Tajikistan
GANG INFORMATION
PROFILE
OFFICIAL NAME:
Republic of Tajikistan
Geography
Area: 143,100 sq. km.
Capital: Dushanbe.
Terrain: Pamir and Alay mountains dominate landscape; western
Ferghana valley in north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest.
Climate: Mid-latitude continental, hot summers, mild winters;
semiarid to polar in Pamir mountains.
People
Nationality: Tajikistani.
Population (July 2005 est.): 7,163,506.
Population growth rate (2005 est.): 2.15%.
Ethnic groups: Tajik 67%, Uzbek 23%, Russian 3.5%, other 6.5%.
Religion: Sunni Muslim 80%, Shi'a (Ismaili) Muslim 5%, other 15%.
Language: Tajik (sole official language as of 1994); Russian widely
used in government and business; 77% of the country, however,
is rural and they speak mostly Tajik.
Education: Literacy (according to Tajikistan official statistics,
2003)--88%. The Tajik education system has suffered greatly since
independence.
Health: Life expectancy--61.68 years men; 67.59 years women. Infant
mortality rate--110.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.).
Work force (2003 est.): 3.301 million.
Government
Type: Republic.
Independence: September 9, 1991 (from Soviet Union).
Constitution: November 6, 1994.
Branches: Executive--chief of state: President Emomali RAHMONOV
since November 6, 1994; head of state and Supreme Assembly chairman
since November 19, 1992; head of government: Prime Minister Oqil
OQILOV since January 20, 1999. Cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed
by the president, approved by the Supreme Assembly. Elections:
president elected by popular vote for a 7-year term; election
last held November 6, 1999 (next to be held in 2006); prime minister
appointed by the president. Election results: Emomali RAHMONOV
elected president; percent of vote: Emomali RAHMONOV 96%, Davlat
USMONOV 4%. Legislative--bicameral Supreme Assembly or Majlisi
Oli consists of the Assembly of Representatives or Majlisi Namoyanandagon
(lower chamber; 63 seats; members are elected by popular vote
to serve 5-year terms) and the National Assembly or Majlisi Milliy
(upper chamber; 33 seats; members are indirectly elected by popular
vote to serve 5-year terms, 25 selected by local deputies, 8 appointed
by the president; all serve 5-year terms). Elections: last held
February 27, 2005 for the Assembly of Representatives. Election
results: percent of vote by party--PDPT 74.9%, Communist Party
13.64%, Islamic Revival 8.94%, other 2.5%. Judicial--Supreme Court;
judges are appointed by the president.
Political parties and leaders: Democratic Party or DPT [Mahmadruzi
ISKANDAROV, chairman]; Islamic Revival Party or IRPT [Said Abdullo
NURI]; Social Democratic Party or SDPT [Rahmatullo ZOIROV]; People's
Democratic Party of Tajikistan or PDPT [Emomali RAHMONOV]; Tajik
Communist Party or CPT [Shodi SHABDOLOV]; Socialist Party of Tajikistan
Party or SPT [Abdukhalim GAFFOROV].
Suffrage: 18 years of age, universal.
Defense (2003 est.): Military manpower (availability)--1,273,700.
Economy
GDP nominal (2005 est.): $2.3 billion.
GDP nominal per capita (2004): U.S. $252. Purchasing power parity
is about $1,100.
GDP real growth rate (2004 est.): 10.5%.
Inflation rate (consumer prices, 2004 est.): 8%.
Natural resources: Hydropower, some petroleum, uranium, gold,
mercury, brown coal, lead, zinc, antimony, tungsten.
Official unemployment rate (2003): 2.1%. The official rate is
estimated based on the number of registered unemployment benefit
recipients; under employment also is very high, approximately
40% of the workforce; 60% live under the poverty line (2004).
Agriculture: Products--cotton, grain, fruits, grapes, vegetables;
cattle, sheep, goats.
Industry: Types--aluminum, zinc, lead, chemicals and fertilizers,
cement, vegetable oil, textiles, metal-cutting machine tools,
refrigerators and freezers.
Trade: Exports (2004 est.)--$1.13 billion f.o.b.: aluminum (49%),
electricity (23%), cotton (12%), gold, fruits, vegetable oil,
textiles. Partners (2004)--Latvia 13.1%, Switzerland 11.5%, Uzbekistan
11.3%, Norway 9.9%, Russia 8.2%, Iran 7.9%, Turkey 7.7%, Italy
6.6%, Hungary 4.4%. Imports (2004 est.)--$1.3 billion f.o.b.:
electricity, petroleum products, aluminum oxide, machinery and
equipment, foodstuffs. Partners (2004)--Russia 17.8%, Uzbekistan
13.4%, Kazakhstan 9.7%, Ukraine 6.3%, Azerbaijan 6.3%, U.S. 5.8%,
Turkey 4.3%.
