|
Travel to Uzbekistan — Unbiased reviews and great
deals from TripAdvisorUzbekistan
Republic of Uzbekistan National
name: Ozbekiston Respublikasi President: Islam A. Karimov (1990) Prime Minister: Shavkat Mirziyayev
(2003) Current government
officials Land area: 164,247 sq mi
(425,400 sq km); total area: 172,741 sq mi (447,400 sq
km) Population (2007 est.): 27,780,059
(growth rate: 1.7%); birth rate: 26.5/1000; infant mortality rate:
78.9/1000; life expectancy: 65.0; density per sq mi: 161 Capital and largest city (2003
est.): Tashkent, 3,457,500 (metro. area),
2,155,400 (city proper) Other large
cities: Samarkand, 374,900; Andijon, 354,500 Monetary unit: Uzbekistani sum Languages: Uzbek
74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1% Ethnicity/race: Uzbek 80%, Russian 5.5%, Tajik 5%, Kazak 3%, Karakalpak 2.5%, Tatar
1.5%, other 2.5% (1996 est.) Religions: Islam
(mostly Sunnis) 88%, Eastern Orthodox 9% Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$64.15 billion; per capita $2,300. Real growth rate: 9.5 %.
Inflation: 12.3% officially; 38% based on analysis of consumer
prices. Unemployment: 0.8% officially, plus another 20%
underemployed. Arable land: 11%. Agriculture: cotton,
vegetables, fruits, grain; livestock. Labor force: 14.6 million
(2007); agriculture 44%, industry 20%, services 36% (1995).
Industries: textiles, food processing, machine building,
metallurgy, gold petroleum, natural gas, chemicals. Natural
resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, gold, uranium, silver,
copper, lead and zinc, tungsten, molybdenum. Exports: $5.51
billion f.o.b. (2006 est.): cotton 41.5%, gold 9.6%, energy products
9.6%, mineral fertilizers, ferrous metals, textiles, food products,
automobiles (1998). Imports: $3.99 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.):
machinery and equipment 49.8%, foodstuffs 16.4%, chemicals, metals
(1998). Major trading partners: Russia, China, Turkey,
Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, South Korea, U.S., Germany,
Ukraine (2004). Communications:
Telephones: main lines in use: 1.793 million (2005); mobile
cellular: 1.1 million (2005). Radio broadcast stations: AM 20,
FM 7, shortwave 10 (1998). Radios: 10.2 million (1997).
Television broadcast stations: 4 (plus two repeater stations
that relay Russian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tadzhik programs) (1997).
Televisions: 6.4 million (1997). Internet Service Providers
(ISPs): 9,058 (2006). Internet users: 880,000 (2005). Transportation: Railways: total: 3,950 km
(2002 Highways: total: 81,600 km; paved: 71,237 km; unpaved:
10,363 km (1999 est.). Waterways: 1,100 (1990). Ports and
harbors: Termiz (Amu Darya river). Airports: 61
(2006). International disputes:
prolonged regional drought creates water-sharing difficulties for
Amu Darya river states; delimitation with Kazakhstan complete with
demarcation underway; serious disputes with Kyrgyzstan around Uzbek
enclaves mar progress on delimitation efforts; talks have begun with
Tajikistan to determine and delimit border. Major sources and definitions |
|
Geography Uzbekistan is
situated in central Asia between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers, the
Aral Sea, and the slopes of the Tien Shan Mountains. It is bounded by
Kazakhstan in the north and northwest, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the east
and southeast, Turkmenistan in the southwest, and Afghanistan in the south.
The republic also includes the Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic, with its
capital, Nukus (1992 est. pop., 182,000). The country is about one-tenth
larger in area than the state of California. Government Republic; authoritarian presidential
rule. History The Uzbekistan
land was once part of the ancient Persian Empire and was later conquered by
Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C.
