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 Kyrgyzstan| Facts & Figures |
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| President: Kurmanbek Bakiyev (2005) Prime Minister: Iskenderbek Aidaraliyev
(acting; 2007) Total area: 73,861 sq mi (191,300 sq
km) Population (2009 est.): 5,431,747;
(growth rate: 1.4%); birth rate: 23.4/1000; infant mortality rate:
31.2/1000; life expectancy: 69.4; density per sq km: 28
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Bishkek (formerly Frunze), 824,900 Other large city: Osh 225,600 Monetary unit: Som More Facts & Figures |
GeographyKyrgyzstan (formerly Kirghizia) is a rugged
country with the Tien Shan mountain range covering approximately 95% of
the whole territory. The mountaintops are perennially covered with snow
and glaciers. Kyrgyzstan borders Kazakhstan on the north and northwest,
Uzbekistan in the southwest, Tajikistan in the south, and China in the
southeast. The republic has the same area as the state of
Nebraska.
GovernmentConstitutional republic.
HistoryThe native Kyrgyz are a Turkic people who
first settled in the Tien Shan mountains. They were
traditionally pastoral nomads. Due to extensive Russian colonization in
the 1900s, Russian settlers were given much of the best agricultural
land. This led to an unsuccessful and disastrous revolt by the Kyrgyz
people in 1916. Kyrgyzstan became part of the Soviet Federated Socialist
Republic in 1924 and was made an autonomous republic in 1926. It became a
constituent republic of the USSR in 1936. The Soviets forced the Kyrgyz to
abandon their nomadic culture and adopt modern farming and industrial
production techniques.
Kyrgyzstan proclaimed its independence from the
Soviet Union on Aug. 31, 1991. On Dec. 21, 1991, Kyrgyzstan joined the
Commonwealth of Independent States. The country joined the UN and the IMF
in 1992 and adopted a shock-therapy economic program. Voters endorsed
market reforms in a referendum held in Jan. 1994, and in 1996, referendum
voters overwhelmingly endorsed proposed constitutional changes that
enhanced the power of the president.
There is an ethnic and economic divide between
the more developed north with its Kyrgyz population and the impoverished
south, which is made up of Uzbeks and a diverse group of other
ethnicities. About 50% of the entire population lived below the poverty
line in 2003.
Since 1999, several groups of radical Islamic
gunmen, believed to be from Uzbekistan or Tajikistan, have led raids and
kidnappings from base camps in Kyrgyzstan's mountains.
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