Total external debt (2005 est.): $1.09 billion; total bilateral
external debt--$509 million, of which Uzbekistan $94 million,
U.S. $18.2 million, Turkey $26 million, Kazakhstan $19 million,
Pakistan $16 million; total multilateral debt (2000)--$365 million,
of which World Bank $153 million, IMF $113 million, ADB $19 million.
Debt/GDP ratio (2005): 46.7%.
GEOGRAPHY
At 36'40' northern latitude and 41'14' eastern longitude, Tajikistan
is nestled between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to the north and
west, China to the east, and Afghanistan to the south. Tajikistan
is home to some of the highest mountains in the world, including
the Pamir and Alay ranges. Ninety-three percent of Tajikistan
is mountainous with altitudes ranging from 1,000 feet to 27,000
feet, with nearly 50% of Tajikistan's territory above 10,000 feet.
Earthquakes are of varying degrees and are frequent. The massive
mountain ranges are cut by hundreds of canyons and gorges; at
the bottom of these run streams which flow into larger river valleys
where the majority of the country's population lives and works.
The principal rivers of Central Asia, the Amu Darya and the Syr
Darya, both flow through Tajikistan, fed by melting snow from
mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Flooding and landslides
sometimes occur during the annual spring thaw.
PEOPLE
Contemporary Tajiks are the descendants of ancient Eastern Iranian
inhabitants of Central Asia, in particular the Soghdians and the
Bactrians, and possibly other groups, with an admixture of western
Iranian Persians and non-Iranian peoples, Mongols, and Turkic
peoples. Until the 20th century, people in the region used two
types of distinction to identify themselves: way of life--either
nomadic or sedentary--and place of residence. By the late 19th
century, the Tajik and Uzbek peoples, who lived in proximity for
centuries and often used--and continue to use--each other's languages,
did not perceive themselves as two distinct nationalities. The
division of Central Asia into five Soviet Republics in the 1920s
imposed artificial labels on a region in which many different
peoples lived intermixed.
HISTORY
The current Tajik Republic hearkens back to the Samanid Empire
(A.D. 875-999), which ruled what is now Tajikistan as well as
territory to the south and west, as their role model and name
for their currency. During their reign, the Samanids supported
the revival of the written Persian language in the wake of the
Arab Islamic conquest in the early 8th century and played an important
role in preserving the culture of the pre-Islamic Persian-speaking
world. They were the last Persian-speaking empire to rule Central
Asia.
After a series of attacks beginning in the 1860s during the "Great
Game" between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for
supremacy in Central Asia, the Tajik people came under Russian
rule. This rule waned briefly after the Russian Revolution of
1917 as the Bolsheviks consolidated their power and were embroiled
in a civil war in other regions of the former Russian Empire.
As the Bolsheviks attempted to regain Central Asia in the 1920s,
an indigenous Central Asian resistance movement based in the Ferghana
Valley, the "Basmachi movement," attempted to resist
but was eventually defeated in 1925. Tajikistan became fully established
under Soviet control with the creation of Tajikistan as an autonomous
Soviet socialist republic within Uzbekistan in 1924, and as one
of the independent Soviet socialist republics in 1929.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
The Republic of Tajikistan gained its independence during the
breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.)
on September 9, 1991 and promptly fell into a civil war from 1992-97
between old-guard regionally based ruling elites and disenfranchised
regions, democratic liberal reformists, and Islamists loosely
organized in a United Tajik Opposition (UTO). Other combatants
and armed bands that flourished in this civil chaos simply reflected
the breakdown of central authority rather than loyalty to a political
faction. The height of hostilities occurred between 1992-93. By
1997, the predominantly Kulyabi-led Tajik Government and the UTO
successfully negotiated a powersharing peace accord and implemented
it by 2000.
Tajikistan is slowly rebuilding itself with an integrated government.
The last Russian border guards protecting Tajikistan’s 1,400
km border with Afghanistan completed their withdrawal in July
2005. Russia maintains its military presence in Tajikistan with
the basing of the Russian 201st Motorized Rifle Division that
never left Tajikistan when it became independent. Most of these
Russian-led forces, however, are local Tajik noncommissioned officers
and soldiers.
