Tajikistan: Community Agriculture | Global Food Security

August 17, 2010—Farmers who once relied on food aid, and were too poor to buy seeds, are once again farming remote parts of Tajikistan.

Ten years ago, the Red River watershed and its people were ravaged by a brutal civil war and the collapse of the Soviet agrarian system.Today trees, bees and livestock are raised again, thanks in part to a project supported by the World Bank that aims to help farmers—working in groups–to produce more and earn more while rehabilitating the ecosystem.

via Tajikistan: Community Agriculture | Global Food Security.

Tajikistan: Tourist Attractions – YouTube

Tajikistan: Tourist Attractions – YouTube.

Дараи Яғноби Тоҷикистон – Yaghnob valley, Tajikistan – YouTube

Дараи Яғноби Тоҷикистон – Yaghnob valley, Tajikistan – YouTube.

Pamir

PASSES

Every ridge and region of Pamir has its passes’ set  of any complication category.

In this case, passes from 2B and higher  prevail, the number of passes with  1A  and 1B complication is not great. The height of passes in the whole is in the limits from 4000 to 6000 meters. The height of general mass of  passes  is about 5000 meters, the number of passes exceeding this height is also considerable.

Thus treks and expeditions on Pamir are  connected with a long continuous staying  on  the altitudes of over 4000 meters, it happens that  the  time of a continuous staying on  the altitudes over 5000 meters sometimes reaches its highest value (about half of a month).

As  a rule, passes and mountains of Pamir require long up and down approach  with getting through water obstacles, glaciers, snow- capped ice slopes  and rocky areas. Passes and interesting to climb are mainly located in remote, difficult-to-access regions (the Lenin’s Peak from the North is an rare exception). The approach to many of them is possible only from reserved areas where you can run only through complicated passes or by using helicopter.  For more complicated passes the passage of the  main passing  obstacle with neighboring up approaches takes 4-5 days. Passes 1A and 1B being inside the region often takes one-two days walk. During passes’ walking often happen overnight stayings on the stone moraines, on the snow, on the ice, on  the slopes  and saddle of passes, sometimes  arises necessity to  build  neve blocks walls and in digging of snowy caves. Getting over passes  requires  the usage of complete set of climbing gear, technical means and tactical methods which are practiced in mountaineering.

    TREKKING AND MOUNTAINEERING IN PAMIR AREA

Pamir is characterized by 4-6 categories of complication for the trekking and pass-hopping routes. The elaboration of rules for logical treks of less complication  with running through the everlasting snow zone is  difficult. Objectively,  this fact is caused by rather small number of low difficulty passes, and also its scanty comfortable combination passes of other complication. So, Pamir is more suitable area to mountaineering. Natural-climatic conditions of Pamir and characteristics of passes requiring  high physical, technical, tactical training of trekkers make from tour safety point of view the organization of the treks of 3 and less complication category is too problematic. Climbing routes are mostly ice, snow and neve, less rocky, that’s can be considered as common for high mountain areas.

Administratively Pamir lies mainly on the territory of Tajikistan. Only the northern outskirts of Zaalaisky ridge descending to the Alaiskaya valley  belong to Kirgiziya.

The main means of communication  on Pamir is automobile and aviation transport. The basis of automobile  connection here is the Cross-Pamir  road which begins from the town Osh in the  Ferganskaya  valley. This road crosses Alaiskaya valley from the North to the South, stretches to the South on  the Pamir plateau along the river Piandge to the North  and then to the West towards the city Dushanbe (the capital of Tajikistan, which is connected by air to the Moscow, Novosibirsk and some of the Central Asia states). From this main road, roads of the local importance  are constructed to the South and to the East along Piandge, there  are small parts by the valleys of rivers Shahdara, Bartang, Yazgulem, Vanch, Obi-Hingou. Near  the lake Kharakul truck road goes to the valleys of rivers Khokhuibel and Tanimas. The city of Dushanbe is connected  with such small towns as Murgab and Horog, with district centers Rushan, Vanch by local airlines. There is also an airline to the towns  Tavil-Dara and Jirgatal situating on the western borders of Pamir. The  start and the finish points of treks belong to this transport network.

