TAJIKI FAMILIARIZATION COURSE

Introduction to

GEOGRAPHY

Tajikistan is located in and is home to some of the highest mountains in the world, the . Tajikistan is surrounded by the neighboring countries of in the northwest and west, in the north and northeast, Afghanistan in the south and China in the east. Borders of modern Tajikistan are the result of the national policies of former Soviet leader Josef Stalin, who tried to delineate all ethnic groups by their territories, where their settlement was most compact. As a result, parts of the Tajikistan territory, in places, are surrounded by that of its neighbors, especially in the Ferghana Valley region.

1 The terrain includes high desert, foothills, valleys and a plateau that lies, on average, at an elevation of 3,000 (9000 feet) meters. Even the lowlands, which are located in the in the far north and in the southwest, are well above sea level. In the range, highest of the western chains, the maximum elevation is 5,510 meters (16, 000 feet). The highest elevations of this range are in the southeast, near the border with Kyrgyzstan. That region is dominated by the peaks of the Pamir-Alay mountain system, including two of the three highest elevations in the former : (formerly Lenin Peak) 7,134 meters (21,402 ft) and Ismoil Somoni (formerly Communism Peak) 7,495 meters (22,485 ft). Several other peaks in the region also exceed 7,000 meters. The mountains contain numerous glaciers, the largest of which, the Fedchenko, covers more than 700 square kilometers and is the largest glacier in the world outside the Polar Regions. Because Tajikistan lies in an active seismic belt, severe earthquakes are common.

Å Fedchenko glacier

2 View of the suburban park Romit

The Fergana Valley, the most densely populated region in Central Asia, spreads across northern Tajikistan from Uzbekistan on the west to Kyrgyzstan on the east. This long valley, which lies between two mountain ranges, reaches its lowest elevation of 320 meters at on the Syrdariya. Rivers bring rich soil deposits into the Fergana Valley from the surrounding mountains, creating a series of fertile oases that have long been prized for agriculture. The general area of the country is approximately 143,100 square kilometers.

CLIMATE

In general, Tajikistan's climate is continental, subtropical, and semi-arid, with some desert areas. However, the climate changes drastically according to elevation. The Fergana Valley and other lowlands are shielded by mountains from arctic air masses, but temperatures in that region still drop below freezing for more than 100 days a year. In the subtropical southwestern lowlands, which have the highest average temperatures, the climate is arid, although some sections now are irrigated for farming. At Tajikistan's lower elevations, the average temperature range is 23° to 30° C in July and -1° to 3°C in January. In the eastern Pamirs, the average July temperature is 5° to 10°C, and the average January temperature is -15° to -20°C. The average annual precipitation for most of the republic ranges between 700 and 1,600 millimeters. The heaviest precipitation falls at the Fedchenko Glacier, which averages 2,236 millimeters per year, and the lightest is in the eastern Pamirs, which average less than 100 millimeters per year. Most precipitation occurs in the winter and spring.

ECONOMY

Industry in Tajikistan consists, in sum, of one large aluminum smelter, hydroelectric power installations and a number of small plants engaged in light industry and food processing. Virtually all need to be upgraded and modernized. Tajikistan's aluminum plant, the Tursunzade Aluminum Smelter (TADAZ), built in 1975 and located in Tajikistan because of access to cheap electric power, is the third-largest in the world, with a capacity of 517,000 tons a year. In 2001, it operated at 25% capacity (which produced 113,000 tons), down from 86.5% capacity in 1990 (producing 450,000 tons, the closest it has come to full capacity utilization.) The $210 million earned in export revenues constituted 53% of total export receipts for the year. In 2002, TADAZ's output increased to 307,000 tons, and plans are for it to reach 346.000 tons annual output by 2005. Almost all of its output is exported, though there are small downstream cable and foil operations. The plant directly employs 12,000 to 14,000, and indirectly supports a community of 100,000. The government announced its intention to sell shares in TADAZ, retaining a majority control. However, the plant has accumulated a large external debt, probably over $100 million, lessening its attractiveness to outside investors. In early 2003, the IMF somewhat uncharacteristically advised against privatization of either TADAZ or the country's hydroelectric facilities.

3 Tajikistan is the world's third-largest producer of hydroelectric power, behind the United States and . However, TADAZ uses about 40% of the country's electricity production, and Tajikistan has the lowest electricity usage rates among the former Soviet counties, enough for only a few hours a day of electricity in the winter.

