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35-694: Gorno-Badakhshan , officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region , is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan , in the Pamir Mountains . It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its population. The official English name of the autonomous region is the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region. The name Badakhshan (from Russian : Бадахшан ; Tajik : Бадахшон )

70-537: A 130-year-old border dispute and China's claims to over 28,000 km (11,000 sq mi) of Tajik territory. At other instances Chinese scholars claimed control over the entire Pamir Mountains . However, the government of the Republic of China (ROC) based in Taipei does not recognize this treaty and continues to claim the territory, as reflected in its official maps. Whereas the government of Tajikistan celebrates

105-528: A road in Rushon which led to the regional capital Khorog . The violent clashes between Tajiikistani military and the GBAO population in 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021 and in 2022 are peaks in the steady militarization of the region. Spectators assess these actions by the government as strategy to gain full political control over the formerly autonomous Gorno-Badakhshan, as well as over the informal opium trade, culminating in

140-493: A total of 47 (not including 4 districts of the capital city Dushanbe) districts; prior to 2017 it had about 58. Popular Front of Tajikistan The Popular Front of Tajikistan ( Tajik : Фронти халқии Тоҷикистон ; Russian : Народный фронт Таджикистана ) was a politicized paramilitary movement composed of volunteers that fought for the government during the Tajik Civil War . Up to 8,000 fighters served as part of

175-608: Is considerable difference in ethnicity, religion and language amongst themselves. The First Secretary of the Gorno–Badakhshan Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Tajikistan was the highest position in the region during the Soviet era. The chairman of the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region is the head of the regional government. They are appointed by the president of Tajikistan . During

210-593: Is derived from the Sasanian title bēdaxš or badaxš . "Gorno-Badakhshan" literally means "mountainous Badakhshan" and is derived from the Russian name of the autonomous region, Gorno-Badakhshanskaya avtonomnaya oblast (literally Gorno-Badakshan autonomous oblast ). The Russian abbreviation "GBAO" is also commonly used in English-language publications by national and international bodies such as

245-572: Is estimated at 226,900. The largest city in Gorno-Badakhshan is Khorog , with a population of 30,300 (2019 est. ); Murghob is the second largest, with about 4,000 residents. According to the State Statistical Committee of Tajikistan, most inhabitants of Gorno-Badakhshan identify as Pamiris . The remainder of the population perceive themselves as either Kyrgyz or of other nationalities. Most people living in

280-547: Is separated from the Pakistani territories of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan by the narrow, but nearly impassable, Wakhan Corridor . Another road leads from Khorog to Wakhan and across the Afghan border. Even though connectivity is promoted in Gorno-Badakhshan, as the "Golden gate of Tajikistan" local traders largely do not profit from the rise of trade. Instead logistic companies and elites from Dushanbe dominate

315-399: Is widespread. Still, there are also Sunnis Muslims in Gorno-Badakhshan. The Tablighi Jama’at , a fundamentalist Sunni missionary movement conducted da'wa in the 2000s. The government banned and persecuted this movement among others as part of their wider campaign against non-state Islam. The Pamiris are increasingly being marginalilzed in linguistic and religious terms, as they deviate from

350-461: The Pamiri and Garmi origins. Their actions resulted in the deaths of more than 300. According to eyewitnesses, Popular Front soldiers stopped buses and trolley buses, as well as deployed forces at Dushanbe International Airport to check peoples passports for people from these regions. On 17 October 1992, musician Karomatullo Qurbonov and a number of his band members were murdered by gunmen from

385-490: The Panj . The districts correspond to the river valleys. Murghob District occupies the eastern half of the province and is mostly a desolate plateau with high mountains on the west. The districts of Gorno-Badakhshan are: Gorno-Badakhshan covers the entire eastern part of Tajikistan and borders China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to the east, Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province to the south, and Kyrgyzstan's Osh Region to

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420-630: The Vanj River valley, became extinct in the 19th century. There is a sizable population of Kyrgyz speakers in the Murghab district . Russian and Tajik are also widely spoken throughout Gorno-Badakhshan. Many Eastern-Iranian languages spoken in Gorno-Badakhshan are on the endangered list of the UNESCO. The majority religion in Gorno-Badakhshan is Ismaili Shi'ite and adherence to the Aga Khan

455-581: The 20th century, the Soviet modernity project to establish roads connections in the Pamir led to the communities becoming part of a transit district between Osh, Khorog and Dushanbe. Nowadays, the routes Khorog–Osh and Khorog–Dushanbe are both segments of the Pamir Highway . A third road was constructed through the Kulma Pass in 2004 by China in order to connect Khorog to Tashkurgan . Gorno-Badakhshan

490-887: The Armed Forces of the Republic of Tajikistan" on the basis of the Popular Front and the forces supporting the constitutional government. On 27 June 1997, the People's Front of Tajikistan movement was disbanded. Following the 1997 peace treaty, several units of the front became part of the Tajik National Army . With the aid of the Russian 201st Motor Rifle Division and the Uzbek army , the Leninabadi-Kulobi Popular Front forces routed

525-589: The Chinese state. A number of violent clashes and demonstrations have occurred in the region since the end of the civil war, with major incidences of civil unrest in 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Clashes erupted on 24 July 2012 between the Tajik military and militants loyal to the former warlord Tolib Ayombekov , after Ayombekov was accused of murdering a Tajik general. On 18 May 2022, around 200 anti-government demonstrators, led by Mamadboqir Mamadboqirov , blocked