During the 8th century, the nomadic Turkic tribes living there were
converted to Islam by invading Arab forces who dominated the area. The
Mongols under Ghengis Khan took over the region from the Seljuk Turks in the
13th century, and it later became part of Tamerlane the Great's empire and
that of his successors until the 16th century. The Uzbeks invaded the
territory in the early 16th century and merged with the other inhabitants in
the area. Their empire broke up into separate Uzbek principalities, the
khanates of Khiva, Bukhara, and Kokand. These city-states resisted Russian
expansion into the area but were conquered by the Russian forces in the
mid-19th century. The territory was made into the Uzbek Republic in
1924 and became the independent Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic in
1925. Under Soviet rule, Uzbekistan concentrated on growing cotton with the
help of irrigation, mechanization, and chemical fertilizers and pesticides,
causing serious environmental damage. In June 1990, Uzbekistan was
the first central Asian republic to declare that its own laws had
sovereignty over those of the central Soviet government. Uzbekistan became
fully independent and joined with ten other former Soviet republics on Dec.
21, 1991, in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Vozrozhdeniye,
an island in the Aral Sea, was a secret test site for biological weapons
during the Soviet era. In 1988, the Soviets attempted to bury the evidence
on the island, a frightening legacy that Uzbekistan inherited upon
independence. U.S. scientists have confirmed that the island contains live
anthrax and other deadly poisons. President Karimov, a former
Communist Party boss, is an autocrat who has brutally suppressed political
parties and religious freedom and maintained rule with an iron fist. In
1999, after a bus hijacking, he declared, “I am prepared to rip off the
heads of 200 people, to sacrifice their lives, in order to save peace and
calm in the republic.” The country's thousands of political and religious
prisoners are subject to appalling conditions and horrific torture,
including being boiled alive. In 1999, the country battled against
militant Islamic groups bent on the overthrow of the secular government.
Fighting against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) continued for the
next several years. In 2001, Uzbekistan provided the U.S. and UK with
a base to fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in neighboring
Afghanistan and became the United States' main regional partner in the war
on terror. Karimov linked his own battle against the Islamic opposition to
the global fight on terrorism. He also exploited the real threat of
Islamicism by labeling all of his opponents as Islamic extremists. As a
strategic partner, the U.S. has been reluctant to take a firm stand
regarding Uzbekistan's dismal human rights record. According to a report in
the New York Times in May 2005, the U.S. has sent clandestine
planeloads of accused terrorists to Uzbekistan as part of its controversial
“rendition” program, the delivery of prisoners to countries with abusive
interrogation tactics that are prohibited in the United States. On May
13, 2005, unarmed antigovernment demonstrators in the city of Andijan were
killed in a military crackdown; the number of casualties is still disputed,
but it may be as many as 1,000. Earlier, a number of protesters had stormed
a prison and released about 2,000 prisoners to protest what they saw as the
rigged trial of 23 businessmen. The government claimed the men were Islamic
terrorists; the protesters insisted the 23 were antigovernment civic leaders
whom the government saw as a threat to its authority. In July 2005,
President Karimov ordered the U.S. military to close its air base in
Uzbekistan after the U.S. called for an inquiry into the massacre and
supported the airlift of Uzbek refugees escaping the violence. The base was
shut down four months later, with U.S. forces moving to
Kyrgyzstan. Karimov was reelected in December 2007, taking 88.1% of
the vote. The opposition claimed the vote was rigged. See also
Encyclopedia: Uzbekistan. U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Uzbekistan Ministry of Macroeconomy and Statistics www.gov.uz/
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved. More on Uzbekistan from Infoplease:
- Uzbekistan - Uzbekistan Uzbekistan , Uzbek Ozbekiston, officially Republic of Uzbekistan, republic (2005 est. ...
- Uzbekistan - Uzbekistan Profile: People, Government and Political Conditions, Economy, Defense, Foreign Relations, U.S.-Uzbek Relations
- Uzbekistan: meaning and definitions - Uzbekistan: Definition and Pronunciation
- Uzbekistan - Map of Uzbekistan & articles on flags, geography, history, statistics, disasters current events, and international relations.
- Uzbekistan: Economy - Economy Uzbekistan's rivers and many irrigation canals furnish water for the cotton crop, the ...
|
|