Like elsewhere in the developing world, most successful industries include food for sale, (served most of the time in the yard of the house where it is cooked, with guests sometimes going into rooms during winter), and the home based manufacture of clothing and household items.

Å A staple of the diet – shashlyk – which is the highlight of the day during lunch

Å Manty – a large ravioli is the result of Chinese influence centuries ago

One of the most taxing industries is cotton. It uses child labor, forced labor and is backbreaking harvesting by hand.

POPULATION

According to the 1989 census, Tajikistan's population was overwhelmingly young and 50.3 percent female. People under age thirty made up 75 percent of the population; people under age fifteen were 47 percent of the total.

4 Å Village in Varzob district

In the last two decades of the Soviet era, Tajikistan had the highest birth rate of any Soviet republic. The average family size in the republic, according to the 1989 census, was 6.1 people, the largest in the Soviet Union. The average Tajik woman gave birth to between seven and nine children. The average annual population growth rate for rural Tajikistan in the 1970s and 1980s was higher than the rate for urban areas.

The two main causes of Tajikistan's growth pattern were the high value placed by society on large families and the virtual absence of birth control, especially in rural areas, where the majority of the population lived. Women under the age of twenty gave birth to 5.1 percent of the babies born in Tajikistan in 1989, and a relatively high proportion of women continued to have children late into their child-bearing years. According to the 1989 census, 2 percent of all the babies born in Tajikistan were born to women between the ages of forty and forty-four; 81 percent of those babies had been preceded by at least six other children.

In the late 1980s, the Soviet government reacted to the high birth rate by encouraging family planning. The plan failed because of poor promotion, inadequate birth control methods, and the Tajiks' traditional admiration for large families and opposition to birth control. In rural areas, the inadequacies of health care and the reluctance of women to undergo gynecological examinations contributed to the failure of family planning prior to independence. After independence, living conditions deteriorated rapidly and the economy has remained sluggish. These conditions force family planning to take place, especially in urban areas.

RELIGION

Islam, the predominant religion of all of Central Asia, was brought to the region by Arabs in the seventh century. Since that time, Islam has become an integral part of Tajik culture. Although Soviet efforts to secularize society were largely successful, the post-Soviet era has seen a marked increase in religious practice. The majority of Tajikistan's Muslims adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam, and a smaller group belongs to the Shi’a branch of that faith. Among other religions, the Russian Orthodox faith is the most widely practiced, although the Russian community shrank significantly in the early 1990s. Some other small Christian groups now enjoy relative freedom of worship. There is also a small Jewish community. The vast majority of the non-Tajik population of Tajikistan is composed of people who were also historically Sunni Muslims (Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Tatars, and Turkmen). The next largest religious community is presumably Russian Orthodox, the historical faith of many Ukrainians as well as Russians. A cathedral in , St.

5 Nicholas, serves the Orthodox community. By the end of the Soviet era, Tajikistan was also home to small numbers of people belonging to other Christian denominations, including Roman Catholics (most of who were German), Seventh-Day Adventists, and Baptists. There was also a small Armenian minority, most of whose members belonged historically to the Armenian Apostolic (Gregorian) Church. Other religious groups included small numbers of Jews and Bahais. The number of adherents to these minority religions probably decreased sharply in the 1990s because of the wave of emigration from Tajikistan in the early independence period. Independence saw a rise of fundamentalism and radical Islam of the Wahhabi faction.

Å Interior of the new mosque in Panjakent

HISTORY

Scientists have found primitive human settlements in Tajikistan that date back 12,000 years. People fished, hunted, and grew crops. Cities were formed and, as commerce grew, the Great Silk Road came into existence, bringing wealth and prosperity to many cities in Tajikistan. What is now Tajikistan was part of many states that came and went.

Head of a Bactrian sovereign III century BC

Fragment of the Buddhist sculpture of Kushan period

6 Islamic Arabs began the conquest of the region in earnest in the early eighth century. Conversion to Islam occurred by means of incentives, gradual acceptance, and force of arms. Islam spread most rapidly in cities and along the main river valleys. By the ninth century, it was the prevalent religion in the entire region. In the early centuries of Islamic domination, Central Asia continued in its role as a commercial crossroads, linking China, the steppes to the north, and the Islamic heartland.

