An Introduction Into Tajikistan
Tajikistan is a landlocked nation located in Central Asia with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and China surrounding its borders. It was first a part of Russian Imperial rule in the 1860s and 70s; however, as Russia’s power decreased in this region, indigenous guerrillas called “the Basmachi” began to revolt against the Bolsheviks. By 1924, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) deemed Tajikistan as an autonomous region inside Uzbekistan, but by 1929, the USSR designated this region as its own republic. After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Tajikistan gained its independence on September 9, 1991; however, it soon fell into a civil war from 1992 to 1997. Out of the former USSR, Tajikistan is the poorest of the countries. Much of the economy is from citizens working abroad due to sharp decline in job opportunities and infrastructure after the civil war. Out of the 8,604,882 people in the country, over a million of those are migrant workers abroad sending money to their family. The economy is also dependent on minerals extraction, metals processing, and agriculture. The industry is generally small factories working in food processing and light industry, substantial hydropower facilities, and a large aluminum plant.
The Geography
Tajikistan is a total of 144,100 square kilometers of mountainous land with about 90 percent of the population living in the valleys. The major mountain ranges are the Trans-Alay in the North and the Pamirs in the South, and the major valleys are the Fergana Valley in the North, and the Vakhsh and Kofarnihon Valleys in the Southwest. The Kofarnihon Valley contains the capital Dushanbe with a population of 894,000 which makes it the major urban area of this country. Only about 7 percent of the land is usable for agriculture with its main crop being cotton. Tajikistan has to import about 70 percent of its food. Tajikistan’s environmental problems include high air pollution from transportation and factories, water pollution from agricultural runoff and sewage, soil erosion, and poor management of water resources.
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The Population
The Tajik people make up 84.3 percent of the population. 13.8 percent is Uzbek; and the remaining 2 percent are Kyrgyz, Russian, Turkmen, Tatar, and Arab. Approximately 98 percent of the country is Muslim with the majority of those (95 out of the 98 percent) being Sunni. As shown by the graph, the population of Tajikistan has a large amount of people between the ages of 0-14 and 25-34. The population spends on average 11 years of schooling, and they have a literacy rate of 99.8 percent.
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The Politics
Tajikistan is a presidential republic with a president as the chief of state, and a prime minister as the head of government. Tajikistan’s president is Emomali Rahmon who first came to power in 1994 during the civil war, its prime minister is Qohir Rasulzoda as of 2013. Elections for president is once every seven years, and the elections for parliament is every five years; however, outsiders have noticed that the election system is riddled with corruption. President Rahmon increases his power with political decisions. Most recently in 2015, he banned the major opposing political party; furthermore, he ratified a referendum that allows limitless terms and lifelong immunity, as well as lowered the required age to run for president from 35 to 30. This referendum allows for his son, Rustam Emomali, to run for president in the coming election in 2020. Additionally, the country faces domestic security issues. Since 2010, there has been armed conflicts between government forces and local strongmen in the Rasht Valley and between government forces and criminal groups in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast. In 2018, Tajikistan faced its first ISIS attack which killed four people.
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The Flag
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Zoe Drewery, Fall 2019 |