Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a
doubly landlocked country located in
Central Asia. It is surrounded by five landlocked countries:
Kazakhstan to the
north;
Kyrgyzstan to the
northeast;
Tajikistan to the
southeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
;
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
to the
south; and
Turkmenistan to the
southwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
. Its
capital and largest city is
Tashkent. Uzbekistan is part of the
Turkic world, as well as a member of the
Organization of Turkic States. The
Uzbek language is the majority-spoken language in Uzbekistan, while
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
is widely spoken and understood throughout the country.
Tajik is also spoken as a minority language, predominantly in
Samarkand and
Bukhara.
Islam is the predominant religion in Uzbekistan, most Uzbeks being
Sunni Muslims.
The first recorded settlers in what is now Uzbekistan were
Eastern Iranian nomads, known as
Scythians, who founded kingdoms in
Khwarazm
Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ea ...
(8th–6th centuries BC),
Bactria (8th–6th centuries BC),
Sogdia (8th–6th centuries BC),
Fergana (3rd century BC – sixth century AD), and
Margiana
Margiana ( el, ''Margianḗ'', Old Persian: ''Marguš'', Middle Persian: ''Marv'') is a historical region centred on the oasis of Merv and was a minor satrapy within the Achaemenid satrapy of Bactria, and a province within its successors, the Se ...
(3rd century BC – sixth 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 and the subsequent
Samanid Empire 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 became a center of the
Islamic Golden Age, with figures such as
Muhammad al-Bukhari
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...
,
Al-Tirmidhi
Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā as-Sulamī aḍ-Ḍarīr al-Būghī at-Tirmidhī ( ar, أبو عيسى محمد بن عيسى السلمي الضرير البوغي الترمذي; fa, , ''Termezī''; 824 – 9 October 892 CE / 209 - 2 ...
,
al Khwarizmi,
al-Biruni
Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973 – after 1050) commonly known as al-Biruni, was a Khwarazmian Iranian in scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age. He has been called variously the "founder of Indology", "Father of Co ...
,
Avicenna, and
Omar Khayyam
Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, an ...
.
The local
Khwarazmian dynasty
The Anushtegin dynasty or Anushteginids (English: , fa, ), also known as the Khwarazmian dynasty ( fa, ) was a Persianate C. E. BosworthKhwarazmshahs i. Descendants of the line of Anuštigin In Encyclopaedia Iranica, online ed., 2009: ''" ...
was destroyed by the
Mongol invasion in the 13th century, leading to a dominance by Turkic peoples.
Timur (Tamerlane) who in the 14th century established the
Timurid Empire
The Timurid Empire ( chg, , fa, ), self-designated as Gurkani (Chagatai language, Chagatai: کورگن, ''Küregen''; fa, , ''Gūrkāniyān''), was a PersianateB.F. Manz, ''"Tīmūr Lang"'', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition, 2006 Tu ...
was from
Shahrisabz
Shakhrisabz ( uz, Шаҳрисабз ; tg, Шаҳрисабз; fa, شهر سبز, shahr-e sabz: "city of green" / "verdant city"; russian: Шахрисабз) is a district-level city in Qashqadaryo Region in southern Uzbekistan. The Economic ...
and with his capital in Samarkand, which became a centre of science under the rule of
Ulugh Beg
Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh ( chg, میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, fa, میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ), better known as Ulugh Beg () (22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as ...
, 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. The region was split into three states: the
Khanate of Khiva,
Khanate of Kokand
The Khanate of Kokand ( fa, ; ''Khānneshin-e Khoqand'', chg, ''Khoqand Khānligi'') was a Central Asian polity in the Fergana Valley centred on the city of Kokand between 1709 and 1876. Its territory is today divided between Uzbekistan, Kyr ...
, and
Emirate of Bukhara. Conquests by Emperor
Babur towards the east led to the foundation of the
Mughal Empire in India.
All of Central Asia
was gradually incorporated into the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
during the 19th century, with
Tashkent becoming the political center of
Russian Turkestan
Russian Turkestan (russian: Русский Туркестан, Russkiy Turkestan) was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories, and was administered as a Krai or Governor-Generalship. It comprised the ...
. In 1924,
national delimitation created the
Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз ...
as an independent republic within the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. Shortly before the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, it declared
independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan on 31 August 1991.
Uzbekistan is a
secular state, with a
presidential constitutional
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these prin ...
government in place. Uzbekistan comprises 12
regions
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
(vilayats),
Tashkent City, and one
autonomous
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...
republic,
Karakalpakstan
Karakalpakstan, / officially the Republic of Karakalpakstan, / is an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. It occupies the whole northwestern part of Uzbekistan. The capital is Nukus (' / ). The Republic of Karakalpakstan has an area of , and ...
. While
non-governmental
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...
human rights organisations have defined Uzbekistan as "an
authoritarian state with limited
civil rights",
significant reforms under Uzbekistan's second president,
Shavkat Mirziyoyev
Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev (Uzbek Latin: ''Shavkat Miromonovich (Miromon o‘g‘li) Mirziyoyev'', Uzbek Cyrillic: Шавкат Миромонович (Миромон ўғли) Мирзиёев ; born 24 July 1957) is an Uzbek politician ...
, have been made following the death of the first president,
Islam Karimov
Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov ( uz, Islom Abdugʻaniyevich Karimov / Ислом Абдуғаниевич Каримов, italics=no; russian: link=no, Ислам Абдуганиевич Каримов; 30 January 1938 – 2 September 2016) was t ...
. Owing to these reforms, relations with the neighbouring countries of
Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
have drastically improved. A United Nations report of 2020 found much progress toward achieving the UN's
Sustainable Development Goals.
The
Uzbek economy is in a gradual transition to the
market economy, with foreign trade policy being based on
import substitution
Import substitution industrialization (ISI) is a trade and economic policy that advocates replacing foreign imports with domestic production.''A Comprehensive Dictionary of Economics'' p.88, ed. Nelson Brian 2009. It is based on the premise tha ...
. In September 2017, the country's currency became fully convertible at market rates. Uzbekistan is a major producer and exporter of
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
. With the gigantic power-generation facilities from the Soviet era and an ample supply of
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
, Uzbekistan has become the largest electricity producer in Central Asia.
From 2018 to 2021, the republic received a BB- rating by both Standard and Poor (S&P) and Fitch. Strengths indicated by the
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...
include Uzbekistan having large liquid assets, high economic growth, and low public debt. Among the constraints holding the republic back is the low
GDP per capita. Uzbekistan is a member of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
and the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
russian: Шанхайская Организация Сотрудничества
, image =
, caption =
, logo = SCO logo.svg
, logo_size = 160px
, map = Shanghai Cooperati ...
(SCO).
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
The suffix -stan ( fa, ـستان, translit=''stân'' after a vowel; ''estân'' or ''istân'' after a consonant), has the meaning of "a place abounding in" or "a place where anything abounds" in the Persian language. It appears in the names of ...
'' (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. H. Keane, A. Hingston Quiggin, A. C. Haddon, Man: Past and Present, p.312, Cambridge University Press, 2011, Google Books, quoted: "Who take their name from a mythical Uz-beg, Prince Uz (beg in Turki=a chief, or hereditary ruler)."]
#A contraction of ''Uğuz'', earlier Oğuz, that is,
Oghuz (tribe)
The Turkic term ''oğuz'' or ''oğur'' (in z- and r-Turkic, respectively) is a historical term for "military division, clan, or tribe" among the Turkic peoples.
With the Mongol invasions of 1206–21, the Turkic khaganates were replaced by ...
, 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 during Soviet rule.
History
The first people known to have inhabited Central Asia were
Scythians who came from the northern grasslands of what is now Uzbekistan, sometime in the first millennium BC; when these nomads settled in the region they built an extensive irrigation system along the rivers.
[''This section incorporates text from the following source, which is in the public domain'': Lubin, Nancy (1997). "Uzbekistan", chapter 5 in: Glenn E. Curtis (Ed.)]
''Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies''
Washington, DC: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. . pp. 375–468: Early History, pp. 385–386. At this time, cities such as Bukhoro (
Bukhara) and Samarqand (
Samarkand) emerged as centres of government and high culture.
By the fifth century BC, the
Bactrian,
Soghdian, and
Tokharian
The Tocharian (sometimes ''Tokharian'') languages ( or ), also known as ''Arśi-Kuči'', Agnean-Kuchean or Kuchean-Agnean, are an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family spoken by inhabitants of the Tarim Basin, the Tocharians. The l ...
states dominated the region.
As East Asian countries began to develop its silk trade with the West, Persian cities took advantage of this commerce by becoming centres of trade. Using an extensive network of cities and rural settlements in the province of
Transoxiana, and further east in what is today China's
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Sogdian intermediaries became the wealthiest of these Iranian merchants. As a result of this trade on what became known as the
Silk Route
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
, Bukhara and Samarkand eventually became extremely wealthy cities, and at times
Transoxiana (Mawarannahr) was one of the most influential and powerful Persian provinces of antiquity.