Tajikistan's most recent presidential election in 1999 and its
2005 parliamentary elections were widely considered to be flawed
and unfair but peaceful. The inclusion of an overtly declared
Islamic party committed to secular government (Islamic Renaissance
Party) and several other parties in the parliamentary elections
represented an improvement in the Tajik people's right to choose
their government. Tajikistan is the only Central Asian country
in which a religiously affiliated political party is represented
in parliament. President Rahmonov, while no longer specifically
obliged--as he was under the peace accords--to allocate one-third
of government positions to the UTO, has kept some former UTO officials
in senior cabinet-level positions. While the government and the
now-incorporated former opposition continue to distrust each other,
they have often found a way to work with each other and are committed
to peacefully resolving their differences. In June 2003, Tajikistan
held a flawed referendum to enact a package of constitutional
changes, including a provision to allow President Rahmonov the
possibility of reelection to up to two additional 7-year terms
after his current term expires in 2006. The February 2005 parliamentary
elections, in which the ruling party secured 49 of the 63 seats,
failed to meet many key Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) standards on democratic elections, but there
were some improvements over previous elections.
Afghanistan continues to represent the primary security concern
in Tajikistan’s immediate neighborhood, although much less
so than in earlier years. With the ouster of the former Taliban
government from Afghanistan, Tajikistan now has much friendlier
relations with its neighbor to the south. The Taliban-allied Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a U.S. Government-declared terrorist
organization formerly active in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, has
also been greatly diminished as a threat to Tajikistan’s
domestic stability. Rampant illicit trafficking of Afghan opium
and heroin through Tajikistan remains a serious long-term threat
to Tajikistan’s stability and development, fostering corruption,
violent crime, HIV/AIDS, and economic distortions.
Principal Government Officials
President--Emomali Rahmonov
Prime Minister--Oqil Oqilov
Foreign Minister--Talbak Nazarov
Ambassador to the United States--Hamrohon Zaripov
Ambassador to the United Nations--Rashid Alimov
Tajikistan maintains an embassy in the United States at 1005
New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington, DC 20037 (tel.: 202-233-6090;
fax: 202-223-6091).
ECONOMY
Tajikistan is the poorest Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
country and one of the poorest countries in the world. With foreign
revenue precariously dependent upon exports of cotton and aluminum,
the economy is highly vulnerable to external shocks. In FY 2000,
international assistance remained an essential source of support
for rehabilitation programs that reintegrated former civil war
combatants into the civilian economy, thus helping keep the peace.
International assistance also was necessary to address the second
year of severe drought that resulted in a continued shortfall
of food production.
Despite resistance from vested interests, the Government of Tajikistan
continued to pursue macroeconomic stabilization and structural
reform in FY 2000. In December 1999, the government announced
that small-enterprise privatization had been successfully completed,
and the privatization of medium-sized and large state-owned enterprises
(SOEs) continued incrementally. The continued privatization of
medium-sized and large SOEs, land reform, and banking reform and
restructuring remain top priorities. Shortly after the end of
FY 2000, the Board of the International Monetary Fund gave its
vote of confidence to the government's recent performance by approving
the third annual Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility Loan for
Tajikistan. Improved fiscal discipline by the Government of Tajikistan
has supported the return to positive economic growth. The government
budget was nearly in balance in 2001 and the government’s
2002 budget targeted a fiscal deficit of 0.3% of GDP, including
recent increases in social sector spending.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
With the ouster of the former Taliban government from Afghanistan,
Tajikistan now has much friendlier relations with its neighbor
to the south. Though a pull-out of Russian border guards was completed
in July 2005, Tajikistan continues to permit basing of the Russian
201st Motorized Rifle Division that never left Tajikistan when
it became independent.
U.S.-TAJIK RELATIONS
The United States remains committed to assisting Tajikistan in
its economic and political development, as Tajikistan continues
to recover from its civil war legacy. U.S. assistance efforts
are evolving away from humanitarian aid and political reconciliation,
as those needs increasingly have been met. Instead, our efforts
are targeted toward broader goals of democratic and economic reforms.
[For more information, see fact sheet on FY 2005 U.S. Assistance
to Tajikistan.]
U.S.-Tajik relations have developed considerably since September
11, 2001. The two countries now have a broad-based relationship,
cooperating in such areas as counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism,
non-proliferation, and regional growth and stability. In light
of the Russian border forces’ withdrawal from the Tajik-Afghan
border, the U.S. Government leads an international donor effort
to enhance Tajikistan’s territorial integrity, prevent the
transit of narcotics and material or technology related to weapons
of mass destruction (WMD), and support a stable, peaceful Tajikistan
in order to prevent the spread of influence and activities of
radical groups and terrorists.
