Facts and Figures on Central Asia
(as of March 2005)
KAZAKHSTAN
GEOGRAPHY: 1,049,150 square miles, bordering Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea.
PEOPLE: About 15 million. Some 53 percent are ethnic Kazakhs, 30 percent Russians, 3.7 percent Ukrainians, 2.5 percent Uzbeks, 2.4 percent Germans.
ECONOMY: By far the most economically advanced of the five ex-Soviet Central Asian states. Has extensive oil and gas reserves and other mineral resources. Also a major grain producer. Claims an average annual GDP growth of 10 percent in recent years.
POLITICS: President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a former Communist boss, has been in power since 1989. He allowed limited political reforms in the early years of independence, but later tightened control.
KYRGYZSTAN
GEOGRAPHY: 79,400 square miles; bordering China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Much of the country is mountainous.
POPULATION: About 5 million; some 65 percent are ethnic Kyrgyz, 14 percent Uzbeks, 13 percent Russians, with small numbers of other ethnic groups.
ECONOMY: Largely agricultural, with industrial exports including gold and electricity. Despite substantial reforms, the country remains poor.
POLITICS: Gained independence after the Soviet collapse in 1991. Under President Askar Akayev, it was widely viewed as being more open and democratic than other former Soviet states in Central Asia. But Akayev in recent years has come under increasing criticism for cracking down on the opposition. Both Russia and the United States have air bases in the country.
TAJIKISTAN
GEOGRAPHY: 55,251 square miles; bordering China, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Landlocked, largely mountainous.
POPULATION: About 6,300,000; some 65 percent are ethnic Tajiks, 24 percent Uzbeks, 3.5 percent Russians.
ECONOMY: Largely agricultural, the main crop is cotton. Has limited resources of silver, gold, uranium. The industry consists of a lone aluminum plant. Was heavily subsidized by Moscow; the Soviet collapse and a civil war that broke out afterward had a devastating economic effect. More than 60 percent of the population lives in poverty. The country is a major trafficking route for Afghan heroin.
POLITICS: Gained independence with the 1991 Soviet collapse. A civil war broke out the next year between a Moscow-backed secular government and an Islamic opposition; 100,000 people were killed. The war ended in 1997 with a U.N.-brokered power-sharing agreement. President Emomali Rakhmonov came to power in 1994 and has since amassed extensive powers and been impatient with dissent. Russia helps patrol the border with Afghanistan and has a military base in the country.
TURKMENISTAN
GEOGRAPHY: 186,400 square miles; bordering Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran and the Caspian Sea; mostly desert.
PEOPLE: About 4.8 million, majority Muslim.
ECONOMY: Turkmenistan has extensive oil and natural gas reserves. Cotton is a key export commodity.
POLITICS: President Saparmurad Niyazov, who uses the title Turkmenbashi (Father of All Turkmen), exercises absolute power. Opposition is banned and the government controls the news media. Niyazov, in power since 1985, has created an extensive cult of personality, including naming days and months after himself and his mother and writing a book of philosophy that all children are required to study daily
UZBEKISTAN
GEOGRAPHY: 172,700 square miles, bordering Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.
PEOPLE: Ethnic Uzbeks make up about 80 percent of the 26 million population, Russians about 5.5 percent, Tajiks 5 percent, Kazakhs 3 percent and a scattering of other ethnic groups make up the rest. Interethnic conflicts have erupted in recent years, particularly among Uzbeks and Tajiks, and Uzbeks and Meskhetian Turks exiled there under Stalin.
ECONOMY: Primarily agricultural; cotton is the main export and Uzbekistan is the world's third-largest exporter. The nation, which depends heavily on irrigation, also has gold and oil reserves.
POLITICS: President Islam Karimov, a former Communist Party official, became president during the Soviet era, and was later elected president of independent Uzbekistan. Karimov runs the country in the style of a Communist boss, allows no dissent and has clamped down on non-state sanctioned Islamic groups. More than 50 people were killed in bombings and attacks last year that authorities blamed on the Islamic group Hizb-ut Tahrir. Uzbekistan hosts a U.S. air base used for operations in Afghanistan.
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