In 327 BC Macedonian ruler
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
conquered the
Persian Empire provinces of Sogdiana and Bactria, which contained the territories of modern Uzbekistan. A conquest was supposedly of little help to Alexander as popular resistance was fierce, causing Alexander's army to be bogged down in the region that became the northern part of the Macedonian
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. The kingdom was replaced with the Yuezhi dominated
Kushan Empire in the first century BC. For many centuries the region of Uzbekistan was ruled by the Persian empires, including the
Parthian and
Sassanid Empires, as well as by other empires, for example, those formed by the Turko-Persian
Hephthalite and Turkic
Gokturk peoples.
The
Muslim conquests
The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...
from the seventh century onward assisted the
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
to bring
Islam to Uzbekistan. In the same period, it began to take roots within the nomadic
Turkic people
The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose memb ...
s who accepted the religion.
In the eighth century, Transoxiana, the territory between the
Amudarya
The Amu Darya, tk, Amyderýa/ uz, Amudaryo// tg, Амударё, Amudaryo ps, , tr, Ceyhun / Amu Derya grc, Ὦξος, Ôxos (also called the Amu, Amo River and historically known by its Latin name or Greek ) is a major river in Central A ...
and
Syrdarya rivers, was conquered by the Arabs (
Qutayba ibn Muslim) becoming a focal point soon after the
Islamic Golden Age. Among the achievements of scholars during this period were the development of
trigonometry into its modern form (simplifying its practical application to calculate the phases of the moon), advances in
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...
, in
astronomy, as well as in poetry, philosophy, art, calligraphy, and many others, which set the foundation for the Muslim Renaissance.
In the ninth and tenth centuries, Transoxiana was included into the
Samanid State. Later, Transoxiana saw the incursion of the Turkic-ruled
Karakhanids
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek K ...
, as well as the
Seljuks
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes
by the Turk ...
(Sultan Sanjar) and
Kara-Khitans.
The
Mongol conquest under
Genghis Khan during the 13th century would bring about a change to the region. The
Mongol invasion of Central Asia
The Mongol invasion of Central Asia occurred after the unification of the Mongol and Turkic tribes on the Mongolian plateau in 1206. It was finally complete when Genghis Khan conquered the Khwarizmian Empire in 1221.
Qara Khitai (1216-1218 ...
led to the displacement of some of the Iranian-speaking people of the region, their culture and heritage being superseded by that of the
Mongolian-
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging t ...
who came thereafter. The invasions of Bukhara, Samarkand,
Urgench
Urgench ( uz, Urganch//, ; russian: Ургенч, Urgench; fa, گرگانج, ''Gorgånch/Gorgānč/Gorgânc/Gurganj'') is a district-level city in western Uzbekistan. It is the capital of Xorazm Region. The estimated population of Urgench in ...
and others resulted in
mass murders and unprecedented destruction, such as portions of
Khwarezmia
Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ea ...
being completely razed.
Following the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, his empire was divided among his four sons and his family members. Despite the potential for serious fragmentation, the Mongol law of the Mongol Empire maintained orderly succession for several more generations, and control of most of Transoxiana stayed in the hands of the direct descendants of
Chagatai Khan, the second son of Genghis Khan. Orderly succession, prosperity, and internal peace prevailed in the Chaghatai lands, and the Mongol Empire as a whole remained a strong and united kingdom (
Golden Horde).
[''This section incorporates text from the following source, which is in the public domain'': Lubin, Nancy (1997). "Uzbekistan", chapter 5 in: Glenn E. Curtis (Ed.), ]
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies
''. Washington, DC: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. . p. 375–468; here:
The Rule of Timur
", p. 389–390.
During this period, most of present Uzbekistan was part of the
Chagatai Khanate
The Chagatai Khanate, or Chagatai Ulus ( xng, , translit=Čaɣatay-yin Ulus; mn, Цагаадайн улс, translit=Tsagaadain Uls; chg, , translit=Čağatāy Ulusi; fa, , translit=Xânât-e Joghatây) was a Mongol and later Turkicized kh ...
except
Khwarezm was part of the
Golden Horde. After the decline of the Golden Horde, Khwarezm was briefly ruled by the
Sufi Dynasty until Timur's conquest of it in 1388. Sufids rules Khwarezm as vassals of alternatively
Timurids
The Timurid Empire ( chg, , fa, ), self-designated as Gurkani ( Chagatai: کورگن, ''Küregen''; fa, , ''Gūrkāniyān''), was a PersianateB.F. Manz, ''"Tīmūr Lang"'', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition, 2006 Turco-Mongol empire ...
, Golden Horde and
Uzbek Khanate until Persian occupation in 1510.
In the early 14th century, however, as the empire began to break up into its constituent parts, the Chaghatai territory was disrupted as the princes of various tribal groups competed for influence. One tribal chieftain,
Timur (Tamerlane), emerged from these struggles in the 1380s as the dominant force in Transoxiana. Although he was not a descendant of Genghis Khan, Timur became the ''de facto'' ruler of Transoxiana and proceeded to conquer all of western Central Asia,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
,
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
,
Asia Minor, and the southern steppe region north of the
Aral Sea. He also invaded Russia before dying during an invasion of
China in 1405.
Timur was known for his extreme brutality and his conquests were accompanied by
genocidal massacres in the cities he occupied.
Timur initiated the last flowering of Transoxiana by gathering together numerous artisans and scholars from the vast lands he had conquered into his capital, Samarkand, thus imbuing his empire with a rich Perso-Islamic culture. During his reign and the reigns of his immediate descendants, a wide range of religious and palatial construction masterpieces were undertaken in Samarkand and other population centres. Amir Timur initiated an exchange of medical discoveries and patronised physicians, scientists and artists from the neighbouring regions such as India; His grandson
Ulugh Beg
Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh ( chg, میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, fa, میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ), better known as Ulugh Beg () (22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as ...
was one of the world's first great astronomers. It was during the Timurid dynasty that Turkic, in the form of the
Chaghatai dialect, became a literary language in its own right in Transoxiana, although the Timurids were Persianate in nature. The greatest Chaghataid writer,
Ali-Shir Nava'i, was active in the city of
Herat (now in northwestern Afghanistan) in the second half of the 15th century.
The Timurid state quickly split in half after the death of Timur. The chronic internal fighting of the Timurids attracted the attention of the Uzbek nomadic tribes living to the north of the Aral Sea. In 1501, the Uzbek forces began a wholesale invasion of Transoxiana.
The
slave trade in the
Khanate of Bukhara became prominent and was firmly established. Before the arrival of the Russians, present Uzbekistan was divided between
Emirate of Bukhara and
khanates of
Khiva and
Kokand.
In the 19th century, the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
began to expand and spread into
Central Asia. There were 210,306 Russians living in Uzbekistan in 1912. The "
Great Game
The Great Game is the name for a set of political, diplomatic and military confrontations that occurred through most of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – involving the rivalry of the British Empire and the Russian Empi ...
" period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the
Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. A second, less intensive phase followed the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. At the start of the 19th century, there were some separating
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
and the outlying regions of
Tsarist Russia. Much of the land between was unmapped. In the early 1890s,
Sven Hedin passed through Uzbekistan, during his first expedition.
By the beginning of 1920, Central Asia was firmly in the hands of Russia and, despite some early
resistance to the
Bolsheviks, Uzbekistan and the rest of Central Asia became a part of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. On 27 October 1924 the
Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз ...
was created. From 1941 to 1945, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, 1,433,230 people from Uzbekistan fought in the
Red Army against
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. A number also
fought on the German side. As many as 263,005 Uzbek soldiers died in the battlefields of the
Eastern Front, and 32,670 went missing in action.
On 20 June 1990, Uzbekistan declared its state sovereignty. On 31 August 1991, Uzbekistan declared independence after the
failed coup attempt in Moscow. 1 September was proclaimed the National Independence Day. The Soviet Union was
dissolved on 26 December of that year. Islam Karimov, previously first secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan since 1989, was elected president of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in 1990. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, he was elected president of independent Uzbekistan.
President
Islam Karimov
Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov ( uz, Islom Abdugʻaniyevich Karimov / Ислом Абдуғаниевич Каримов, italics=no; russian: link=no, Ислам Абдуганиевич Каримов; 30 January 1938 – 2 September 2016) was t ...
, the authoritarian ruler of Uzbekistan since independence, died on 2 September 2016. He was replaced by his long-time
Prime Minister,
Shavkat Mirziyoyev
Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev (Uzbek Latin: ''Shavkat Miromonovich (Miromon o‘g‘li) Mirziyoyev'', Uzbek Cyrillic: Шавкат Миромонович (Миромон ўғли) Мирзиёев ; born 24 July 1957) is an Uzbek politician ...
, on 14 December of the same year.
On 6 November 2021, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was sworn into his second term in office, after gaining a landslide victory in presidential
election.
Geography
Uzbekistan has an area of . It is the 56th largest country in the world by area and the 40th by population. Among the
CIS countries, it is the fourth largest by area and the second largest by population.
Uzbekistan lies between latitudes
37° and
46° N, and longitudes
56° and
74° E. It stretches from west to east and from north to south. Bordering
Kazakhstan and the
Aralkum Desert (former
Aral Sea) to the north and northwest,
Turkmenistan and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
to the southwest,
Tajikistan to the southeast, and
Kyrgyzstan to the northeast, Uzbekistan is one of the largest
Central Asian states and the only Central Asian state to border all the other four. Uzbekistan also shares a short border (less than ) with
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
to the south.
