Jilantau, Surkhkau, Sarsarak, Tereklitau, Karatau, Aktau, Rangantau, Babatag and others. Between the ridges are located Gissarskaya, Nizhnevahshskaya, Nizhnekaferniganskaya, Parkharskaya, Kulyabskaya, Javanskaya, Dangarinskaya valleys.
The core of the Pamir mountain system is the ridge of the Academy of Sciences (5757 m). The lowest pass is Kamaloyak (4340 m). The highest peak Ismoili Somoni (former peak of Communism, 7495 m).
There are more than 5 thousand plant species in Tajikistan. Herbaceous and semi-shrub vegetation prevails. The plains are dominated by desert vegetation. Almost half of the mountain forests are juniper forests. The humid southern slopes of the Hissar Range and the western part of the Peter I Range and the southwestern Tien Shan are occupied by forests of walnut, Turkestan maple, and plane trees. In the foothills there is a xerophilous undergrowth of pistachio, almond, crimson. Meadows, meadow steppes and deserted steppes are widespread in the high mountain belt. In the east there are teresken and sagebrush deserts and cushions.
Characteristic inhabitants of the plains of the lower high-mountain belt: reptiles – gray monitor lizard, cobra, sand efa, steppe boa, turtle; from birds – crested lark, saxaul sparrow, steppe kestrel, beauty bustard, vulture; rodents – porcupine, ground squirrels, gerbils, jerboas, hamsters. On the open plains there is a goitered gazelle, in the foothills – a markhorn goat, a leopard. In tugai – Bukhara deer, reed cat, jackal, leopard, badger, wild boar. In the highlands – Siberian goat, argali, snow leopard; from birds – the Himalayan and Tibetan snowcock, saja, keklik, snow vulture, golden eagle, vulture.
In the Pamirs and Gissar-Alay, deposits of antimony, mercury, arsenic, boron, piezoquartz, rock crystal, optical fluorite, Icelandic spar, lapis lazuli, noble spinelli, gold (in placers), tungsten ores have been discovered; in the Kurama zone – polymetallic ores, rare metals, piezo-optical raw materials, uranium, scheelite, fossil coals; in the Tajik and Ferghana depressions – oil, gas, coal, oil shale, rock salt, building materials.
The climate is continental. On the plains and foothills, the average temperature in January is from +2 to -2°С. The average July temperature exceeds +31°C.
Population of Tajikistan
According to Countryaah, the average population density is 44.6 people. per 1 km2. Over 85% of the population lives in the Gissar and Vakhsh valleys and the Khojent region (constituting 35% of the territory). The share of the urban population living here reaches 95%. In total, in the cities in the 1990s. lived at least 35% of the population, in rural areas, respectively, 65%.
Representatives of more than 80 nationalities live in Tajikistan, incl. Tajiks – 80%, Uzbeks – 15.3%, Russians – 1.1%, Tatars – 0.3%. Tajiks also live in Uzbekistan – approx. 4% of the population, in northeastern Afghanistan – St. 3.5 million people; Tajiks also live in the border regions of Kyrgyzstan, in southeastern Kazakhstan and in the Iranian province of Khorasan. Languages: Tajik, Russian as the language of interethnic communication. The vast majority of Tajiks profess Sunni Islam. In Gorno-Badakhshan, the Shia Ismaili sect is the most widespread. Russians living in Tajikistan profess Orthodoxy.
History of Tajikistan
On the territory of Tajikistan in the 1st half. 1st millennium BC there was a state of Bactria. It was under the rule of the Persian Achaemenids, A. Macedon. In the 9th-10th centuries. AD Tajikistan was part of the Samanid State when the process of formation of the Tajik people was completed. In the 2nd floor. 19th century the territories of Tajikistan were annexed to Russia (in 1895, a Russian-English agreement defined the border with Afghanistan along the Pyanj River). In March 1917, the Turkestan Governor General was abolished. In 1918, northern Tajikistan became part of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and southern Tajikistan became part of the Emirate of Bukhara. Since 1924, the Tajik ASSR has been part of the Uzbek SSR. Since 1929 – the Tajik SSR as part of the USSR.
In 1991–93, an acute political conflict broke out in Tajikistan on the basis of regional and clan contradictions, which led to a civil war. Long inter-Tajik negotiations under the auspices of the UN, which began in April 1994, ended with the signing on June 27, 1997 in Moscow by President E. Rakhmonov and the leader of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) A. Nuri, an agreement on establishing peace and national accord in Tajikistan. Under the agreement, a National Reconciliation Commission has been established and is functioning, the main task of which is to form a coalition government and hold general parliamentary elections. In November 1998, an anti-government rebellion was suppressed in the north of the country.
