Asaka ( uz, Asaka/Aсака; russian: Aсака) is a city and the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

Asaka District Asaka is a Districts of Uzbekistan, district of Andijan Region in Uzbekistan. The capital lies at Asaka, Uzbekistan, Asaka. It has an area of and it had 340,000 inhabitants in 2022. The district consists of 1 city (Asaka), 4 urban-type settlemen ...

in eastern

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

, located in the southeastern edge of the

Fergana Valley The Fergana Valley (; ; ) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Divided into three republics of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse and in the ...

near Uzbekistan's border with

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

. Asaka underwent rapid industrialization during the Soviet era. Currently, it is the second biggest industrial city in

Andijan Region Andijan Region ( Uzbek: Andijon viloyati/Андижон вилояти, ئەندىجان ۋىلايەتى, russian: Андижанская область) is a region of Uzbekistan, located in the eastern part of the Fergana Valley in far easte ...

, the first being

Andijan Andijan (sometimes spelled Andijon or Andizhan in English) ( uz, Andijon / Андижон / ئەندىجان; fa, اندیجان, ''Andijân/Andīǰān''; russian: Андижан, ''Andižan'') is a city in Uzbekistan. It is the administrative, ...

. Asaka is home to the first automobile assembly plant in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, namely UzAutoMotors (formerly UzDaewooAuto).

Etymology

The origins of the city's name are uncertain. Some sources say that it derives from the

Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who hist ...

words "asvaka" or "as-saka" which mean "horse" or "horsemen", respectively. That is why a statue of a horse was erected in one of Asaka's squares in 1997 during the 60th anniversary of the city's founding. According to others, "Assake" (the original name of the city) is an ancient term derived from the Iranian ethnonym referring to Central Asian

Scythians The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

.Pospelov, pp. 28–29

History

It has been known since ancient times as Asaka. The early history of Asaka has not been studied extensively. Avaz Muhammad Attor, a 19th-century historian, mentioned Assake in his book ''Tarixi jahonnoma'' (''World History''). According to him, Khudayar Khan had built a castle in the territory of present-day Asaka. Assake started to grow fast after the nearby city of

and

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...

were connected with a

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

. At the turn of the 20th century, Assake had a population of only 2,000 people. In 1924, Assake was renamed Zelensk, after a local official. In 1937, it was granted town status and again renamed, this time Leninsk, after

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

. The city underwent rapid industrialization during the Soviet era. In 1946, a large electric motor plant was built in Asaka. In the 1960s, the city specialized in processing agricultural goods. The city's original name was restored in a slightly modified form (Asake) after Uzbekistan's independence in 1991. In 1994, the first automobile assembly plant in

was built in Asaka by UzDaewooAuto, an Uzbekistani-

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

n joint venture. Following Daewoo's collapse in 2001, and the resulting change of ownership, UzDaewooAuto was reorganized as

GM Uzbekistan UzAuto Motors (formerly GM Uzbekistan) is an automotive manufacturer owned by the Government of Uzbekistan. It is based in Asaka, Uzbekistan. It manufactures vehicles under the marques Chevrolet and Ravon, which is Uzbek for calm and straight roa ...

in March 2008 as a new replacement joint venture.

Geography

Asaka is located above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

in the southeastern edge of the

near Uzbekistan's border with

. By road it is southwest of

. The Shahrixonsoy Canal flows through the city.

Climate

Asaka has a

cold desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''BWk'') with

continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continent, the major landmasses of Earth * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' ( ...

influences. It has cold winters and hot summers. The average July temperature is . The mean temperature in January is .

Demographics

In 2016, Asaka had a population of 62,200. Representatives of many ethnic groups can be found in the city.

Uzbeks The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...

are the largest ethnic group.

Economy

Asaka is the second biggest industrial city in

, the first being the City of Andijan. There are 12 large industrial plants and over 510

small and medium enterprise Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Ba ...

s in the city.

GM Uzbekistan

Asaka is home to the first automobile assembly plant in

, namely

. It was founded as UzDaewooAuto in 1992 between the Uzbek state-owned company UzAvtoSanoat and the

n automotive company Daewoo Motors. The construction of the plant was started in 1994 and took two years. Following the change of ownership of Daewoo to

GM Daewoo GM Korea Company ( ko, 한국지엠주식회사) is the South Korean subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. GMK is also the third largest automobile manufacturer in South Korea. GM Korea's roots go back to the former Daewoo Mot ...

, UzDaewooAuto was renamed GM Uzbekistan in 2008.

Education

There are three technical schools ( tekhnikum ), 24th and 42nd specialized schools, and many language and education centers in Asaka. The city is also home to ten secondary schools and 22 kindergartens.

References

Notes

Sources

*Е. М. Поспелов (Ye. M. Pospelov). "Имена городов: вчера и сегодня (1917–1992). Топонимический словарь." (''City Names: Yesterday and Today (1917–1992). Toponymic Dictionary.'') Москва, "Русские словари", 1993.

External links

Information about the city of Asaka on the official website of the Andijan Region Administration

{{Andijan Region Cities in Uzbekistan Populated places in Andijan Region