Uzbekistan is a hot, dry,
landlocked country
A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked de facto states. Kazakhstan is the world's largest ...
. It is one of two
doubly landlocked countries in the world (that is, a landlocked country completely surrounded by other landlocked countries), the other being
Liechtenstein. In addition, due to its location within a series of
endorheic basin
An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...
s, none of its rivers lead to the sea. Less than 10% of its territory is intensively cultivated irrigated land in river valleys and oases, and formerly in the
Aral Sea, which has largely desiccated in one of the world's worst environmental disasters. The rest is the vast
Kyzylkum Desert
The Kyzylkum Desert ( uz, Qizilqum, Қизилқум, قىزىلقۇم; kk, Қызылқұм, Qyzylqūm, قىزىلقۇم) is the 15th largest desert in the world. Its name means ''Red Sand'' in Turkic languages. It is located in Central Asia, i ...
and mountains.
The highest point in Uzbekistan is
Khazret Sultan at above sea level, in the southern part of the
Gissar Range in the
Surxondaryo Region
Surxondaryo Region ( uz, Surxondaryo viloyati, Сурхондарё вилояти, سرخاندریا ولایت, russian: Сурхандарьинская область, fa, سرخاندریا, UniPers: "sorxāndaryā"), old spelling Su ...
on the border with Tajikistan, just northwest of
Dushanbe (formerly called Peak of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party).
[Uzbekistan will publish its own book of records – Ferghana.ru]
. 18 July 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
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
Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer.
Thermometers are calibrated in various Conversion of units of temperature, temp ...
tends to be 40 °C , while the average winter low temperature is around −23 °C .
[Climate](_blank)
, Uzbekistan : Country Studies – Federal Research Division, Library of Congress.
Uzbekistan is home to six terrestrial ecoregions:
Alai-Western Tian Shan steppe,
Gissaro-Alai open woodlands,
Badghyz and Karabil semi-desert,
Central Asian northern desert,
Central Asian riparian woodlands, and
Central Asian southern desert.
Environment
Uzbekistan has a rich and diverse natural environment. However, decades of
Soviet policies in pursuit of greater
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
production have resulted in a catastrophic scenario with the agricultural industry being the main contributor to the pollution and devastation of both air and water in the country.
The
Aral Sea was once the fourth-largest inland sea on Earth, humidifying the surrounding air and irrigating the arid land. Since the 1960s, when the overuse of the Aral Sea water began, it has shrunk to about 10% of its former area and divided into parts, with only the southern part of the narrow western lobe of the
South Aral Sea
The South Aral Sea was a lake in the basin of the former Aral Sea which formed in 1987 when that body divided in two, due to diversion of river inflow for agriculture. In 2003, the South Aral Sea itself split into eastern and western basins, th ...
remaining permanently in Uzbekistan. Much of the water was and continues to be used for the
irrigation of cotton fields,
a crop requiring a large amount of water to grow.
Due to the Aral Sea loss, high salinity and contamination of the soil with
heavy elements are especially widespread in
Karakalpakstan
Karakalpakstan, / officially the Republic of Karakalpakstan, / is an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. It occupies the whole northwestern part of Uzbekistan. The capital is Nukus (' / ). The Republic of Karakalpakstan has an area of , and ...
, the region of Uzbekistan adjacent to the Aral Sea. The bulk of the nation's water resources is used for farming, which accounts for nearly 84% of the water use and contributes to high
soil salinity. Heavy use of
pesticides and
fertiliser
A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
s for cotton growing further aggravates
soil contamination
Soil contamination, soil pollution, or land pollution as a part of land degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotic (human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. It is typically caused by industrial activity ...
.
According to the UNDP (United Nations Development Program),
climate risk management in Uzbekistan should consider its ecological safety.
Numerous oil and gas deposits have been discovered in the south of the country.
Uzbekistan has also been home to seismic activity, as evidenced by the
1902 Andijan earthquake,
2011 Fergana Valley earthquake, and
1966 Tashkent earthquake.
A dam collapse at
Sardoba reservoir in May 2020 flooded much farmland and many villages. The devastation extended into areas inside neighbouring
Kazakhstan.
Politics
After Uzbekistan declared independence from the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
in 1991, an election was held, and
Islam Karimov
Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov ( uz, Islom Abdugʻaniyevich Karimov / Ислом Абдуғаниевич Каримов, italics=no; russian: link=no, Ислам Абдуганиевич Каримов; 30 January 1938 – 2 September 2016) was t ...
was elected as the
first President of Uzbekistan on 29 December 1991.
The elections of the
Oliy Majlis
The Oliy Majlis (Cyrillic ''Олий Мажлис'', ) is the parliament of Uzbekistan.
It succeeded the Supreme Council of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 1995, and was unicameral until a reform implemented in January 2005 created a second chamber ...
(Parliament or Supreme Assembly) were held under a resolution adopted by the 16th Supreme Soviet in 1994. In that year, the Supreme Soviet was replaced by the Oliy Majlis.
The third elections for the bicameral 150-member Oliy Majlis, the Legislative Chamber, and the 100-member Senate for five-year terms, were held on 27 December 2009. The second elections were held from December 2004 to January 2005. The Oliy Majlis was unicameral up to 2004. Its size increased from 69 deputies (members) in 1994 to 120 in 2004–05 and currently stands at 150.
Karimov's first presidential term was extended to 2000 via a
referendum, and he was re-elected in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
,
2007, and 2015, each time receiving over 90% of the vote. Most international observers refused to participate in the process and did not recognise the results, dismissing them as not meeting basic standards.
The 2002 referendum also included a plan for a bicameral parliament consisting of a lower house (the Oliy Majlis) and an upper house (Senate). Members of the lower house are to be "full-time" legislators. Elections for the new bicameral parliament took place on 26 December.
Following Islam Karimov's death on 2 September 2016, the
Oliy Majlis
The Oliy Majlis (Cyrillic ''Олий Мажлис'', ) is the parliament of Uzbekistan.
It succeeded the Supreme Council of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 1995, and was unicameral until a reform implemented in January 2005 created a second chamber ...
appointed Prime Minister
Shavkat Mirziyoyev
Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev (Uzbek Latin: ''Shavkat Miromonovich (Miromon o‘g‘li) Mirziyoyev'', Uzbek Cyrillic: Шавкат Миромонович (Миромон ўғли) Мирзиёев ; born 24 July 1957) is an Uzbek politician ...
as interim president. Although the chairman of the Senate,
Nigmatilla Yuldashev, was constitutionally designated as Karimov's successor, Yuldashev proposed that Mirziyoyev take the post of the interim president instead in light of Mirziyoyev's "many years of experience". Mirziyoyev was subsequently elected as the country's second president in the
December 2016 presidential election, winning 88.6% of the vote, and was sworn in on 14 December. Deputy Prime Minister
Abdulla Aripov
Abdulla Nigmatovich Aripov ( uz, Абдулла Ниғматович Орипов, Abdulla Nigʻmatovich Oripov, born 24 May 1961, in Tashkent) is an Uzbek politician who serves as the prime minister of Uzbekistan, in office since 14 Decembe ...
replaced him as prime minister.
Mirziyoyev removed most of Karimov's officials and urged the government to employ "new, young people who love their country." After a year in office, Mirziyoyev moved away from many of his predecessor's policies. He visited all the Uzbek regions and big cities to get acquainted with the implementation of the projects and reforms which he ordered. Many analysts and Western media compared his rule with
Chinese Communist Party leader
Deng Xiaoping or
Soviet Communist Party
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
general secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev. His rule has been quoted as being an "Uzbek Spring".
Foreign relations
Uzbekistan joined the
Commonwealth of Independent States in December 1991. However, it is opposed to reintegration and withdrew from the CIS collective security arrangement in 1999. Since that time, Uzbekistan has participated in the CIS peacekeeping force in Tajikistan and in UN-organized groups to help resolve the Tajikistan and Afghanistan conflicts, both of which it sees as posing threats to its own stability.
Previously close to Washington (which gave Uzbekistan half a billion dollars in aid in 2004, about a quarter of its military budget), the government of Uzbekistan has recently restricted American military use of the airbase at
Karshi-Khanabad for air operations in neighbouring Afghanistan. Uzbekistan was an active supporter of U.S. efforts against worldwide terrorism.
The relationship between Uzbekistan and the United States began to deteriorate after the so-called "
colour revolutions" in
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and Ukraine (and to a lesser extent
Kyrgyzstan). When the U.S. joined in a call for an independent international investigation of the bloody events at
Andijan, the relationship further declined, and President Islam Karimov changed the political alignment of the country to bring it closer to Russia and China.
In late July 2005, the government of Uzbekistan ordered the United States to vacate an airbase in Karshi-Kanabad (near Uzbekistan's border with Afghanistan) within 180 days.
Karimov had offered use of the base to the U.S. shortly after
9/11. It is also believed by some Uzbeks that the protests in Andijan were brought about by the UK and U.S. influences in the area of Andijan.
This is another reason for the hostility between Uzbekistan and the West.