  GEOGRAPHY

        Pamir is the highest alpine chain in  the South of the ex-SU, these days the territory of the Kirghizia (Kirgiztan) and Tajikistan. It occupies the area of approximately 60 000 square kilometers and presents the extensive network of eversnow- covered ridges and vast intermountain valleys which form Pamir plateau.

      EXPLORATION HISTORY

       Mountaineering Pamir exploration began together with the first research expeditions of Soviet Academy of Sciences on Pamir in the 1928 – 1933ths. Tourist expeditions on Pamir  were firstly made in 50ths and for the time being Pamir is the most popular outdoor mountainous region among those of CIS. In mountaineering practical experience Pamir’s boundaries are accepted on the basis of ridges’ orography  and their trek’s resources. From the East Pamir is limited by Sarykolsky ridge on the axis of which there are borders of ex-USSR and China. The southern border passes along the river Piandge separating Tajikistan and Kirgizia  from Afghanistan and the northern one is limited by the river Kyzyl -Soo (Kyzylsoo), consecutively adopting the name Sourhob and then Vakhsh. In the West Pamir finishes with the ridges  outskirts  – of Peter The Great and Darvazsky. 
        The highest ridges and massive glaciers are clustered in the western part of Pamir. Most  ridges’ peaks are more than 6000 meters high and sometimes  rise over 7000 meters high. There are 3 of 4 peaks above 7000 meters high on Pamir including  the highest mountain of ex-USSR – Communism Peak in Akademii Nauk range (recently this peak is re-named to “Ismoili Somoni peak”), and Lenin peak (7134 m) – popular peak for those who’re trying their 1st attempt of high-altitude climbing. The highest top of the whole Pamir area however situated in the Chinese part of the East Pamir – it is Muztag Ata peak (7546 m).
       The plateau of 4000 meters high and more occupies the eastern part of Pamir and stretches from its north to the south, being only once separated by Muzcol ridge.

Climbing’s Photoreports:
Communism Peak
Peak Korjenevskoy 1
Peak Korjenevskoy 2
Muztag Ata (China)
Lenin Peak

via Pamir (http://www.adventuretravel.ru/eng/Pamir/index.html).

Saudi Aramco World : Land of the Naphtha Fountain

Land of the Naphtha Fountain

Written by Zayn Bilkadi

Illustrated by Bob Lapsley

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the undeveloped or underdeveloped oil resources of the new nations that were formerly Soviet republics have been much in the news. But that news is in fact very old. The existence of rich oil resources in the region from the western slopes of the Caspian Sea basin to the mountains of Afghanistan has been known for millennia.

The ancient Greeks and Romans could not help but notice on their travels the spectacular “eternal fires” that dotted the landscape all the way from Baku, in present-day Azerbaijan, to Persia and Turkmenia. Legend has it that one of the servants of Alexander the Great accidently struck oil while trying to pitch a tent for his master in Turkmenia. According to the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, Alexander the Great observed burning natural oil wells in Bactria, which comprised today’s northern Afghanistan and parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (See Aramco World, May-June 1994).

The land from northwestern Iran to Azerbaijan was known in ancient times as Media, where the most numerous “eternal fires,” or burning oil seeps, probably inspired Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Persians that dates from roughly 600 BC. “The Pillars of Fire” near Baku became a center of worship and pilgrimage. The title of Zoroastrian priests was athravan, or “keeper of the fire.” Even the word Azerbaijan itself is rooted in the ancient Persian aderbadagan, “garden of fire.”

Neither Romans nor Persians, however, left us records of the trade in oil that must have existed in the region in ancient times. Such records were only written centuries later by the Arabs, who conquered the Caucasus within only 26 years of the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 and who, by 751, had become masters of Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and Kashgar. The newly Muslim lands then included all the world’s known, major oil-producing regions outside China. Sargis Tmogveli, a Georgian scholar, quotes on that high point of caliphal power:

Thou art master of Eran and T’huran;

From China to Qirwan,

All is thine and under thy command.