We continue to assist Tajikistan on economic reforms and integration
into the broader global marketplace, for example in pursuing World
Trade Organization (WTO) accession. Tajikistan has been a strong
supporter of U.S. efforts in the war on terrorism and in promoting
peace and stability in Afghanistan.
In June 2005, ground was broken on the U.S. Government-funded
$28 million Tajik-Afghan Bridge across the Pyanzh River. When
completed in 2007, the bridge will connect Sher Khan, Afghanistan,
with Nizhniy Pyanzh, Tajikistan and is expected to transport more
than 1,000 cars daily. The bridge will enhance economic and commercial
opportunities on both sides of the river, allowing goods and people
to move across more easily. On the Afghan side, the bridge road
will connect to the Afghan Ring Road, which is being built with
international assistance primarily via the Asian Development Bank.
Tajikistan established an embassy in Washington in temporary
offices in February 2003, and formally opened its first permanent
chancery building in March 2004.
The United States recognized Tajikistan on December 25, 1991,
the day the U.S.S.R. dissolved, and opened a temporary Embassy
in a hotel in the capital, Dushanbe, in March 1992. After the
bombings of U.S. Embassies in Africa in 1998, Embassy Dushanbe
American personnel were temporarily relocated to Almaty, Kazakhstan,
due to heightened Embassy security standards. American Embassy
Dushanbe has returned to full operations and a new Embassy compound,
the first purpose-built U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan, is scheduled
for completion in early 2006.
Principal U.S. Embassy Officials
Ambassador--Richard E. Hoagland
Deputy Chief of Mission--Thomas Armbruster
Management Officer--Bruce Wilson
Political-Economic Officers--Elizabeth Horst, Uyen Tang
Public Affairs Officer--Jon Larsen
Consular Officer--Evan McCarthy
Defense Attache--Maj. Jonathan Edwards
USAID Country Representative--Peter Argo
The U.S. Embassy is located at 10 Pavlova Street, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
734003; tel. +992 (372) 221-0348/50/52; fax +992 (372) 221-0362.
TRAVEL AND BUSINESS INFORMATION
The U.S. Department of State's Consular Information Program provides
Consular Information Sheets, Travel Warnings, and Public Announcements.
Consular Information Sheets exist for all countries and include
information on entry requirements, currency regulations, health
conditions, areas of instability, crime and security, political
disturbances, and the addresses of the U.S. posts in the country.
Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department recommends
that Americans avoid travel to a certain country. Public Announcements
are issued as a means to disseminate information quickly about
terrorist threats and other relatively short-term conditions overseas
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Free copies of this information are available by calling the Bureau
of Consular Affairs at 202-647-5225 or via the fax-on-demand system:
202-647-3000. Consular Information Sheets and Travel Warnings
also are available on the Consular Affairs Internet home page:
http://travel.state.gov. Consular Affairs Tips for Travelers publication
series, which contain information on obtaining passports and planning
a safe trip abroad, are on the Internet and hard copies can be
purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government
Printing Office, telephone: 202-512-1800; fax 202-512-2250.
Emergency information concerning Americans traveling abroad may
be obtained from the Office of Overseas Citizens Services at (202)
647-5225. For after-hours emergencies, Sundays and holidays, call
202-647-4000.
The National Passport Information Center (NPIC) is the U.S. Department
of State's single, centralized public contact center for U.S.
passport information. Telephone: 1-877-4USA-PPT (1-877-487-2778).
Customer service representatives and operators for TDD/TTY are
available Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time,
excluding federal holidays.
Travelers can check the latest health information with the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.
A hotline at 877-FYI-TRIP (877-394-8747) and a web site at http://www.cdc.gov/travel/index.htm
give the most recent health advisories, immunization recommendations
or requirements, and advice on food and drinking water safety
for regions and countries. A booklet entitled Health Information
for International Travel (HHS publication number CDC-95-8280)
is available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
DC 20402, tel. (202) 512-1800.
Information on travel conditions, visa requirements, currency
and customs regulations, legal holidays, and other items of interest
to travelers also may be obtained before your departure from a
country's embassy and/or consulates in the U.S. (for this country,
see "Principal Government Officials" listing in this
publication).
U.S. citizens who are long-term visitors or traveling in dangerous
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or at the Consular section of the U.S. embassy upon arrival in
a country by filling out a short form and sending in a copy of
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of an emergency.
Further Electronic Information
Department of State Web Site. Available on the Internet at http://www.state.gov,
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