Uzbekistan is a member of the United Nations (UN) (since 2 March 1992), the
Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council
The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) is a post–Cold War, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) institution. The EAPC is a multilateral forum created to improve relations between NATO and non-NATO countries in Europe and Central Asi ...
(EAPC),
Partnership for Peace (PfP), and the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, pro ...
(OSCE). It belongs to the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived from ...
(OIC) and the
Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) (comprising the five Central Asian countries,
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan). In 1999, Uzbekistan joined the
GUAM alliance (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and
Moldova), which was formed in 1997 (making it GUUAM), but pulled out of the organisation in 2005.
Uzbekistan is also a member of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
russian: Шанхайская Организация Сотрудничества
, image =
, caption =
, logo = SCO logo.svg
, logo_size = 160px
, map = Shanghai Cooperati ...
(SCO) and hosts the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in Tashkent. Uzbekistan joined the new
Central Asian Cooperation Organisation (CACO) in 2002. The CACO consists of Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan,
Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It is a founding member of, and remains involved in, the
Central Asian Union
The Central Asian Union (CAU), later called the Central Asian Economic Union, was an intergovernmental organisation for economic integration between the Central Asian post-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan between 1994 ...
, formed with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and joined in March 1998 by Tajikistan.
In December 1994 Uzbekistan applied for the
World Trade Organization membership and received an observer status to start the accession process. The Working Party on the Accession of Uzbekistan to the WTO held its fourth meeting on 7 July 2020 — almost 15 years after its last formal meeting.
In September 2006,
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
presented Islam Karimov an award for Uzbekistan's preservation of its rich culture and traditions. Despite criticism, this seems to be a sign of improving relationships between Uzbekistan and the West.
The month of October 2006 also saw a decrease in the isolation of Uzbekistan from the West. The
EU announced that it was planning to send a delegation to Uzbekistan to talk about human rights and liberties, after a long period of hostile relations between the two. Although it is equivocal about whether the official or unofficial version of the
Andijan Massacre
On 13 May 2005, protests erupted in Andijan, Uzbekistan. At one point, troops from the Uzbek National Security Service (SNB) fired into a crowd of protesters. Estimates of those killed on 13 May range from 187, the official count of the governme ...
is true, the EU is evidently willing to ease its economic sanctions against Uzbekistan. Nevertheless, it is generally assumed among Uzbekistan's population that the government will stand firm in maintaining its close ties with the
Russian Federation and in its theory that the 2004–2005 protests in Uzbekistan were promoted by the US and UK.
In January 2008,
Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva was appointed to her current role as Uzbekistan's ambassador to
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
. Karimova-Tillyaeva and her team have been instrumental in promoting inter-cultural dialogue by increasing European society's awareness of Uzbekistan's cultural and historical heritage.
Human rights
Non-governmental
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...
human rights organisations, such as
IHF,
Human Rights Watch,
Amnesty International, as well as
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
and
Council of the European Union, define Uzbekistan as "an authoritarian state with limited civil rights"
[US Department of State]
2008 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Uzbekistan
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, 25 February 2009 and express profound concern about "wide-scale violation of virtually all basic human rights".
According to the reports, the most widespread violations are
torture,
arbitrary arrests, and various restrictions of freedoms: of religion, of speech and press, of free association and assembly. It has also been reported that forced sterilisation of rural Uzbek women has been sanctioned by the government.
The reports maintain that the violations are most often committed against members of religious organisations, independent journalists, human rights activists and political activists, including members of the banned opposition parties. As of 2015, reports on violations on human rights in Uzbekistan indicated that violations were still going on without any improvement. The
Freedom House has consistently ranked Uzbekistan near the bottom of its Freedom in the World ranking since the country's founding in 1991. In the 2018 report, Uzbekistan was one of the 11 worst countries for
Political Rights and
Civil Liberties.
The
2005 civil unrest in Uzbekistan, which resulted in several hundred people being killed, is viewed by many as a landmark event in the history of human rights abuse in Uzbekistan.
Concern has been expressed and requests for an independent investigation of the events has been made by the United States, the European Union, the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The government of Uzbekistan is accused of unlawful termination of human life and of denying its citizens
freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. The government vehemently rebuffs the accusations, maintaining that it merely conducted an anti-terrorist operation, exercising only necessary force. In addition, some officials claim that "an
information war
Information warfare (IW) (as different from cyber warfare that attacks computers, software, and command control systems) is a concept involving the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a ...
on Uzbekistan has been declared" and the human rights violations in Andijan are invented by the enemies of Uzbekistan as a convenient pretext for intervention in the country's internal affairs. Male
homosexuality is illegal in Uzbekistan. Punishment ranges from a fine to 3 years in prison.
There are an estimated 1.2 million modern slaves in Uzbekistan,
[Findings – Walk Free Foundation – Global Slavery Index 2014](_blank)
. Globalslaveryindex.org. Retrieved on 29 November 2015. most work in the cotton industry. The government allegedly forces state employees to pick cotton in the autumn months. World Bank loans have been connected to projects that use child labour and forced labour practices in the cotton industry.
Recent developments
Islam Karimov died in 2016 and his successor Shavkat Mirziyoyev is considered by most to be pursuing a less autocratic path by increasing co-operation with human rights NGOs, scheduling Soviet-style
exit visas to be abolished in 2019, and reducing sentences for certain misdemeanor offences.
The Amnesty International report on the country for 2017–2018 found some remnant repressive measures and lack of rule of law in eradicating modern slavery.
In February 2020, the United Nations announced that Uzbekistan made "major progress" on stamping out forced labour in its cotton harvest as 94% of pickers worked voluntarily.
Administrative divisions
Uzbekistan is divided into twelve
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
s (''viloyatlar'', singular ''
viloyat'', compound noun ''viloyati'' e.g., Toshkent ''viloyati'', Samarqand ''viloyati'', etc.), one
autonomous republic (''respublika'', compound noun ''respublikasi'' e.g. Qoraqalpogiston Muxtor ''Respublikasi'', Karakalpakstan ''Autonomous Republic'', etc.), and one
independent city
An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province).
Historical precursors
In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...
(''shahar'', compound noun ''shahri'', e.g., Toshkent ''shahri''). Names are given below in
Uzbek,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, and
Karakalpak languages when applicable, although numerous variations of the transliterations of each name exist.
The regions are further divided into
districts (''tuman'').
Largest cities
Economy
Uzbekistan mines 80 tons of gold annually, seventh in the world. Uzbekistan's copper deposits rank tenth in the world and its uranium deposits twelfth. The country's uranium production ranks seventh globally. The Uzbek national gas company,
Uzbekneftegas, ranks 11th in the world in natural gas production with an annual output of . The country has significant untapped reserves of oil and gas: there are 194 deposits of hydrocarbons in Uzbekistan, including 98 condensate and natural gas deposits and 96 gas condensate deposits.
Uzbekistan improved marginally in the ''2020 Ease of Doing Business'' ranking by the
World Bank.
The largest corporations involved in Uzbekistan's energy sector are the
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC),
Petronas, the
Korea National Oil Corporation,
Gazprom,
Lukoil, and
Uzbekneftegas.
Along with many
Commonwealth of Independent States or CIS economies, Uzbekistan's economy declined during the first years of transition and then recovered after 1995, as the cumulative effect of policy reforms began to be felt. It has shown robust growth, rising by 4% per year between 1998 and 2003 and accelerating thereafter to 7%–8% per year. According to IMF estimates,
[IMF World Economic Outlook Database]
, October 2007 the GDP in 2008 will be almost double its value in 1995 (in constant prices). Since 2003 annual inflation rates varied, reaching almost 40% in 2010 and less than 20% in 2019.
Uzbekistan has GNI per capita of US$2,020 in current dollars in 2018, giving a
PPP equivalent of US$7,230. Economic production is concentrated in commodities. In 2011, Uzbekistan was the world's seventh-largest producer and fifth-largest exporter of
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
as well as the seventh-largest world producer of gold. It is also a regionally significant producer of natural gas, coal, copper, oil, silver and uranium.
Agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
employs 27% of Uzbekistan's labour force and contributes 17.4% of its GDP (2012 data).
[ Cultivable land is 4.4 million hectares, or about 10% of Uzbekistan's total area. While official unemployment is very low, underemployment – especially in rural areas – is estimated to be at least 20%.] Cotton production in Uzbekistan is important to the national economy of the country. Uzbek cotton is even used to make banknotes in South Korea. The country has a considerable production of carrots as well. The use of child labour in Uzbekistan has led several companies, including Tesco, C&A, Marks & Spencer, Gap, and H&M, to boycott Uzbek cotton.
Facing a multitude of economic challenges upon acquiring independence, the government adopted an evolutionary reform strategy, with an emphasis on state control, reduction of imports and self-sufficiency in energy. Since 1994, the state-controlled media have repeatedly proclaimed the success of this "Uzbekistan Economic Model" and suggested that it is a unique example of a smooth transition to the market economy while avoiding shock, pauperism and stagnation. As of 2019, Uzbekistan's economy is one of the most diversified in Central Asia what makes the country an attractive economic partner for China.
