Nagorno-Badakhshan and Karakalpakstan
National Autonomies in Geographical Problem Zones
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Two of the five Central Asian states have a national autonomous region: Gorno-Badakhshan? in Tajikistan and Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan. They take up almost half of the territory of the two states, but are mostly located in inhospitable mountain or desert areas and are extremely sparsely populated. Great distances and difficult geographical conditions for transportation lead to economic backwardness. In Karakalpakstan, the Aral Sea catastrophe is an additional problem. Since the civil war in the 1990s, the Pamiri in Nagorno-Badakhshan have had de facto autonomy that the Rakhmon regime in Du-shanbe is trying to abolish by military force. Karakalpakstan’s autonomous status is purely symbolic. The Karakalpaks now make up only half of the republic’s population. They can only tackle the serious ecological and economic problems in cooperation with Tashkent.
(Osteuropa 8-10/2024, pp. 209–222)