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A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

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334 Appendix 2<br />

Currency: The som; it is the Kyrgyz term for rouble, and the som remains<br />

integrated in the rouble system.1 som100 tyiyns.<br />

Geopolitical situation: Kyrgyzstan borders Kazakhstan on the north and<br />

northwest, Uzbekistan on the west, Tajikistan on the south, and<br />

Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous Region on the east.The capital, Bishkek,<br />

is located excentrically in the valley of the Chu river near the Kazakh<br />

border.<br />

The republic’s six provinces (oblast) and provincial capitals (proceeding<br />

from west to east and north to south):<br />

Talas, capital Talas; Chüy (Chu; capital Bishkek, also capital of the<br />

republic); Ysyk-Köl (Issyk-Kul), capital Karakol (Przhevalsk); Jalal-<br />

Abad, capital Jalal-Abad; Osh, capital Osh; Naryn, capital Naryn.<br />

Tajikistan<br />

Area: 143,100 squre kilometers (55,251 square miles); it is the smallest of<br />

the five Central Asian republics (after Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan,<br />

Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan).<br />

Population (in 1994): 5,751,000.Density per square kilometer: 40.2.<br />

Ethnic composition (according to the 1989 census): Tajik 62.3%, Uzbek<br />

23.5%, Russian 7.6%; the rest consists of smaller groups that include<br />

Tatars, Germans, and Jews.Noteworthy is the large Uzbek minority,<br />

present chiefly in the mixed Tajik-Uzbek area along the Uzbek border<br />

and in the northwestern protrusion around the city of Khujand.<br />

Another special group is the Pamiris, inhabitants of the eastern half of<br />

the republic, the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (63,700<br />

square kilometers).They speak an Iranian dialect of their own but are<br />

included among the speakers of Tajik in the census.<br />

Official language: Tajik, an Iranian idiom virtually identical to Persian, the<br />

language of Iran; it is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, although projects<br />

for increased use of the Arabic alphabet or of the Roman script have<br />

been proposed and partly implemented in the case of the former.<br />

Religion: Historically, Tajiks are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafite school;<br />

the Pamiris, however, also differ in this respect by adhering to Shiite

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