The gradualist reform strategy has involved postponing significant macroeconomic and structural reforms. The state in the hands of the bureaucracy has remained a dominant influence in the economy. Corruption permeates the society and grows more rampant over time: Uzbekistan's 2005 Corruption Perception Index was 137 out of 159 countries, whereas in 2007 Uzbekistan was 175th out of 179 countries. A February 2006 report on the country by the International Crisis Group suggests that revenues earned from key exports, especially cotton, gold, corn and increasingly gas, are distributed among a very small circle of the ruling elite, with little or no benefit for the populace at large. The early-2010s high-profile corruption scandals involving government contracts and large international companies, notably TeliaSonera, have shown that businesses are particularly vulnerable to corruption when operating in Uzbekistan.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, "the government is hostile to allowing the development of an independent private sector, over which it would have no control".
The economic policies have repelled foreign investment, which is the lowest per capita in the CIS. For years, the largest barrier to foreign companies entering the Uzbekistan market has been the difficulty of converting currency. In 2003 the government accepted the obligations of Article VIII under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) providing for full currency convertibility. However, strict currency controls and the tightening of borders have lessened the effect of this measure.
Uzbekistan experienced rampant inflation of around 1000% per year immediately after independence (1992–1994). Stabilisation efforts implemented with guidance from the IMF paid off. The inflation rates were brought down to 50% in 1997 and then to 22% in 2002. Since 2003 annual inflation rates averaged less than 10%.[ Tight economic policies in 2004 resulted in a drastic reduction of inflation to 3.8% (although alternative estimates based on the price of a true ]market basket
A market basket or commodity bundle is a fixed list of items, in given proportions. Its most common use is to track the progress of inflation in an economy or specific market. That is, to measure the changes in the value of money over time. A ...
put it at 15%). The inflation rates moved up to 6.9% in 2006 and 7.6% in 2007 but have remained in the single-digit range.
The government of Uzbekistan restricts foreign imports in many ways, including high import duties. Excise taxes are applied in a highly discriminatory manner to protect locally produced goods, although the excises taxes were removed for foreign cars in 2020. Official tariffs are combined with unofficial, discriminatory charges resulting in total charges amounting to as much as 100 to 150% of the actual value of the product, making imported products virtually unaffordable. Import substitution
Import substitution industrialization (ISI) is a trade and economic policy that advocates replacing foreign imports with domestic production.''A Comprehensive Dictionary of Economics'' p.88, ed. Nelson Brian 2009. It is based on the premise tha ...
is an officially declared policy and the government proudly reports a reduction by a factor of two in the volume of consumer goods imported. A number of CIS countries are officially exempt from Uzbekistan import duties. Uzbekistan has a Bilateral Investment Treaty with fifty other countries.
The Republican Stock Exchange (RSE) opened in 1994. The stocks of all Uzbek joint stock companies (around 1,250) are traded on RSE. The number of listed companies as of January 2013 exceeds 110. Securities market volume reached 2 trillion in 2012, and the number is rapidly growing due to the rising interest by companies of attracting necessary resources through the capital market. According to Central Depository as of January 2013 par value of outstanding shares of Uzbek emitters exceeded nine trillion.
Thanks in part to the recovery of world market prices of gold and cotton (the country's key export commodities), expanded natural gas and some manufacturing exports, and increasing labour migrant transfers, the current account turned into a large surplus (between 9% and 11% of GDP from 2003 to 2005). In 2018, foreign exchange reserves, including gold, totalled around US$25 billion.
Foreign exchange reserves amounted in 2010 to US$13 billion.
Uzbekistan is predicted to be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world (top 26) in future decades, according to a survey by global bank HSBC.
Demographics
Uzbekistan has the largest population out of all the countries in Central Asia around 36 million people. citizens comprise nearly half the region's total population. The population of Uzbekistan is very young: 34.1% of its people are younger than 14 (2008 estimate).[ According to official sources, Uzbeks comprise a majority (84.5%) of the total population. Other ethnic groups include Russians 2.1%, Tajiks 4.8%, Kazakhs 2.4%, ]Karakalpaks
The Karakalpaks or Qaraqalpaqs (; kaa, Qaraqalpaqlar, Қарақалпақлар, قاراقلپقلر), are a Turkic ethnic group native to Karakalpakstan in Northwestern Uzbekistan. During the 18th century, they settled in the lower reach ...
2.2% and Tatars 0.5% as of 2021.
There is some controversy about the percentage of the Tajik population. While official state numbers from Uzbekistan put the number around 5%, the number is said to be an understatement and some Western scholars put the number up to 10%–20%.[Jonson, Lena (1976) ''Tajikistan in the New Central Asia'', I.B.Tauris, , p. 108: "According to official Uzbek statistics there are slightly over 1.7 million Tajiks in Uzbekistan or about 5% of the population. The unofficial figure is over 6 million Tajiks. They are concentrated in the Sukhandarya, Samarqand and Bukhara regions."] Uzbekistan has an ethnic Korean
Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula.
Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refer ...
population that was forcibly relocated to the region by Stalin from the Soviet Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...
in 1937–1938. There are also small groups of Armenians in Uzbekistan, mostly in Tashkent and Samarkand.
The nation is 88% Muslim (mostly Sunni, with a 5% Shi'a minority), 9% Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...
and 3% other faiths. The U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2004 reports that 0.2% of the population are Buddhist (these being ethnic Koreans). The Bukharan Jews have lived in Central Asia, mostly in Uzbekistan, for thousands of years. There were 94,900 Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
s in Uzbekistan in 1989[World Jewish Population 2001]
, ''American Jewish Yearbook'', vol. 101 (2001), p. 561. (about 0.5% of the population according to the 1989 census), but now, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most Central Asian Jews left the region for the United States, Germany, or Israel. Fewer than 5,000 Jews remained in Uzbekistan in 2007.[World Jewish Population 2007]
, ''American Jewish Yearbook'', vol. 107 (2007), p. 592.
Russians in Uzbekistan
Russians in Uzbekistan comprised the country's second-largest ethnic group after Uzbeks, numbering 1,653,478, in 1989 representing 5.5% of the population. During the Soviet period, Russians constituted more than half the population of the capital c ...
represented 5.5% of the total population in 1989. During the Soviet period, Russians and Ukrainians constituted more than half the population of Tashkent. The country counted nearly 1.5 million Russians, 12.5% of the population, in the 1970 census. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, significant emigration of ethnic Russians has taken place, mostly for economic reasons.
In the 1940s, the Crimean Tatars, along with the Volga Germans
The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov a ...
, Chechens, Pontic Greeks, Kumaks and many other nationalities were deported
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
to Central Asia. Approximately 100,000 Crimean Tatars
, flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg
, flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars
, image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg
, caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...
continue to live in Uzbekistan. The number of Greeks in Tashkent has decreased from 35,000 in 1974 to about 12,000 in 2004. The majority of Meskhetian Turks left the country after the pogroms in the Fergana valley in June 1989.
At least 10% of Uzbekistan's labour force works abroad (mostly in Russia and Kazakhstan) and other countries.
Uzbekistan has a 100% literacy rate among adults older than 15 (2019 estimate),
Life expectancy in Uzbekistan is 66 years among men and 72 years among women.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a law in March 2020 that demands a national census take place at least every 10 years. The population has not been officially counted in over 30 years. In November 2020, the first census was cancelled due to concerns about coronavirus and the sheer size of the task. It now has been postponed to 2023.
Religion
Uzbekistan is a secular country and Article 61 of its constitution states that religious organizations and associations shall be separated from the state and equal before law. The state shall not interfere in the activity of religious associations. Islam is the dominant religion in Uzbekistan, although Soviet power (1924–1991) discouraged the expression of religious belief, and it was repressed during its existence as a Soviet Republic. The CIA Factbook estimate that Muslims constitute 88% of the population, while 9% of the population follow Russian Orthodox Christianity, 3% other religions and non-religious. While a 2020 Pew Research Center projection stated that Uzbekistan's population is 97.1% Muslim and Russian Orthodox Christians comprised 2.0% of the population. An estimated 93,000 Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
lived in the country in the early 1990s.
In addition, there are about 7,400 Zoroastrians left in Uzbekistan, mostly in Tajik areas like Khojand.
Despite the predominance of Islam and its rich history in the country, the practice of the faith is far from monolithic. Uzbeks have practised many versions of Islam. The conflict of Islamic tradition with various agendas of reform
Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...
or secularisation
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
throughout the 20th century has left a wide variety of Islamic practices in Central Asia.
The end of Soviet control in Uzbekistan in 1991 did not bring an immediate upsurge of religion-associated fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguish ...
, as many had predicted, but rather a gradual re-acquaintance with the precepts of the Islamic faith and a gradual resurgence of Islam in the country. However, since 2015 there has been a slight increase in Islamist activity, with small organisations such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU; uz, Ўзбекистон исломий ҳаракати/Oʻzbekiston islomiy harakati; russian: Исламское движение Узбекистана ) was a militant Islamist group formed in 1998 ...
declaring allegiance to ISIL
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
and contributing fighters abroad, although the terror threat in Uzbekistan itself remains low. (See Terrorism in Uzbekistan).
Jewish community
The Jewish community in the Uzbek lands flourished for centuries, with occasional hardships during the reigns of certain rulers. During the rule of Tamerlane
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
in the 14th century, Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
contributed greatly to his efforts to rebuild Samarkand, and a great Jewish centre was established there.[Uzbekistan]
". Jewish Virtual Library (30 July 2004). Retrieved on 29 November 2015.