Salah Ad Din – conqueror of the Holy Land.

His name later became a general term – saladins - in Europe to denote Muslims. In the development of a modern Tajik national identity, the most important state in Central Asia after the Islamic conquest was the Persian-speaking Samanid principality (875-999), which came to rule most of what is now Tajikistan, as well as territory to the south and west. During their reign, the Samanids supported the revival of the written Persian language.

Mausoleum of Ismail Samani, founder of the state where Tajik became the state language.

Today’s territory of the republic was defined during Soviet times. Tajiks were citizens of Soviet Turkistan first, which was divided into 4 republics in the 1920s and modern Tajikistan was carved out of Uzbekistan in 1929. Tajikistan declared independence in the fall of 1991 following an August coup in Moscow.In the first years of independence, politics in Tajikistan were overshadowed by a long struggle for political power among cliques that sought Soviet-style dominance and a collection of opposition forces, some of them Islamic radicals, seeking to establish a new government whose form was defined only vaguely in public statements. The result was a civil war that began in the second half of 1992.

7 Civil War of 1992

After the August coup in Moscow, Tajiki communists waited and debated what to do. Should they declare independence, like the republics of the Baltic Sea did or stay with the Soviet Union? Opposition in Tajikistan was very active and successful. The Communists realized that there was no way they would remain in power and they started the game in order to maneuver between fractions. The Democratic movement was doing great and had the majority of votes secure. The Islamists and Communists were 2nd and 3rd to finish. The Islamists were demanding that the new constitution should be based on Quran, and Sharia be used as the law of the land. Armed formations of all Islamic leaders were in Dushanbe and they decided to seize the parliament building. Clashes broke out all over the city and civil war was under way. Communists, headed by a former party boss, were hesitant and the boss himself fled to his native Hujand. As a result, the group from Qulob emerged on top in the communist faction of the government, led by Emomali Rahmonov, who immediately negotiated participation of 201st Division with Yeltsin (Russian president) and the Uzbek Air Force and army with Karimov (Uzbek president) on his side.

One of the few flying MIG 29 of the Uzbek Air Force returning from a sortie into Tajikistan

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One of the few remaining flying SU27 fighter-bombers of the Uzbek Air Force performing a bombing run in Tavildara province.

With 201st Division units and Uzbek Special Forces battalion assisting on the ground and Uzbek Air Force flying missions around the clock for two weeks, government forces quickly gained ground and pushed opposition fighters into Badakhshan and Afghanistan.

Active combat stopped by the new year and 1993 was a year of political struggle. In the years to come Rahmonov proved to be a shrewd politician and was able to win back support of the population and leadership in the provinces. Most stubborn Islamists were assassinated quietly with the help of Russian and Uzbek secret services.

Today 80% of the personnel serving in 201st Division are ethnic Tajiks. Almost all of the soldiers and sergeants are local, with only officers and a few contract NCOs Russians from Russia.

Tajiki contractor, serving in Russian 201st Division on the border patrol duty in Pyanj province

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T72s Tank Squadron of the 201st Division on combat alert in Khatlon province

A faction favoring a neo-Soviet system took control of the government in December 1992 after winning the civil war with help from Russian and Uzbekistani forces. The ongoing conflict between United Tajiki Opposition (UTO) and central government transitioned from an armed phase into political. Banned political movements are Hizb ut Tahrir (Party of the Scripture), with HQ in London, and IMU, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which was always much more present and active in Tajikistan, than it was in Uzbekistan. IMU used to have an armed branch, which is believed to have been largely destroyed during OEF. A major security concern is the Afghani border, at the river Pyandj, which in places can be forded on foot. Drug smugglers take full advantage of this fact.Russian 201st Motorized Rifle Division maintains its presence in Tajikistan and is reported to be actively involved in drug trafficking, as is the Tajiki police, National Security Service and every governmental official on every level.

Å Russian President Putin and Tajiki President Emomali Rakhmonov at a convocation ceremony for the monument to the fallen soldiers and officers of the 201st Division

10 CULTURE AND CUSTOMS

Tajikistan’s culture is a peculiar product of the years of efforts of Soviets to secularize people, introduce industries and develop a modern way of life. Proper credit should be given to the Soviet administration and enthusiastic Russian professionals who devoted their lives to bringing industries and electricity to Tajikistan and to the eradication of malaria and other extremely dangerous diseases that plagued Tajikistan for centuries.