In the Caucasus, the city of Tiflis—now Tblisi, the capital of Georgia—grew into a center of trade between the Muslim state and northern Europe. Gold and silver coins have been found in the city that date to the ninth century and were minted in Baghdad, Muhammadiyyah (in Armenia), Kufa, Basra, Aran and Balkh, as well as in Africa and India. In addition, according to the Arab geographer al-Maqdisi, Georgia had become an important exporter of naphtha and bitumen to Baghdad. Beyond that, the region was also strategically important to the caliphate: It was a buffer province facing northern Byzantium.

via Saudi Aramco World : Land of the Naphtha Fountain.

From the Archives

Documenting the first exhibition of Russian collector George Costakis’s holdings of early 20th-century Russian artists in the United States, the catalogue Art of the Avant-Garde in Russia: Selections from the George Costakis Collection is an invaluable resource for scholars of art of the avant-garde in Russia. Art historian Angelica Zander Rudenstine’s introduction describes the Costakis Collection’s formation and important details from George Costakis’s biography. Margit Rowell reexamines certain premises about Russian and Soviet avant-garde art in the essay, “New Insights into Soviet Constructivism: Painting, Constructivists, Production Art.” The publication also includes color and black-and-white reproductions of selected works with entries and biographies of the 39 artists in the exhibition.

via From the Archives.

Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: Tajikistan, January 2007

Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: Tajikistan, January 2007 (PDF)

COUNTRY PROFILE: TAJIKISTAN January 2007

COUNTRY

Formal Name: Republic of Tajikistan (Jumhurii Tojikiston).

Short Form: Tajikistan.

Term for Citizen(s): Tajikistani(s).

Capital: Dushanbe.

Other Major Cities: Istravshan, Khujand, Kulob, and Qurghonteppa.

Independence: The official date of independence is September 9, 1991, the date on which Tajikistan withdrew from the Soviet Union.

Public Holidays: New Year’s Day (January 1), International Women’s Day (March 8), Navruz (Persian New Year, March 20, 21, or 22), International Labor Day (May 1), Victory Day (May 9), Independence Day (September 9), Constitution Day (November 6), and National Reconciliation Day (November 9).

Flag: The flag features three horizontal stripes: a wide middle white stripe with narrower red (top) and green stripes. Centered in the white stripe is a golden crown topped by seven gold, five-pointed stars. The red is taken from the flag of the Soviet Union; the green represents agriculture and the white, cotton. The crown and stars represent the country’s sovereignty and the friendship of nationalities.

 

Declassified CIA documents focusing on Tajikistan

 

 

GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCIES, 1995 VOLUME II: COUNTRY ESTIMATES	GIF	PDF	Created: 12/28/1994
(EST PUB DATE) GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCIES, 1993-94	GIF	PDF	Created: 10/1/1993
THE REPUBLICS OF THE FORMER USSR: THE OUTLOOK FOR THE NEXT YEAR (SNIE 11-18.2-9	GIF	PDF	Created: 9/1/1991
WHITHER GORBACHEV: SOVIET POLICY AND POLITICS IN THE 1990S (NIE 11-18-87)	GIF	PDF	Created: 11/1/1987

 

 

FY 1998 Assistance to the NIS Request: $15,400,000 (Tajikistan Request to USAID)

TAJIKISTAN

FY 1998 Assistance to the NIS Request

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

$15,400,000

Introduction

Tajikistan is the poorest of the five Central Asian Republics and the only one of the five in which underlying ethnic, regional, economic and ideological strains have led to open warfare and major population displacements. A cease-fire has continued to be in partial effect since late 1993, while UN-moderated peace talks appear to be making incremental progress in establishing a political consensus. The UN Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) monitors the cease-fire agreement, while Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Russian-led troops, at the request of the local government, guard the southern Tajikistan boundary and monitor the ceasefire. Donor efforts are making a difference in Tajikistan’s situation. For example, the economy, in free fall since independence, achieved a measure of economic stability last year. U.S. interests are based on providing humanitarian aid, helping to establish a framework for sustainable economic growth, promoting regional stability in Central Asia and promoting an independent, democratic and market-oriented Tajikistan that is friendly to the U.S. and constructively engaged in international political and economic relationships.