After the area came under Russian rule in 1868, Jews were granted equal rights with the local Muslim population. In that period some 50,000 Jews lived in Samarkand and 20,000 in Bukhara.
After the Russian revolutions in 1917 and the establishment of the Soviet regime, Jewish religious life (as with all religions) became restricted. By 1935 only one synagogue out of 30 remained in Samarkand; nevertheless, underground Jewish community life continued during the Soviet era.
By 1970 there were 103,000 Jews registered in the Uzbek SSR
Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз ...
. Since the 1980s most of the Jews of Uzbekistan emigrated to Israel or to the United States of America. A small community of several thousand remained in the country : some 7,000 lived in Tashkent, 3,000 in Bukhara and 700 in Samarkand.
Languages
The Uzbek language is one of the Turkic languages, close to the Uyghur language, and both of them belong to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family. It is the only official national language and since 1992 is officially written in the Latin alphabet.
Before the 1920s, the written language of Uzbeks was called Turki (known to Western scholars as Chagatai) and used the Nastaʿlīq script. In 1926 the Latin alphabet was introduced and went through several revisions throughout the 1930s. Finally, in 1940, the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced by Soviet authorities and was used until the fall of Soviet Union. In 1993 Uzbekistan shifted back to the Latin script ( Uzbek alphabet), which was modified in 1996 and is being taught in schools since 2000. Educational establishments teach only the Latin notation. At the same time, the Cyrillic notation is common among the older generation. Even though the Cyrillic notation of Uzbek has now been abolished for official documents, it is still used by a number of popular newspapers and websites whilst a few TV channels duplicate the Latin notation with the Cyrillic one.
Karakalpak, belonging to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic language family and thus closer to Kazakh, is spoken by half a million people, primarily in the Republic of Karakalpakstan
Karakalpakstan, / officially the Republic of Karakalpakstan, / is an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. It occupies the whole northwestern part of Uzbekistan. The capital is Nukus (' / ). The Republic of Karakalpakstan has an area of , and ...
, and has an official status in that territory.
Although the Russian language is not an official language in the country, it is widely used in many fields. Digital information from the government is bilingual. The country is also home to approximately one million native Russian speakers.[Languages in Uzbekistan](_blank)
– Facts and Details
The Tajik language (a variety of Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
) is widespread in the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand because of their relatively large population of ethnic Tajiks. It is also found in large pockets in Kasansay, Chust, Rishtan and Sokh in Ferghana 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 ...
, as well as in Burchmulla
Burchmullo ( uz, Burchmullo, russian: Бурчмулла, Burchmulla, formerly ''Brichmulla'') is an urban-type settlement in the northeast of Tashkent Region, Uzbekistan. It is part of Boʻstonliq District. Its population is 4,100 (2016). It lies ...
, Ahangaran, Baghistan in the middle Syr Darya district, and finally in, Shahrisabz
Shakhrisabz ( uz, Шаҳрисабз ; tg, Шаҳрисабз; fa, شهر سبز, shahr-e sabz: "city of green" / "verdant city"; russian: Шахрисабз) is a district-level city in Qashqadaryo Region in southern Uzbekistan. The Economic ...
, Qarshi, Kitab and the river valleys of Kafiringan and Chaganian, forming altogether, approximately 10–15% of the population of Uzbekistan.[Cordell, Karl (1998) ''Ethnicity and Democratisation in the New Europe'', Routledge, , p. 201: "Consequently, the number of citizens who regard themselves as Tajiks is difficult to determine. Tajikis within and outside of the republic, Samarkand State University (SamGU) academic and international commentators suggest that there may be between six and seven million Tajiks in Uzbekistan, constituting 30% of the republic's 22 million population, rather than the official figure of 4.7% (Foltz 1996;213; Carlisle 1995:88).]
There are no language requirements to attain citizenship in Uzbekistan.
In April 2020, a draft bill was introduced in Uzbekistan to regulate the exclusive use of the Uzbek language in government affairs. Under this legislation, government workers could incur fines for doing work in languages other than Uzbek. Though unsuccessful, it was met with criticism by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (MFA Russia; russian: Министерство иностранных дел Российской Федерации, МИД РФ) is the central government institution charged with lea ...
spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. In response, a group of Uzbek intellectuals signed an open letter arguing for the instatement of Russian as an official language alongside Uzbek, citing historical ties, the large Russian-speaking population in Uzbekistan, and the usefulness of Russian in higher education, together with the argument that only Russian language opened the communication with the other peoples of the region and the literature of the outside world. Still, Russian language has an extensive presence in Uzbekistan. Cyrillic Uzbek alphabet is still widely used, and 862 Russian-language schools are functioning in the country, in comparation with 1,100 in 1991, despite that the Russian minority there has decreased from 1,7 million in 1990 to nearly 700,000 in 2022. In business, Russian language outpaces Uzbek. Many Uzbeks in urban areas, as of 2019, are feeling more comfortable to speak in Russian, while Uzbek is more present in the agricultural regions. Uzbek hasn't managed to become a state language, and many blame the intelligentsia.
Communications
According to the official source report, as of 10 March 2008, the number of cellular phone users in Uzbekistan reached 7 million, up from 3.7 million on 1 July 2007. Mobile users in 2017 were more than 24 million. The largest mobile operator in terms of number of subscribers is MTS-Uzbekistan (former Uzdunrobita and part of Russian Mobile TeleSystems) and it is followed by Beeline (part of Russia's Beeline) and UCell (ex Coscom) (originally part of the U.S. MCT Corp., now a subsidiary of the Nordic/Baltic telecommunication company TeliaSonera AB).
As of 2019, the estimated number of internet users was more than 22 million or about 52% of the population.
Internet Censorship
Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as Wikipedia.org) but exceptionally may extend to all Int ...
exists in Uzbekistan and in October 2012 the government toughened internet censorship by blocking access to proxy servers. Reporters Without Borders has named Uzbekistan's government an "Enemy of the Internet" and government control over the internet has increased dramatically since the start of the Arab Spring.[Uzbekistan profile – Media – BBC News](_blank)
. Bbc.co.uk (27 November 2014). Retrieved on 29 November 2015.
The press in Uzbekistan practices self-censorship and foreign journalists have been gradually expelled from the country since the Andijan massacre
On 13 May 2005, protests erupted in Andijan, Uzbekistan. At one point, troops from the Uzbek National Security Service (SNB) fired into a crowd of protesters. Estimates of those killed on 13 May range from 187, the official count of the governme ...
of 2005 when government troops fired into crowds of protesters killing 187 according to official reports and estimates of several hundred by unofficial and witness accounts.
Transportation
Tashkent, the nation's capital and largest city, has a four-line metro built in 1977, and expanded in 2001 after ten years' independence from the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are currently the only two countries in Central Asia with a subway system. It is promoted as one of the cleanest systems in the former Soviet Union. The stations are exceedingly ornate. For example, the station ''Metro Kosmonavtov'' built in 1984 is decorated using a space travel theme to recognise the achievements of humankind in space exploration and to commemorate the role of Vladimir Dzhanibekov
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dzhanibekov (russian: Владимир Александрович Джанибеков, born 13 May 1942) is a former cosmonaut who made five flights.
Biography
Dzhanibekov was born Vladimir Aleksandrovich Krysin (russia ...
, the Soviet cosmonaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
of Uzbek origin. A statue of Vladimir Dzhanibekov stands near a station entrance.
There are government-operated trams and buses running across the city. There are also many taxis, registered and unregistered. Uzbekistan has plants that produce modern cars. The car production is supported by the government and the Korean auto company Daewoo
Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...
. In May 2007 UzDaewooAuto, the car maker, signed a strategic agreement with General Motors-Daewoo Auto and Technology ( GMDAT, see 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 ...
also). The government bought a stake in Turkey's Koc in SamKochAvto, a producer of small buses and lorries. Afterward, it signed an agreement with Isuzu Motors of Japan to produce Isuzu buses and lorries.
Train links connect many towns in Uzbekistan, as well as neighbouring former republics of the Soviet Union. Moreover, after independence two fast-running train systems were established. Uzbekistan launched the first high-speed railway in Central Asia in September 2011 between Tashkent and Samarqand. The new high-speed electric train Talgo 250, called ''Afrosiyob'', was manufactured by Patentes Talgo S.L. (Spain) and took its first trip from Tashkent to Samarkand on 26 August 2011.
There is a large aeroplane plant that was built during the Soviet era – Tashkent Chkalov Aviation Manufacturing Plant or ТАПОиЧ in Russian. The plant originated during World War II, when production facilities were evacuated south and east to avoid capture by advancing Nazi forces. Until the late 1980s, the plant was one of the leading aeroplane production centres in the USSR. With dissolution of the Soviet Union, its manufacturing equipment became outdated; most of the workers were laid off. Now it produces only a few planes a year, but with interest from Russian companies growing, there are rumours of production-enhancement plans.
