Tajikistan has experienced three changes of government since it gained independence in September 1991. The current president, Emomali RAHMONOV, was elected in November 1994, yet has been in power since 1992. The country is suffering through its third year of a civil conflict, with no clear end in sight. Underlying the conflict are deeply rooted regional and clan-based animosities that pit a government consisting of people primarily from the Kulob (Kulyab), Khujand (Leninabad), and Hisor (Hissar) regions against a secular and Islamic-led opposition from the Gharm, Gorno-Badakhshan, and Qurghonteppa (Kurgan-Tyube) regions. Government and opposition representatives have held periodic rounds of UN-mediated peace talks and agreed in September 1994 to a cease-fire which has been periodically extended. Russian-led peacekeeping troops are deployed throughout the country, and Russian-commanded border guards are stationed along the Tajik-Afghan border.
Geography
Location:
Central Asia, west of China
Geographic coordinates:
39 00 N, 71 00 E
Map references:
Commonwealth of Independent States
Area:
total area:
143,100 sq km
land area:
142,700 sq km
comparative area:
slightly smaller than Wisconsin
Land boundaries:
total:
3,651 km
border countries:
Afghanistan 1,206 km, China 414 km, Kyrgyzstan 870 km, Uzbekistan 1,161 km
Coastline:
0 km (landlocked)
Maritime claims:
none (landlocked)
International disputes:
boundary with China in dispute; territorial dispute with Kyrgyzstan on northern boundary in Isfara Valley area; Afghanistan's and other foreign support to Islamic fighters in Tajikistan's civil war based in northern Afghanistan
Climate:
midlatitude continental, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid to polar in Pamir Mountains
Terrain:
Pamir and Altai Mountains dominate landscape; western Fergana Valley in north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest
lowest point:
Syrdariya 300 m
highest point:
Qullai Kommunizm 7,495 m
Natural resources:
significant hydropower potential, some petroleum, uranium, mercury, brown coal, lead, zinc, antimony, tungsten
Land use:
arable land:
6%
permanent crops:
0%
meadows and pastures:
23%
forest and woodland:
0%
other:
71%
Irrigated land:
6,940 sq km (1990)
Environment:
current issues:
inadequate sanitation facilities; increasing levels of soil salinity; industrial pollution; excessive pesticides; part of the basin of the shrinking Aral Sea suffers from severe overutilization of available water for irrigation and associated pollution
natural hazards:
NA
international agreements:
NA
Geographic note:
landlocked
