ENVIRONMENT
There are luxuriant forests in the lower areas; in the steppe, on the other hand, grasses and shrubs prevail. The fauna includes wild goat, bear, wolf, as well as a large variety of birds, including the golden eagle; camels, sheep, horses and yaks are also bred. Tajikistan has 2 natural parks, the Pamirsky for the protection of biodiversity in Central Asia, and the Shirkent, numerous natural oases (Zakaznik) and state nature reserves; overall, the protected areas of the country cover 13.7% of the territory. One of the main environmental problems is represented by the increase in soil salinity, mainly caused by the monoculture of cotton; industrial pollution and pollution caused by excessive use of pesticides are also noteworthy.
HISTORY
According to a2zcamerablog, Tajikistan is a country located in Asia. The territories of Tajikistan were incorporated into the Persian empire of the Achaemenids in the sixth century BC; then Alexander the Great, the Greco-Bactrian state and the kingdom of Kushan followed one another, the invasions of the Ephthalite Huns (5th century AD) before that part of Central Asia fell under Arab rule and Islam spread (VII century AD). The region populated by Tajiks never managed to form a national unity and was long disputed by Persians, Uzbeks, Afghans, as well as by the Canates of Buhara and Kokand. Genghis Khan conquered the Tajik territory in the 13th century, while between the 14th and 17th centuries it was the Timurids and the Uzbek dynasty of the Sheibanids who maintained power over the region. The Russians (second half of the 19th century) finally unified a large part of the territory while the southern section of the Amudaria remained in Afghanistan. Under the Soviet regime, Tajikistan was first part of the Republic of Turkestan; in 1924 it became an autonomous republic and in 1929 a federated republic. Having obtained the recognition of Tajik as an official language in 1989, in the process of dissolution of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan, in August 1990, proclaimed its independence and affirmed the right to secession, before the attempted Moscow coup d’état of the August 1991 accelerated the detachment from the previous political-institutional structure. Forced to resign the president then in office, independence was formally acquired on the following 9 September. At the head of the country was Rakhman Nabiyev (elected by direct suffrage on November 24, 1991), who, after an apparent attempt to open up, tried to restore the power of the former Communist Party, strengthened by the success obtained in the December elections. The opposition forces, mostly of Islamic inspiration, therefore gave rise to protests, accusing them of fraud; in May 1992 the conflict degenerated into armed confrontation. After a brief period in which the government switched to the opposition forces, in 1993 the former communists returned to power. The presence of Russian and CIS troops allowed the government to face the armed offensive of the Islamic and democratic opposition without problems. In 1994 a new presidential constitution and the interim head of state were approved, Emomalii Rahmon, was elected President of the Republic. In 1995, legislative elections were held, clearly won by the neo-communists after Rahmon’s refusal to postpone the vote, as requested by the UN, EU and OECD, to allow the effective participation of opposition parties. In the meantime, the government and the Islamic opposition repeatedly extended the ceasefire proclaimed in October 1994, but this did not prevent the resumption of fighting, with ambushes and attacks that mainly affected the Russian expeditionary force still present in the country. The radicalization of the situation also affected the most strictly religious world, and even the army with the killing of the grand mufti Fathullo Sharipov, considered too moderate and close to the president (January 1996). Rahmon and the leader of the armed opposition Abdhullah Nuri signed a peace agreement in Moscow (June 1997) under the aegis of the UN, the OSCE and, above all, Russia and Iran. The agreement puts an end to 5 years of bitter civil war and crowns 3 years of negotiations, which had registered a first substantial progress with the agreements reached in December 1996. While formalizing this agreement with the general elections of 2000, the armed clashes along the western border where Uzbek Islamic rebels have settled. In 2003, constitutional reforms were passed that granted Rahmon two more terms after 2006. The country had profited both economically and politically from the war operations in Afghanistan, granting air bases to Anglo-American troops. Both the 2005 and 2010 legislative elections saw the overwhelming victory of the president’s party (People’s Democratic Party). In 2013 Emomalii Rahmon was reconfirmed as president.
CULTURE
The lifestyle, customs and art, in a broad sense, that Tajikistan has been able to express throughout its history are the result of a combination of long-term factors, such as traditions and cultural influences, and socio-political events., such as conquests, annexations, independence. National identity therefore carries with it the Indo-Arian, Greek, Persian, Muslim, Mongolian, Turkish imprint, even before entering the rivulets of ethnic mixes. In any case, a framework sufficient to account for the variety of cultural contributions. The expressions of folklore are one of the country’s real treasures; among the festivals, in addition to the Muslim ones, the Nauruz is of great importance, the New Year of the Persian tradition, celebrated on March 21st. In this and other recurrences, the most lively and peculiar aspects of the customs of the Tajik people find space: from the clothes (the male jacket or the long colored dress of the women), to the dances, to the horse races, to the fighting challenges, to the dishes based on chickpeas, or yogurt and onion. The literature of this region began from the century. X and had just in a philosopher of the time, Avicenna, one of the greatest exponents; however, over the centuries, the production of folk tales has always been substantial. To Soviet rule of much of the twentieth century. the moment of greatest luster of Tajik culture must be traced back, especially in theater, opera and ballet. But the popular works of the poets Abū’l Qāsim Lahūtī and Mirso Tursunzade, and the writers Sadriddin Ayni (The mountain villager, 1930) and Abdalrauf Fitrat (The dispute, 1909) are also from this period. The cinema of Tajikistan is also of considerable interest. Among the directors there are Jamshed Usmonov (b.1965), author of Flight of the Bee (1998) and The Angel of the Right Shoulder (2002), awarded at various festivals, and Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov (b.1965), who directed Kosh ba kosh (1993; Pari e patta), Silver Lion in Venice and Shik – the dress (2003).