Military
With close to 65,000 servicemen, Uzbekistan possesses the largest armed forces in Central Asia. The military structure is largely inherited from the Turkestan Military District
The Turkestan Military District (russian: Туркестанский военный округ (ТуркВО), ''Turkestansky voyenyi okrug (TurkVO)'') was a military district of both the Imperial Russian Army and the Soviet Armed Forces, with it ...
of the Soviet Army. The Uzbek Armed Forces' equipment is standard, mostly consisting those of post-Soviet inheritance and newly crafted Russian and some American equipment.
The government has accepted the arms control obligations of the former Soviet Union, acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (as a non-nuclear state), and supported an active program by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) for countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives). Ac ...
(DTRA) in western Uzbekistan (Nukus
Nukus ( kaa, Nókis / ; uz, Nukus / ; kk, Нүкіс / ) is the sixth-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan. The population of Nukus as of January 1, 2022 was 329,100. The Amu Darya river passe ...
and Vozrozhdeniye Island). The Government of Uzbekistan spends about 3.7% of GDP on the military but has received a growing infusion of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and other security assistance funds since 1998.
Following 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S., Uzbekistan approved the U.S. Central Command's request for access to an air base, the Karshi-Khanabad airfield, in southern Uzbekistan. However, Uzbekistan demanded that the U.S. withdraw from the airbases after the Andijan massacre
On 13 May 2005, protests erupted in Andijan, Uzbekistan. At one point, troops from the Uzbek National Security Service (SNB) fired into a crowd of protesters. Estimates of those killed on 13 May range from 187, the official count of the governme ...
and the U.S. reaction to this massacre. The last US troops left Uzbekistan in November 2005. In 2020, it was revealed that the former US base was contaminated with radioactive materials which may have resulted in unusually high cancer rates in US personnel stationed there. Yet the government of Uzbekistan has denied this statement claiming that there has never been such a case.
On 23 June 2006, Uzbekistan became a full participant in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), but informed the CSTO to suspend its membership in June 2012.
Culture
Uzbekistan has a wide mix of ethnic groups and cultures, with the Uzbek being the majority group. In 1995 about 71% of Uzbekistan's population was Uzbek. The chief minority groups were Russians (8%), Tajiks (3–4.7%), Kazakhs (4%), Tatars (2.5%) and Karakalpaks
The Karakalpaks or Qaraqalpaqs (; kaa, Qaraqalpaqlar, Қарақалпақлар, قاراقلپقلر), are a Turkic ethnic group native to Karakalpakstan in Northwestern Uzbekistan. During the 18th century, they settled in the lower reach ...
(2%). It is said, however, that non-Uzbeks decline as Russians and other minority groups slowly leave and Uzbeks return from other parts of the former Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
.
When Uzbekistan gained independence in 1991, there was concern that Muslim fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a puritanical, Islamic revival, revivalist, and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the Islamic holy books, founding scriptures of Islam. Islamic fundamentalists are of the view that Muslim ...
would spread across the region. The expectation was that a country long denied freedom of religious practice would undergo a very rapid increase in the expression of its dominant faith.
According to a 2009 Pew Research Center report, Uzbekistan's population is 96.3% Muslim, around 54% identifies as non-denominational Muslim, 18% as Sunni and 1% as Shia. And around 11% say they belong to a Sufi order.
Music
Central Asian classical music is called Shashmaqam
Shashmaqam (russian: Шашмаком; uz, shashmaqom; tg, шашмақом; fa, ششمقام) is a Central Asian musical genre (typical of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) which may have developed in the city of Bukhara. Shashmaqam means the six ...
, which arose in Bukhara in the late 16th century when that city was a regional capital
Shashmaqam is closely related to Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
i Mugam and Uyghur muqam
A Muqam ( ug, ئۇيغۇر مۇقامى, ucy=Муқам; zh, s=木卡姆, p=Mùkǎmǔ) is the melody type used in the music of the Uyghurs, that is, a musical mode and set of melodic formulas used to guide improvisation and composition.
Twelve ...
. The name, which translates as ''six maqams'' refers to the structure of the music, which contains six sections in six different Musical mode
In music theory, the term mode or ''modus'' is used in a number of distinct senses, depending on context.
Its most common use may be described as a type of musical scale coupled with a set of characteristic melodic and harmonic behaviors. It ...
s, similar to classical Persian traditional music. Interludes of spoken Sufi poetry
Sufi literature consists of works in various languages that express and advocate the ideas of Sufism.
Sufism had an important influence on medieval literature, especially poetry, that was written in Arabic, Persian, Turkic and Urdu. Sufi doctr ...
interrupt the music, typically beginning at a lower register and gradually ascending to a climax before calming back down to the beginning tone.
Education
Uzbekistan has a high literacy rate, with 99.9% of adults above the age of 15 being able to read and write. However, with only 76% of the under-15 population currently enrolled in education (and only 20% of the 3–6 year olds attending pre-school), this figure may drop in the future. Students attend school Monday through Saturday during the school year, and education officially concludes at the end of the 11th grade.
There are two international schools operating in Uzbekistan, both in Tashkent: The British School catering for elementary students only, and Tashkent International School, a K-12 international curriculum school.
Uzbekistan has encountered severe budget shortfalls in its education program. The education law of 1992 began the process of theoretical reform, but the physical base has deteriorated and curriculum revision has been slow. Corruption within the education system is rampant, with students from wealthier families routinely bribing teachers and school executives to achieve high grades without attending school, or undertaking official examinations.
Several universities, including Westminster University, Turin University, Management University Institute of Singapore
Bucheon University in Tashkent
TEAM University and Inha University Tashkent
Inha University in Tashkent or IUT (''Toshkent Shahridagi Inha Universiteti'' in Uzbek) is a branch of Korean Inha University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Inha University in Tashkent has two departments - School of Computer and Information Engineeri ...
maintain a campus in Tashkent offering English language courses across several disciplines. The Russian-language high education is provided by most national universities, including foreign Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
and Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, maintaining campuses in Tashkent. As of 2019
Webster University
in partnership with the Ministry of Education, has opened a graduate school offering an MBA in Project Management and a MA in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).
Holidays
* 1 January: New Year's Day, "Yangi Yil Bayrami"
* 14 January: Day of Defenders of the Motherland, "Vatan Himoyachilari kuni"
* 8 March: International Women's Day, "Xalqaro Xotin-Qizlar kuni"
* 21 March: Nowruz
Nowruz ( fa, نوروز, ; ), zh, 诺鲁孜节, ug, نەۋروز, ka, ნოვრუზ, ku, Newroz, he, נורוז, kk, Наурыз, ky, Нооруз, mn, Наурыз, ur, نوروز, tg, Наврӯз, tr, Nevruz, tk, Nowruz, ...
, "Navroz Bayrami"
* 9 May: Day of Remembrance and Honour, "Xotira va Qadrlash kuni"
* 1 September: Independence Day, "Mustaqillik kuni"
* 1 October: Teachers' Day
Teachers' Day is a special day for the appreciation of teachers, and may include celebrations to honor them for their special contributions in a particular field area, or the community tone in education. This is the primary reason why countries ce ...
, "Oqituvchi va Murabbiylar kuni"
* 8 December: Constitution Day
Constitution Day is a holiday to honour the constitution of a country. Constitution Day is often celebrated on the anniversary of the signing, promulgation or adoption of the constitution, or in some cases, to commemorate the change to constitut ...
, "Konstitutsiya kuni"
''Variable date''
* End of Ramadan, Ramazon Hayiti ( Eid al-Fitr)
* 70 days later, Qurbon Hayiti (Eid al-Adha
Eid al-Adha () is the second and the larger of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to Allah's com ...
)
Cuisine
Uzbek cuisine is influenced by local agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
; since there is a great deal of grain farming in Uzbekistan, bread and noodles are of importance and Uzbek cuisine has been characterised as "noodle-rich". Mutton
Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...
is a popular variety of meat due to the abundance of sheep in the country and it is part of various Uzbek dishes.
Uzbekistan's signature dish is ''palov'' (or ''plov''), a main course typically made with rice, meat, carrots, and onions, though it was not available to ordinary people until the 1930s. There are many regional variations of the dish. Often the fat found near the sheep tail, ''qurdiuq'', is used. In the past, the cooking of ''palov'' was reserved for men, but the Soviets allowed women to cook it as well. Since then, it seems, the old gender roles have been restored.
Other notable national dishes include shurpa, a soup made of large pieces of fatty meat (usually mutton), and fresh vegetables; norin and laghman, noodle-based dishes that may be served as a soup or a main course; manti, chuchvara, and somsa, stuffed pockets of dough served as an appetizer or a main course; dimlama, a meat and vegetable stew; and various kebabs
Kebab (, ; ar, كباب, link=no, Latn, ar, kabāb, ; tr, kebap, link=no, ) or kabob (North American) is a type of cooked meat dish that originates from cuisines of the Middle East. Many variants of the category are popular around the wor ...
, usually served as a main course.
Green tea is the national hot beverage consumed throughout the day; teahouses
A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whi ...
(''chaikhanas'') are of cultural importance. Black tea
Black tea, also translated to red tea in various East Asian languages, is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, yellow, white and green teas. Black tea is generally stronger in flavour than other teas. All five types are made from ...
is preferred in Tashkent, but both green and black teas are consumed daily, without milk or sugar. Tea always accompanies a meal, but it is also a drink of hospitality that is automatically offered: green or black to every guest. Ayran
Ayran, doogh, dhallë, daw, xynogala or tan is a cold savory yogurt-based beverage popular across Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeastern Europe, North Asia and Eastern Europe. The principal ingredients are yogurt, water and sa ...
