Uzbekistan

  

Republic of Uzbekistan Oʻzbekiston Respublikasi
Flag Emblem
Anthem: "Fortress of Islam, Heart of Asia"
Capital and largest city	Tashkent
Official languages	Uzbek, Russian
Demonym(s)	Uzbek
Government	Unitary parliamentary republic
• President	Jurabek Khamuratov
• Prime Minister	Muradjan Sabirov
Legislature	Supreme Assembly
History
• Emirate of Bukhara	1785
• Bukharan People's Republic	1923-1924
• Uzbek Republic within Russia	1929
• Independence	1959
• Uzbekistani Civil War	1999–2004
• Current constitution	23 December 2017
Area
• Total	171,781 km2 (66,325 sq mi)
Population
• 2020 estimate	30,588,900
GDP (PPP)	2018 estimate
• Total	$297.806 billion
• Per capita	$19,178
GDP (nominal)	2018 estimate
• Total	$72.490 billion
• Per capita	$4,686
Currency	Som (UZS)
Time zone	UTC+5 (Uzbekistan Time)
Driving side	right

Uzbekistan (Uzbek: O'zbekiston), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan, is a landlocked country located in Central Asia, sharing borders with Iran to the south and west, Kazakhstan in the north, and Tajikistan and the east. It has a population of 30.58 million, of which the majority are ethnic Uzbeks, but with minorities of Tajiks, Kazakhs, Russians, and others. Nearly 90% of the population are Muslims, with a significant Christian minority and less than one percent being Zoroastrian or other religions. The western part of the country is a dry desert, with the Kyzylkum Desert forming much of the northern border with Kazakhstan, while the eastern part is mountainous, and the far eastern corner contains the Fergana Valley, which is also divided with Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. The capital and largest city is Tashkent.

What is now Uzbekistan was in ancient times part of the Iranian-speaking region of Transoxiana and Turan. The first recorded settlers were Eastern Iranian nomads, known as Scythians, who founded kingdoms in Khwarazm, Bactria, Sogdia, Fergana, and Margiana between the 8th century BC and the 6th century AD. The area was incorporated into the Iranian Achaemenid Empire and, after a period of Macedonian rule, was ruled by the Iranian Parthian Empire and later by the Sasanian Empire, until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century. The Early Muslim conquests converted most of the people, including the local ruling classes, into adherents of Islam. During this period, cities such as Samarkand, Khiva, and Bukhara began to grow rich from the Silk Road, and witnessed the emergence of leading figures of the Islamic Golden Age, including Muhammad al-Bukhari, Al-Tirmidhi, Ismail Samani, al-Biruni, and Avicenna. The local Khwarazmian dynasty, and Central Asia as a whole were decimated by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, after which the region became dominated by Turkic peoples. The city of Shahrisabz was the birthplace of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), who in the 14th century established the Timurid Empire and was proclaimed the Supreme Emir of Turan with his capital in Samarkand, which became a centre of science under the rule of Ulugh Beg, giving birth to the Timurid Renaissance. The territories of the Timurid dynasty were conquered by Uzbek Shaybanids in the 16th century, moving the centre of power to Bukhara.

By the 19th century the region was ruled by several Muslim khanates and they were gradually incorporated into the Russian Empire, with Tashkent being the administrative center of Russian Turkestan. The Russian Revolution and the following Civil War starting in 1923 led to the proclamation of the Bukharan People's Republic as an independent country, including most of Uzbekistan's modern territory, but it was defeated by the Russian Army and re-incorporated into the Russian State. Following Russia's defeat in the Second Great War, it was granted independence by the Allied powers in 1959 as the Republic of Uzbekistan.

A series of military dictators led the country from the 1960s through the early 1990s. The 1992 Uzbekistani parliamentary election saw a victory for a coalition of parties opposing the dictatorship, leading to a period of democratic government. But the political and social unrest caused by the Sino-Tajik War in the 1980s spilled over into Uzbekistan, drawing the nation into the power struggle in neighboring Tajikistan. Uzbekistan had provided support to anti-Landonist mujahedin groups in Tajikistan during the war, and in the 1990s many of these forces left the country across the border into Uzbekistan during the Tajikistani Civil War. In 1999 the Uzbek government launched a major operation against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in the eastern part of the country, whose forces had been veterans of the Tajik wars, and in 2000 the military removed the elected civilian government in a coup d'etat under the guise of restoring order against the Islamic radicals. In 2017, the military junta gave up power to a newly elected civilian government, which has been implementing reforms over the past several years.

Uzbekistan has a diverse cultural heritage due to its layers of history and strategic location. Its official language is Uzbek, a Turkic language written in a modified Latin alphabet and spoken natively by approximately 85% of the population. Russian has widespread use as an inter-ethnic tongue and in governance, though its role has diminished in recent decades. Uzbeks are the biggest ethnic group at around 80% of the population, though Tajiks, Kazakhs, and Russians are significant minorities.

Uzbekistan's strategic location and its large reserves of oil and natural gas have made it a contender for the leading regional power in Central Asia, but it still has a smaller economy than Kazakhstan and a much lower per capita GDP. It is part of the League of Nations, WTO, IMF, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Etymology

The name "Uzbegistán" appears in the 16th century Tarikh-i Rashidi.

The origin of the word Uzbek remains disputed. Three views exist as to the adjective accompanying -stan (in the family of Indo-Iranian languages: "place of"):

• "free", "independent" or "own master/leader" requiring an amalgamation of uz (Turkic: "own"), bek ("master" or "leader")
• eponymously named after Oghuz Khagan, also known as Oghuz Beg
• A contraction of Uğuz, earlier Oğuz, that is, Oghuz (tribe), amalgamated with bek "oguz-leader".

All three have the middle syllable/phoneme being cognate with Turkic title Beg.

The name of the country was often spelled as "Ўзбекистон" in Uzbek Cyrillic or "Узбекистан" in Russian.

Geography

Uzbekistan is the smallest country in Central Asia, being just slightly behind Tajikistan in land area, at 171,781 square kilometers. Uzbekistan borders Tajikistan to the east, Kazakhstan to the west and north, and Iran to the south. It is a hot, dry, landlocked country.

The climate in Uzbekistan is continental, with little precipitation expected annually (100–200 millimetres, or 3.9–7.9 inches). The average summer high temperature tends to be 40 °C (104 °F), while the average winter low temperature is around −23 °C (−9 °F).

Regions

Uzbekistan is divided into 9 regions (viloyatlar, singular – viloyat) and 1 independent city (shahri).