Title: Tajikistan Content: Tajikistan is a country in Central Asia. It was previously part of the Soviet Union. Tajikistan is a republic. The capital city is Dushanbe. The official language is Tajik,which is a dialect of Farsi (Persian). Tajikistan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the CIS. Tajikistan is eighth in size of CIS countries. == Geography == Tajikistan is one of the new countries in South-central Asia. It is west of China, north of Afghanistan and Pakistan, that is separated by a narrow 14 km strip of Tajik claimed land known as the Wakhan Corridor in the Pamirs, east of Uzbekistan and south of Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan is landlocked in the middle of the continent of Asia. Its total area is only about . It is slightly smaller than Wisconsin, USA. Tajikistan’s borders total to long. thumb|left|A map of Tajikistan thumb|left|Karakul lake The climate has hot summers and mild winters. Almost all of the country (85 percent) is mountainous with river valleys running across, however high altitude mountains of Pomir are in the eastern part of the country, (which is the west end of the Himalayas). The climate there is semiarid to polar. The mountains cover an area of about . There are other countries within the mountain range. The mountains are between high. Karakul lake is located within a meteorite crater, which would have formed about 25 million years ago,. or less than 5 million years ago. == History == The land that is now Tajikistan has been lived in since 4,000 BC. It has been under the rule of various empires throughout history, mostly the Persian Empires. In the year 800, Islam came to north-east of Iran, (Nowadays called a part of this Land Tajikistan) In 1868, Tajikistan became a Russian Colony. It later became a part of the Soviet Union. On 9 September 1991, after long periods of mass protests against the Soviet Government, the Parliament of Tajikistan declared independence from Soviet Union, and held the first presidential elections. Rahmon Nabiev, who ran the country during Soviet Union in the late 1970s and early 1980s, become its president. He was unable to bring any much-needed reforms to the country, and so there were protests in the capital city, Dushanbe. The government responded by organizing a pro-government demonstration, mainly made of old Communist Party members and people from the southeast of the country brought to the city. Anti-government protests did not stop, so the government gave weapons to the pro-government demonstrator. Then the Opposition armed themselves. After this bloody civil war broke out. In which all of the new democratic parties, political organizations, and movements together with the political Islamic movements created an alliance, opposing the old communist government and southerners. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, many American and French Soldiers came into the country. == Political structure == In 2010 a leaked US Embassy cable described Tajikistan as "... The greatest obstacle to improving the economy is resistance to reform. From the President down to the policeman on the street, the government is characterized by cronyism and corruption. Emomali Rahmon and his family control the country's major businesses, including the largest bank, and they play hardball to protect their business interests, no matter the cost to the economy writ large... The government has limited opposition party operations and rejected electoral law reforms for the February 28, 2010, parliamentary elections. The Embassy does not expect the elections to be free and fair. There has been almost no coverage of opposition political parties by state media, and most of the population is unaware of the purpose of the elections..." The Guardian "US embassy cables: 'Cronyism and corruption' hinder reform in Tajikistan". ==Provinces== Tajikistan is divided into 4 provinces.