Tajikistan

**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 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.

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, became 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..."

## Provinces

Tajikistan is divided into 4 provinces.
|Division|ISO 3166-2|Capital|Area (km²)|Pop (2008)|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|TJ-SU|**Khujand**|25,400|2,132,100||
|TJ-RR|**Dushanbe**|28,600|1,606,900||
|TJ-KT|**Qurghonteppa**|24,800|2,579,300||
|TJ-BG|**Khorugh**|64,200|218,000||

## References

- Poopak NikTalab. Sarve Samarghand (Cedar of Samarkand), continuous interpretation of Rudaki's poems, Tehran 2020, Faradid Publications {Introduction}

## Infobox (country)

- **conventional long name**: Republic of Eastern Persia
- **common name**: Tajikistan
- **image flag**: Flag of Tajikistan.svg
- **image coat**: Coat of arms of Tajikistan.svg
- **symbol type**: Emblem
- **national anthem**: _Surudi Milli, Суруди Миллӣ_
()

- **image map**: Tajikistan (orthographic projection).svg
- **capital**: Dushanbe
- **largest city**: capital
- **official languages**: Tajik language, Tajik
- **ethnic groups year**: 2010
- **demonym**: Tajik or Tajikistani
- **government type**: Unitary system, Unitary dominant-party system, dominant-party presidential system, presidential constitutional republic
- **leader title1**: President of Tajikistan, President
- **leader name1**: Emomali Rahmon
- **leader title2**: Prime Minister of Tajikistan, Prime Minister
- **leader name2**: Kokhir Rasulzoda
- **leader title3**: Chairman of the Supreme Assembly (Tajikistan), Majlisi Milli
- **leader name3**: Mahmadsaid Ubaydulloyev
- **legislature**: Supreme Assembly (Tajikistan), Supreme Assembly
- **upper house**: Supreme Assembly (Tajikistan), National Assembly
- **lower house**: Assembly of Representatives (Tajikistan), Assembly of Representatives
- **sovereignty type**: History of Tajikistan, Formation
- **established event1**: Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Tajik ASSR
- **established date1**: 27 October 1924
- **established event2**: Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, Tajik SSR
- **established date2**: 5 December 1929
- **established event3**: Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Independence from the Soviet Union
- **established date3**: 9 September 1991
- **established event4**: Alma-Ata Protocol, CIS full membership
- **established date4**: 21 December 1991
- **established event5**: Recognized
- **established date5**: 26 December 1991
- **established event6**: United Nations Security Council Resolution 738, Admitted to the United Nations
- **established date6**: 2 March 1992
- **established event7**: Constitution of Tajikistan, Current constitution
- **established date7**: 6 November 1994
- **area km2**: 143,100
- **area rank**: 94th
- **area sq mi**: 55,251
- **percent water**: 1.8
- **population estimate**: 10,786,734
- **population estimate rank**: 96th
- **population estimate year**: 2025
- **population density km2**: 48.6
- **population density sq mi**: 125.8
- **population density rank**: 155th
- **gdp ppp**: $30.547 billion
- **gdp ppp year**: 2018
- **gdp ppp rank**: 132nd
- **gdp ppp per capita**: $3,354
- **gdp ppp per capita rank**: 155th
- **gdp nominal**: $7.350 billion
- **gdp nominal year**: 2018
- **gdp nominal rank**: 147th
- **gdp nominal per capita**: $807
- **gdp nominal per capita rank**: 164th
- **gini**: 34
- **gini year**: 2015
- **hdi**: 0.650
- **hdi year**: 2018
- **hdi change**: increase
- **hdi rank**: 127th
- **currency**: Somoni
- **currency code**: TJS
- **time zone**: Tajikistan Time, TJT
- **utc offset**: +5
- **drives on**: right
- **calling code**: +992
- **cctld**: .tj