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Tajikistan Geography 1996
Tajikistan has experienced three changes of government since it gained
independence in September 1991. The current president, Emomali RAKHMONOV,
was elected to the presidency in November 1994, yet has been in power since
1992. The country is suffering through its third year of a civil war, with
no clear end in sight. Underlying the conflict are deeply-rooted regional
and clan-based animosities that pit a government consisting of people
primarily from the Kulob (Kulyab), Khujand (Leninabad), and Hisor (Hissar)
regions against a secular and Islamic-led opposition from the Gharm,
Gorno-Badakhshan, and Qurghonteppa (Kurgan-Tyube) regions. Government and
opposition representatives have held periodic rounds of UN-mediated peace
talks and agreed in September 1994 to a cease-fire. Russian-led peacekeeping
troops are deployed throughout the country, and Russian border guards are
stationed along the Tajik-Afghan border.
Central Asia, west of China
Commonwealth of Independent States - Central Asian States
slightly smaller than Wisconsin
total 3,651 km, Afghanistan 1,206 km, China 414 km, Kyrgyzstan 870 km,
Uzbekistan 1,161 km
boundary with China in dispute; territorial dispute with Kyrgyzstan on
northern boundary in Isfara Valley area; Afghanistan's and other foreign
support to Tajik rebels based in northern Afghanistan
midlatitude continental, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid to polar in
Pamir Mountains
Pamir and Altay Mountains dominate landscape; western Fergana Valley in
north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest
significant hydropower potential, some petroleum, uranium, mercury, brown
coal, lead, zinc, antimony, tungsten
inadequate sanitation facilities; increasing levels of soil salinity;
industrial pollution; excessive pesticides; part of the basin of the
shrinking Aral Sea which suffers from severe overutilization of available
water for irrigation and associated pollution
international agreements:
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