Tajikistan is nestled between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to the north and west, China to the east, and Afghanistan to the south. Mountains cover 93 percent of Tajikistan's surface area. The two principal ranges, the Pamir Mountains and the Alay Mountains, give rise to many glacier-fed streams and rivers, which have been used to irrigate farmlands since ancient times. Central Asia's other major mountain range, the Tian Shan, skirts northern Tajikistan. Mountainous terrain separates Tajikistan's two population centers, which are in the lowlands of the southern and northern sections of the country. Especially in areas of intensive agricultural and industrial activity, the Soviet Union's natural resource utilization policies left independent Tajikistan with a legacy of environmental problems.
Uzbekistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia. It is itself surrounded by five landlocked countries: Kazakhstan to the north; Kyrgyzstan to the northeast; Tajikistan to the southeast; Afghanistan to the south, Turkmenistan to the south-west. Its capital and largest city is Tashkent. Uzbekistan is part of the Turkic languages world, as well as a member of the Organization of Turkic States. While the Uzbek language is the majority spoken language in Uzbekistan, Russian is widely used as an inter-ethnic tongue and in government. Islam is the majority religion in Uzbekistan, most Uzbeks being non-denominational Muslims. In ancient times it largely overlapped with the region known as Sogdia, and also with Bactria.
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The Fergana Valley in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan.
Andijan is a city in Uzbekistan. It is the administrative, economic, and cultural center of Andijan Region. Andijan is a district-level city with an area of 74 km2 (29 sq mi) and it had 458,400 inhabitants in 2022. Andijan is located in the south-eastern edge of the Fergana Valley near Uzbekistan's border with Kyrgyzstan.
Kokand is a city in Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southwestern edge of the Fergana Valley. Administratively, Kokand is a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlement Muqimiy. The population of Kokand as of 2022 was approximately 259,700. The city lies 228 km (142 mi) southeast of Tashkent, 115 km (71 mi) west of Andijan, and 88 km (55 mi) west of Fergana. It is nicknamed "City of Winds". In 1877 when the first ethnographic works were done under the new imperial Russian administration, Khoqand/Kokand was reported and visually depicted on their maps as Tajik inhabited oasis (C.E de Ujfalvy. The city and the entire eastern 3/4 of the Fergana Valley were including in Uzbekistan in the 1920s and Stalin's dictates of political borders.
Fergana, or Ferghana, is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 420 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km west of Andijan, and less than 20 km from the Kyrgyzstan border.
Osh is the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". It is the oldest city in the country and has served as the administrative center of Osh Region since 1939. The city has an ethnically mixed population of 322,164 in 2021, comprising Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Koreans, and other smaller ethnic groups. It is about 5 km from the Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan border.
Osh Region is a region (oblast) of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Osh, which is not part of the region. It is bounded by (clockwise) Jalal-Abad Region, Naryn Region, China (Xinjiang), Tajikistan, Batken Region, and Uzbekistan. Its total area is 28,934 km2 (11,171 sq mi). The resident population of the region was 1,391,649 as of January 2021. The region has a sizeable Uzbek minority.
Andijan Region is a region of Uzbekistan, located in the eastern part of the Fergana Valley in far eastern Uzbekistan. It borders with Kyrgyzstan, Fergana Region and Namangan Region. It covers an area of 4,300 km2. The population is estimated to be around 3,253,528 (2022) thus making Andijan Region the most densely populated region of Uzbekistan.
Fergana Region is one of the regions of Uzbekistan, located in the southern part of the Fergana Valley in the far east of the country. It borders the Namangan and Andijan Regions of Uzbekistan, as well as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Its capital is the city Fergana. It covers an area of 6,760 km2. The population is approximately 3,896,395 as of 2022, with 44% of the population living in rural areas.
Namangan is a city in eastern Uzbekistan. It is the administrative, economic, and cultural center of Namangan Region. Administratively, it is a district-level city. Namangan is located in the northern edge of the Fergana Valley, less than 30 km from the Kyrgyzstan border. The city is served by Namangan Airport.
Soviet Central Asia was the part of Central Asia administered by the Soviet Union between 1918 and 1991, when the Central Asian republics declared independence. It is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkestan in the Russian Empire. Soviet Central Asia went through many territorial divisions before the current borders were created in the 1920s and 1930s.
Asaka is a city and the administrative center of Asaka District in eastern Uzbekistan, located in the southeastern edge of the Fergana Valley near Uzbekistan's border with Kyrgyzstan.
The Kara Darya is a major river in southern Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan. It is one of the source rivers of the Syr Darya, the other source river is the Naryn. The Kara Darya is formed by the confluence of the rivers Kara-Kulja and Tar. Its length is 177 kilometres (110 mi), and watershed area 30,100 square kilometres (11,600 sq mi).
The Great Fergana Canal is an irrigation canal located on the Fergana Valley between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in Central Asia. The project was constructed in 1939 by 160,000 Uzbek and Tajik collective farm workers from the former Soviet Union and was completed in forty-five days. The canal is 270 kilometers long with over 1,000 hydrotechnical plants located along the waterway, 50 of which are known to be significantly important.
Shohimardon is a village and a subdivision of Fergana District, Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. It is an exclave of Uzbekistan, surrounded by Kyrgyzstan, in a valley in the Pamiro-Alai mountains. The name means ‘King of Men’ in Persian. The river Shohimardonsoy flows through the exclave. There are two villages: Shohimardon and Yordon.
The Osh riots were an ethnic conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks that took place in June 1990 in the cities of Osh and Uzgen, part of the Kirghiz SSR. The immediate cause of the riots was a dispute between an Uzbek nationalist group Adolat and a Kyrgyz nationalist group Osh Aymaghi over the land of a former collective farm. While official estimates of the death toll range from over 300 to more than 600, unofficial figures range up to more than 1,000. The riots have been seen as a forerunner to the 2010 ethnic clashes in the same region.
Fergana Kipchak, also Kipchak Uzbek, is a recently extinct Kipchak Turkic language of the Kipchak-Nogai branch formerly spoken in the Fergana Valley of Central Asia. In some districts of the Fergana Region, linguistic features of Fergana Kipchak are seen, especially in phonetics. These districts are Bagʻdod, Buvayda, Uchkoʻprik and parts of neighboring districts. Many idioms spoken in Uzbekistan that are now considered part of the Kyrgyz language are actually Fergana Kipchak. According to the E. D. Polivanov, the Fergana Kipchak language existed as a separate idiom as late as in the 1920s. According to A. N. Samoilovich, some descendants of Fergana Kipchak-speakers identify as a separate people from the Uzbeks, Kazakhs or Kyrgyz, although closely related to the latter. Some dialects of Fergana Kipchak seem closely related to the Kipchak–Nogay languages.
Quva is the capital of Quva District in eastern Uzbekistan. Quva is about 450 km east of Tashkent, about 46 km west of Andijan, and less than 17 km from the Kyrgyzstan border. Its population is 46,400 (2016).
