Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia. It is surrounded by five countries: Kazakhstan in the north; Kyrgyzstan to the north-east; Tajikistan to the southeast; Afghanistan in the south, Turkmenistan in the southwest. The capital and largest city is Tashkent. Uzbekistan is part of the Turkic-speaking world, as well as a member of the Turkic Council. While Uzbek is the most spoken language in Uzbekistan, Russian is widely used as an interethnic language and in government. Islam is the majority religion in Uzbekistan, with the majority of Uzbeks being non-confessional Muslims.

The first registered settlers on the territory of present-day Uzbekistan were the Eastern Iranian nomads, known as the Scythians, who founded kingdoms in Khorezm (VIII-VI centuries BC), Bactria (VIII-VI centuries BC), Sogdia (VIII-VI century BC), Fergana. (III century BC - VI century AD) and Margiana (III century BC - VI century AD). The area was incorporated into the Iranian Achaemenid Empire and, after a period of Macedonian rule, was ruled by the Iranian Parthian Empire and then by the Sassanian Empire until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century. The early Muslim conquests and the subsequent Samanid empire turned most of the people, including the local ruling classes, into Islam. During this period, cities such as Samarkand, Khiva and Bukhara began to grow rich on the Great Silk Road and witnessed the emergence of leading figures of the Golden Age of Islam, including Muhammad al-Bukhari, At-Tirmizi, al-Khorezmi and others. Biruni, Avicenna and Omar Khayyam ... The local Khorezm dynasty and Central Asia as a whole were destroyed by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, after which the Turkic peoples dominated the region. The city of Shakhrisabz was the birthplace of the Turkic-Mongol conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), who in the 14th century founded the Timurid empire and was proclaimed the supreme emir of Turan with its capital in Samarkand, which became the center of science during the reign of Ulugbek, which marked the beginning of the Timurid Renaissance. The territories of the Timurid dynasty were conquered by the Uzbek Shaybanids in the 16th century, transferring the center of power to Bukhara. The region was divided into three states: the Khiva Khanate, the Kokand Khanate and the Bukhara Emirate. Emperor Babur's conquests in the east led to the founding of India's newest invasions of the Mughal Empire. During the 19th century, all of Central Asia was gradually incorporated into the Russian Empire, and Tashkent became the political center of Russian Turkestan. In 1924, as a result of national demarcation, the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic became an independent republic within the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union on August 31, 1991, he declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan is a secular state with a presidential constitutional government. Uzbekistan includes 12 regions (vilayats), the city of Tashkent and one autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan. And non-governmental human rights organizations have defined Uzbekistan as "an authoritarian state with limited civil rights." Significant reforms were carried out by the second president of Uzbekistan after the death of dictator Islam Karimov. Thanks to these reforms, relations with neighboring countries - Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan - have dramatically improved. The 2020 United Nations report notes significant progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The economy of Uzbekistan is in a gradual transition to a market economy, and the foreign trade policy is based on import substitution. In September 2017, the country's currency became fully convertible at market rates. Uzbekistan is a major producer and exporter of cotton. With gigantic Soviet-era power generation capacity and abundant natural gas supplies, Uzbekistan has become the largest electricity producer in Central Asia. From 2018 to 2021, the republic was assigned a BB- ​​rating from Standard and Poor (S&P) and Fitch. Strengths cited by the Brookings Institution include large liquid assets in Uzbekistan, strong economic growth and low government debt. One of the restraining factors holding back the development of the republic is low GDP per capita. Uzbekistan is a member of the CIS, OSCE, UN and SCO.