, a chilled yogurt drink, is popular in summer.
The use of alcohol is less widespread than in the West, but wine is comparatively popular for a Muslim nation as Uzbekistan is largely secular. Uzbekistan has 14 wineries, the oldest and most famous being the Khovrenko Winery in Samarkand (established in 1927). A number of vineyards in and around Tashkent are also growing in popularity, including Chateau Hamkor.
Sport
Uzbekistan is home to former racing cyclist Djamolidine Abdoujaparov
Djamolidine Mirgarifanovich Abdoujaparov ( uz, Jamoliddin Mirgarifanovich Abdujaparov; born 28 February 1964) is a former professional road racing cyclist from Uzbekistan. Abdoujaparov was a sprinter, nicknamed "The Tashkent Terror" as he was s ...
. Abdoujaparov has won the green jersey
In road bicycle racing (e.g. Grand Tour stage races) the green jersey is a distinctive racing jersey worn by the most consistent highest finisher in the competition.
While the overall race leader in the Tour de France will wear the yellow j ...
points contest in the Tour de France three times. Abdoujaparov was a specialist at winning stages in tours or one-day races when the bunch or peloton
In a road bicycle race, the peloton (from French, originally meaning 'platoon') is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by riding close ( drafting or slipstreaming) to (particularly behind) other riders. The reducti ...
would finish together. He would often 'sprint' in the final kilometer and had a reputation as being dangerous in these bunch sprints as he would weave from side to side. This reputation earned him the nickname 'The Terror of Tashkent'.
Artur Taymazov
Artur Taymazov ( os, Таймазты Барисы фырт Артур; russian: Артур Борисович Таймазов; born 20 July 1979) is an Ossetian- Uzbek-Russian wrestler and politician. He was Uzbekistan's most decorated Olympi ...
won Uzbekistan's inaugural wrestling medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics, followed by three Olympic gold medals in Men's 120 kg in 2004, 2008 and 2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
. His 2008 gold was taken away in 2017 after a re-testing of samples from the Beijing Games and Taymazov was later stripped of his London 2012 Olympic gold medal after re-analysis of stored samples in 2019. His London gold had made him the most successful freestyle competitor in Olympic history. He is the 60th athlete to be disqualified from the London Olympics after the event.
Ruslan Chagaev
Ruslan Shamilevich Chagaev ( tt-Cyrl, Руслан Шамил улы Чагаев; uz, Ruslan Shamilovich Chagayev; russian: Руслан Шамилович Чагаев); born 19 October 1978) is an Uzbekistani former professional boxer who c ...
is a former professional boxer representing Uzbekistan in the WBA. He won the WBA champion title in 2007 after defeating Nikolai Valuev. Chagaev defended his title twice before losing it to Vladimir Klitschko in 2009. Another young talented boxer Hasanboy Dusmatov, light flyweight champion at the 2016 Summer Olympics, won the Val Barker Trophy for the outstanding male boxer of Rio 2016 on 21 August 2016. On 21 December 2016 Dusmatov was honoured with the AIBA Boxer of the Year award at a 70-year anniversary event of AIBA
The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is an independent sport organization that sanctions amateur (Olympic-style) boxing matches and awards world and subordinate cha ...
.
Michael Kolganov, an Uzbek–born sprint canoer, was world champion and won an Olympic bronze in Sydney in the K1 500-meter in 2000 on behalf of Israel. In 2009 and 2011, another Uzbek émigré, gymnast Alexander Shatilov
Alexander "Alex" Shatilov ( he, אלכסנדר "אלכס" שטילוב, russian: Александр Шатилов; born March 22, 1987) is a USSR-born Israeli artistic gymnast. He specializes in the floor exercise, in which he won several medals ...
, won a world bronze medal as an artistic gymnast in floor exercise, though he lives in and represents Israel in international competitions. Oksana Chusovitina
Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (russian: Оксана Александровна Чусовитина; born 19 June 1975) is an eight-time Olympic gymnast who has competed for the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan, and Germany.
Chusovitina's care ...
has attended eight Olympic games, and won five world medals in artistic gymnastics including an Olympic gold. Some of those medals were won while representing Germany and the Soviet Union, though she currently competes for Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is the home of the International Kurash Association. Kurash is an internationalised and modernised form of traditional Uzbek wrestling.
Football is the most popular sport in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan's premier football league is the Uzbek Super League, which has consisted of 16 teams since 2015. The current champions (2016) are Lokomotiv Tashkent
PFC Lokomotiv Tashkent ( uz, Lokomotiv Toshkent Professional Futbol Klubi) is an Uzbek professional football club based in Tashkent.
The owner and main sponsor of the club is a state-owned company Uzbek Railways.
History
Lokomotiv was founded i ...
. Pakhtakor holds the record for the most Uzbekistan champion titles, having won the league ten times. The current Player of the Year
Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award.
Association football
In association football, this award is he ...
(2015) is Odil Akhmedov. Uzbekistan's football clubs regularly participate in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup. FC Nasaf Qarashi won the AFC Cup in 2011, the first international club cup for Uzbek football.
Humo Tashkent, a professional ice hockey team was established in 2019 with the aim of joining Kontinental Hockey League
The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...
(KHL), a top level Eurasian league in the future. Humo will join the second-tier Supreme Hockey League
The Supreme Hockey League (SHL) (russian: Высшая хоккейная лига (ВХЛ), links=no, ''Vysshaya hokkeinaya liga (VHL)''), also known as the Major Hockey League or Higher Hockey League (HHL), is a professional ice hockey league ...
(VHL) for the 2019–20 season. Humo play their games at the Humo Ice Dome which cost over €175 million in construction; both the team and arena derive their name from the mythical Huma bird
The Huma ( fa, هما, pronounced ''Homā'', ae, script=latn, Homāio), also Homa, is a mythical bird of Iranian legends and fables,
and continuing as a common motif in Sufi and Diwan poetry. Although there are many legends of the creature, co ...
, a symbol of happiness and freedom. Uzbekistan Hockey Federation (UHF) began preparation for forming national ice hockey team in joining IIHF
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...
competitions.
Before Uzbekistan's independence in 1991, the country was part of the Soviet Union football, rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
, basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
, ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
, and handball national teams. After independence, Uzbekistan created its own football, rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
, basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
and futsal national teams.
Tennis is a very popular sport in Uzbekistan, especially after Uzbekistan's sovereignty in 1991. Uzbekistan has its own Tennis Federation called the "UTF" (Uzbekistan Tennis Federation), created in 2002. Uzbekistan also hosts an International WTA tennis tournament, the "Tashkent Open", held in Uzbekistan's capital city. This tournament has been held since 1999, and is played on outdoor hard courts. The most notable active players from Uzbekistan are Denis Istomin and Akgul Amanmuradova
Akgul Charievna Amanmuradova ( uz, Oqgul Omonmurodova; born June 23, 1984) is a professional tennis player from Uzbekistan. At 1.90 metres in height, she is one of the tallest female tennis players in history.
Amanmuradova has won two d ...
.
Chess is quite popular in Uzbekistan. The country boasts Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who was the FIDE World Chess Champion in 2004, and many junior players like Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the reigning World Rapid Chess Champion. The Uzbek team - consisting of GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, GM Nodirbek Yakubboev, GM Javokhir Sindarov, GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov and GM Jahongir Vakhidov
Jahongir Vakhidov (born 1995) is an Uzbekistani chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster, which he was awarded in 2014.
Vakhidov was joint winner of the Hastings International Chess Congress in 2013/14 and 2015/16. He also qualified for t ...
won gold at the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai.
Other popular sports in Uzbekistan include basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
, judo, team handball, baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
, taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...
, and futsal.
Ulugbek Rashitov, won the country's first olympic gold medal in taekwondo, at the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021.
In 2022, the World Judo Championships
The World Judo Championships are the highest level of international judo competition, along with the Judo at the Summer Olympics, Olympic judo competition. The championships are held once every year (except the years when the Olympics take place ...
were held in Tashkent.
See also
* Health in Uzbekistan
* Outline of Uzbekistan
References
Further reading
* Nahaylo, Bohdan and Victor Swoboda. ''Soviet Disunion: A History of the Nationalities problem in the USSR'' (1990
excerpt
* Rashid, Ahmed. ''The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism?'' (2017)
* Smith, Graham, ed. ''The Nationalities Question in the Soviet Union'' (2nd ed. 1995)
External links
National Information Agency of Uzbekistan
Lower House of Uzbekistan parliament
Digital Agency
Uzbekistan To Business Digital Agency
General information
Uzbekistan
'' The World Factbook''. Central Intelligence Agency.
Uzbekistan Corruption Profile
from the Business Anti-Corruption Portal
Uzbekistan
from the U.S. Library of Congress includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports
Uzbek Publishing and National Bibliography
from the University of Illinois Slavic and East European Library
at UCB Libraries GovPubs
List of cities and populations
*
Uzbekistan profile
from the BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
*
Key Development Forecasts for Uzbekistan
from International Futures
Media
National Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan
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