Tajiks have adjusted to the times and have morphed into a nation state, keeping the most basic concepts, both of fire worshiping times and Islamic heritage, alive today. The celebration of New Year (Navruz) on March 21, the day of spring equinox, hails to the Zoroastrian times

An ensemble of “doirachi” performs during Navruz Æ

The Doira is a handheld drum

Å Street performers in costumes

Å Group of “karnaichi.” Karnai is a long – 9 ft- horn.

11 Å Buzkashi – a game on horseback with the aim of picking up a goat carcass from the ground and making a full circle while being pursued by other contenders

Islamic holidays are celebrated much more since independence. There is a polarization in society, with urban and rural religious divisions. People in the cities and mining towns tend to be more Westernized and much more open minded than people in the villages.

Å Open air market (bozor) in Ura Tube on the eve of Id Al Fitr, with every female wearing headscarves

Probably the most visible sign of Islamic revival is the traditional marriage, one that is performed in mosque by a mullah, without civic record. The government tries to discourage this by publishing newspaper articles about the horrors of the lives of women who married traditionally and later divorced. Since there is no record, they have no recourse.

A majority of the people in Tajikistan live, as they used to live, for centuries. With the exceptions of several hundred thousands of households in big cities, the rest of the population lives without running water. Electricity is everywhere, but reliability of the grid is not consistent.

ÅTraditional bread making in the tandir – clayoven

12 Å Girls carrying water home

Å Women cooking palov for a family event

Å Carpet makers

Tajiks by nature are very industrious and, when left alone by the government, quickly reach what they consider prosperity. Unfortunately the government is still omnipresent and extorts money from each and every successful business, hampering development.Prosperity in Tajikistan is three meals a day for everyone in the family with meat on the table every day. When Tajiks are not starving, they immediately build families and it is not unusual to have four or five brothers living next door to each other with each having 5 to 8 children. Sometimes relatives occupy entire blocks in the community

Å A Family of four Gadoyev brothers. Each has 8 children

The traditional way of life was reinforced by the tragic events of civil war. Families cling together and stick to traditional activities. Unfortunately, with the population growth and international markets development, old ways can no longer provide for prosperity. Many men leave to go abroad and support their families from elsewhere. Millions emigrated to Russia, where population is on the decline and many industries need workers. All this leads to rapid erosion of the traditions and young Tajiks do not mind.

13 Language

Modern Tajiki evolved from the Eastern Iranian language and was heavily influenced by Farsi and Arabic. Scripts were developed in Soghdiana two thousand years ago and later substituted by Arabic, which in turn was dropped in favor of first Latin and later Cyrillic in the 1930s. The change of script always followed a change of power and internal politics. As a result, there are still a lot of people in Tajikistan who are equally versed in Cyrillic and Arabic scripts. Tajiki today is still written in the Cyrillic script with special characters, developed to accommodate specific phonemes. The Tajik Cyrillic & Arabic-Persian alphabet ﺗﺎﺟﮑﯽ اﻟﻔﺒﺎﯼ - алифбои тоҷикӣ - a َ◌ A, a А а a (ê*(h ﻩ b ب B, b Б б v و V, v В в g گ G, g Г г ġ غ G, g Ғ ғ d د D, d Д д e ﯼ E, e E e yô ﻳﺎ Ё ё ž ژ Zh, zh Ж ж ẕ ذ Z, z З з I, I И и ◌ِ i ī ﯼ I, \i Ӣ ӣ\ y ﯼ J, j Й й k ﮎ K, k К к q ق K, \k Қ қ\ l ل L, l Л л m م M, m М м n ن N, n Н н ô (') ا O, o О о p پ P, p П п r ر R, r Р р s ث ṣ ص S, s С с t ط T, t Т т U, u У у ◌ُ u ū و U, u Ӯ ӯ

14 f ف F, f Ф ф ḫ خ Х х h ﻩ Ҳ ҳ h چ Ч ч j ج Ҷ ҷ š ش Ш ш Schch Щ щ ع Ъ ъ E, e Э э è yu يُ Ю ю ya يَ Я я

Although Tajiki language and literature is rich and highly developed, it is practically unknown in the West due to the Cold War, and the absence of a systematic promotion of the knowledge of the country.

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