Simple directory > Regional > Uzbekistan

Country : Uzbekistan Official name: Ozbekiston Respublikasy (Republic of Uzbekistan) Head of State: President Islam Abduganievich Karimov (since 1991; re-elected Jan 2000) Head of government: Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyayev (appointed 11 Dec 2003) Ruling party: Coalition government: Chalk Demokratik Partijasi (CDP) (Democratic People's Party) and independents Area: 447,400 square km Population: 27.95 million (2004) Capital: Tashkent Official language: Uzbek Currency: Sum (Sum) Exchange rate: Sum1,046.86 per US$ (Nov 2004) (central bank realigned official rate 1 Nov 2001) GDP per capita: US$386 (2003) GDP real growth: 3.20% (2003) Labour force: 11.90 million (2003) Unemployment: 10.00% (2003) Inflation: 0.50% (2003); 20.00% (2003 underemployment) Oil production: 166,000 bpd (2003) Balance of trade: US$511.00 million (2003) Foreign debt: US$4.60 billion (2003)

Historical profile

The Uzbeks are the second-largest community of Turkic people in the world. Lying between the Ferghana Basin and the Amu Darya River, the lands of modern Uzbekistan were the cradle of Central Asian civilisation until overcome by Mongol Tatar horsemen in the first century AD. In the fourteenth century the Mongol leader, Timur, built a vast Central Asian empire stretching from northern India to Syria. The decline of Timur's empire saw the rise of the nomadic Uzbeks, who by the mid-nineteenth century had established three khanates in Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand.

1868–1873 The three khanates fell to the Russians.

1917 After the October Revolution in Russia, the Russian ruler, Lenin, gave the peoples of Central Asia the right of self-determination.

1920s The Soviet nationalities policy, under the direction of Stalin, saw Soviet rule enforced by Red Army troops who put down indigenous revolts throughout Central Asia after the Russian civil war.

1924 Uzbekistan was given Union Republic status in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

1944 The Soviet leader, Stalin, deported 160,000 Meskhetian Turks from Georgia to Uzbekistan.

1950–80 Cotton production was boosted as the government undertook major irrigation projects on Uzbekistan's rivers and lakes. The country's water levels were drastically reduced.

1984 Thousands of Uzbek officials were arrested on corruption charges over the 'cotton affair' when invented crop yields saw millions of roubles go missing.

1989 and 1990 Uzbekistan was subject to ethnic violence, particularly in the ethnically diverse Ferghana Valley.

1991 Independence from the USSR was declared and Uzbekistan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The first presidential elections were won by the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, Islam Karimov.

1995 A referendum extended President Karimov's term of office until the year 2000.

2000 President Islam Karimov was re-elected.

2001 Uzbekistan allowed US troops to be based on its soil and the use of its airspace for the US-led military operation in Afghanistan.

2002 Uzbekistan's citizens voted in favour of a two-year extension of Karimov's term in office and to increase the country's parliament from a one-chamber legislature to two.

2003 The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) held its annual meeting in Tashkent. President Islam Karimov dismissed Prime Minister Otkir Sultanov and appointed Shavkat Mirziyayev in his place.

2004 In April, the EBRD reduced aid because of Uzbekistan's poor record on economic reform and human rights. Opposition parties were barred from taking part in the December parliamentary elections.

2005 After the second round of parliamentary elections on 9 January, the government was formed by the former ruling party, CDP, and independents. On 13 May, thousands of people protested on the streets of Andijan, a city near the Kyrgyz border, demanding the release of 23 men detained on charges of belonging to an Islamic group that advocates the overthrow of the secular government; protesters were killed and wounded in violent clashes with police.

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