 

The History of a National Catastrophe by Rahim Masov

Editor’s Note, Preface, Tajiks Within the ASSRT, The Condition of the Tajiks in the PSRB, National-Administrative Divisions, Infringement Upon the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights of the ASSRT.

Summary

Appendix

Preface

A number of issues in the history of Tajikistan demand careful scrutiny. The most compelling of these issues, however, belong to the early phases of Soviet rule in Central Asia. One such issue is the outcome of the national-administrative divisions of Central Asia, especially the treatment that the Tajiks received at the hand of their Soviet compatriots. Admittedly, this is a somewhat obscure issue, but one that merits attention-one that illustrates a disturbing aspect of Soviet history.

An involved issue, an understanding of the national-administrative divisions requires an intimate knowledge of the 1917 Revolution, the establishment of Soviet rule in Central Asia, and the extent of the authority of the Soviets and the Communist Party during the life time of V. I. Lenin and thereafter. It also requires documentation of glaring “mistakes” that, in the long run, complicated the Tajiks’ achievement of a national government at that time. Our understanding of this latter issue is contingent upon other factors like an understanding of Pan-Turkism, the retrogressive and anti-nationalistic movement that incurred great losses on the Tajiks and, of course, the availability of documents that prove the point. The fact that this movement continues to frustrate the Tajiks’ aspiration for self-government-it is an issue at the present-makes the need for dealing with it more imperative.

Human Rights Watch Report on Tajikistan

Tajikistan shares a 1,200 kilometer border with Afghanistan and is one of the countries identified by military planners as a possible base of U.S. military and humanitarian operations in the region. Tajikistan has been a low priority for U.S. foreign policy makers since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Suddenly, it has become a strategic partner in the U.S. government‘s counter-terrorism campaign following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.. It is also a potential haven for tens of thousands of displaced people seeking to flee Afghanistan.

Read the report

Tajikistan Geography Redux

Historical Maps

WikiMediaCommons: Digital Atlas of Tajikistan

 VIA: The Tajikistan Update

Tajiks to Strengthen Border With Afghanistan

As the international troop withdrawal from Afghanistan draws closer, Tajikistan is trying to strengthen its long frontier with that country as a safeguard against attempts to export instability.

Since Tajikistan took over border protection from Russia, whose troops performed the role until 2005, it has sought donor funding to modernise and consolidate its defences.

New border posts have been built or are planned, but existing ones are in need of refurbishment. And the Tajik frontier force is still using obsolete arms, equipment and radios from the Soviet era. Its vehicles date mostly from the early 1980s.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Islam Reborn – Tajikstan Documentary Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fzoFekT490

June 1996

Islam Reborn follows the return of Islamic refugees from Afghanistan to Tajikistan who were pushed out during the civil war.

The ruling Kulabis are reliant on Russian funding, and the resurrection of an Islamic mosque suggests the Islamists are yet again establishing a strong hold.

A report on the defeat and recovery of Islam in Tajikistan. A bus rumbles through the shimmering heat to a Russian check point. Behind it, 1300 miles of barbed wire mark Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan. The bus contains anxious Garmis returning home from Afghan refugee camps. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, they were driven out by a vicious civil war between their own Islamic forces and the Soviet backed Kulabis. They now return, fearing reprisals from a new Kulabi government, but hoping after 4 years to resume normal life. In the south where the worst fighting took Place, villages are full of bombed out buildings and weary widows crouching in the dust. Starving hungry, they wait patiently for flour from the World Food Programme to be weighed out on antique scales and distributed. In the capital, Dushanbe, the Prime Minister claims stiffly that the economy is not collapsing and that “in the very near future we will be able to pay salaries”. With Russia‘s financial support, Kulabis cling onto power, stationing their khaki tanks on every tree lined avenue. But the careful restoration of an blue mosaic mosque represents an Islamic renaissance. If Russia pulls out, Garmis in exile may storm the capital and transform Tajikistan into an Islamic state. Report on the aftermath of civil war and the suppression of ethnic/political differences. Includes archive footage of the civil war.

Produced by ABC Australia
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Tajikistan in the context of Central Asia

Central Asia is known by many names, including Eurasia, Middle Asia, and Inner Asia. At its core, the region is composed of five states that became independent nations following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Scholars sometimes include Afghanistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang province of China within the label Central Asia. For this project, Central Asia is restricted to the five former Soviet countries, while Afghanistan is classified in Southwest Asia, and Mongolia and Xinjiang as part of East Asia. These states have a shared landmass of 1.5 million square miles, about one-half the size of the United States.

The region’s unity comes from a shared history and religion. Central Asia saw two cultural and economic traditions blossom and intermix along the famed Silk Road: nomadic and sedentary. Nomadic herdsmen, organized into kinship groupings of clans, lived beside sedentary farmers and oasis city dwellers. Four of the countries share Turkic roots, while the Tajiks are of Indo-European descent, linguistically re- lated to the Iranians. While still recognizable today, this shared heritage has devel- oped into distinct ethnic communities.

GAFUROV, BOBOJAN GAFUROVICH

GAFUROV, BOBOJAN GAFUROVICH

(1908–1977), Tajik politician and scholar. Bobojan Ga- furovich Gafurov led the Tajikistan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1946 until 1956 as the first secretary of the Communist Party. Born in Ispisar (a remote northern province of the republic) in 1908, he began his career as a journalist and lecturer before joining the Communist Party apparatus and climbing up to the highest political post in the republic under Josef Stalin (1879–1953), then Soviet leader. In 1956 he left the republic to become the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Science in Moscow.

HORSE, KARABAIR

HORSE, KARABAIR

Also known as Karabair- skaya (Russian), the Karabair is one of the most ancient horse breeds of Central Asia. In appearance the Karabair resembles the Arabian, Persian, and Turk-menian as well as the steppe horse breeds. The breed is improved through pure breeding. Karabair horses show good endurance and versatile working qualities. This breed was developed in Uzbekistan and north- ern Tajikistan (former Soviet republics of Central Asia) under the influence of southern and steppe breeds. It is well adapted to both saddle and harness, and has the typical build of a saddle and harness horse.

Tajikistan in Focus

Hello, this is a blog that will try to bring some of the history and also current events in Tajikistan into focus.  I will try to use both scholarly sources, and also popular media sources.  I am not above referring to Wikipedia.

Tajikistan

Politics Constitution · President · Prime Minister · Cabinet · Parliament · Elections · Political parties · Military · Coat of arms · Human rights · Foreign relations · Capital punishment · Central Asian Union

History Early history · Basmachi movement · Soviet era · Civil War Geography Central Asia · Mountains · Rivers · Lakes · Wildlife · Environment · Divisions (Provinces · Districts · Jamoats) · Cities · Towns and villages · Pamir Mountains · Tian Shan Economy Currency · Central bank · Agriculture · Mining · Energy · Communications · Transport · Airports · Postal history   Society Culture · Demographics · People · Ethnic groups · Language · Education · Health · Media · Music · Literature · Sports · Cuisine · Cinema · Religion · Symbols · Flag · Anthem · Public holidays

Turkestan ASSR — Formed on 30th of April 1918, on the territory of the former Turkestan General-Governorate. As part of the delimitation programme of Soviet Central Asia, the Turkestan ASSR along with the Khorezm SSR and the Bukharan PSRwere disbanded on 27th of October 1924, and in their place came the Union republics of Turkmen SSR and Uzbek SSR. The latter contained the Tajik ASSR until December 1929 when it too became a full Union republic, the Tajik SSR. The RSFSR retained the newly formed Kara-Kirghiz and the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Oblasts. The latter was part of the Kirgiz, then the Kazak ASSR until 1930, when it was directly subordinated to Moscow.

 A mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People’s Republic of China to the east. Tajikistan also lies adjacent to Pakistan‘s Chitral and the Gilgit-Baltistan region, separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor, which is claimed by both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

-Wikipedia