560-515: The Pamir are multilingual, as different languages are used in different situations. Gorno-Badakhshan is home to a number of distinct languages and dialects of the Pamir languages group. The Pamiri language speakers represented in Gorno-Badakshan are speakers of Shughni , Rushani , Wakhi , Ishkashimi , Sarikoli , Bartangi , Khufi , Yazgulyam , and Oroshani . Vanji , formerly spoken in

595-561: The Pamir. So, the Sarykol range has been demarked de facto as Eastern border in 1894 between the Qing empire and the Russian empire . This imperial history still has relevance nowadays as it determined contemporary southeastern borders of the present-day autonomous region. The Tajikistani Badakhshan as distinctive polity with its contemporary Western borders and the Russian designation GBAO

630-603: The Soviet Union, for instance through privileged access to higher education and the construction of infrastructure like the Pamir highway in 1935, which is still remembered nowadays as a time of modernity. Therefore, people from the Pamirs used to have facilitated upwards mobility and access to political offices in the Tajik SSR . In scholarly discourse, this is regarded as a measure to safeguard loyalty to state socialism of

665-524: The Soviet times. This shared experience of Soviet and Ismaili development aid together with the neglect and crackdown by the Tajik state led to people perceiving themselves as Pamiri rather than Tajik. In 2011, Tajikistan ratified a 1999 treaty to cede 1,000 km (390 sq mi) of land in the Pamir Mountains to the People's Republic of China (PRC), from the Chinese state perspective ending

700-614: The Tajik Civil war, so that the Ismaili identity became a key marker of mobilization. La'al-e Badakhsan joined the United Tajik Opposition in 1997. Because of that, they were subsequently targeted by the popular front , which constituted the later government and then excluded from the political sphere of independent Tajikistan. The Gorno-Badakhshan government later backed down from its calls for independence. After

735-524: The assassination of several influential local leaders. This violates the Tajik peace accord. In May 2022, Tajik government forces killed 40 civilians protesting against the torture and murdering of the youth representative Gulbiddin Ziyobekov. The Tajik interior ministry stated that the protestors attempted to "destabilise the social and political situation" in the region. Many of the protestors, but also journalists and human rights activists were detained in

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770-433: The ceding of land as diplomatic victory, many Tajikistani scholars, opposition and parts of the population contest the existence of a 'dispute' altogether, seeing Badakhshan's territory in its entirety belonging to Tajikistan. Instead, the ceding of land belonging to Kuhistani Badakhshan in 2011 to China by some, especially in Gorno-Badakhshan was perceived as territorial loss and sparked anxieties about further encroachments of

805-1081: The construction of an 11 MW run-of-the-river hydro power plant along the Shokhdara river. The project is intended to also supply energy to Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Khorog is the highest location where bandy has been played. Regions of Tajikistan [REDACTED] CIS Member State Administratively, Tajikistan is divided into: Each region is divided into districts ( Tajik : ноҳия , nohiya or Russian : район , rayon ), which are further subdivided into municipal units: either as urban municipalities called either as cities ( Tajik : шаҳр , romanized :  şahr , "cities") or towns ( Tajik : шаҳрак , romanized :  şahrak , "towns"), or as rural municipalities called jamoats ( Tajik : ҷамоати деҳот , romanized :  jamoati dehot , "village communes"), which in turn are further subdivided into villages/settlements ( Tajik : деҳа or қишлоқ , romanized :  deha or qyshloq , "villages/hamlets"). As of 2020, Tajikistan has

840-467: The disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Ismaili development organization AKDN delivered supplies to Gorno-Badakhshan from Kyrgyzstan, which prevented the starvation of the population during the civil war. While the AKDN itself frames this engagement as temporary measure, many of the inhabitants demand a permanent presence of humanitarian aid. Many see it as continuation from the provisioning of goods during

875-594: The front subsequently became known as the “Yurchiki”, named after Yuri Andropov due to the large presence of former KGB employees. Subsequently, by the end of 1992, most of the supporters of former President Rahmon Nabiyev joined the Popular Front. In December 1992, a new government under Emomali Rahmon (the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Tajikistan ) signed a resolution "On the Establishment of

910-590: The front. It emerged in June 1992, during which it began fighting against the United Tajik Opposition. The founders of the movement were Sangak Safarov and Safarali Kenjayev . It quickly gained popularity among rulers of Tajikistan, and by the fall of 1992, veterans of the Soviet Army and KGB , local militiamen, as well as law enforcement personnel joined the Popular Front. The leadership of

945-673: The government of Tajikistan and the United Nations . Borders and political authority in the Western Pamir had always been contested by imperial powers. Between the 17th and 19th century, several semi-self governing statelets, including Darwaz , Shughnun-Rushan and Wakhan , ruled over the territories that are today a part of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan . In

980-617: The late 19th century, the emirates of Kokand and then Bukhara held political authority over the region until the Western Pamir was colonized by Russia , completed in 1896. Although Russia and the British empire in 1896 denominated their shared border through the Pamir, which resulted in the creation of the Wakhan corridor , other regional powers like China and Afghanistan , but also the ruling elites of Badakhshan, Bukhara, Kashgaria and Kashmir equally worked for expending their influence in

1015-593: The long-distance trade, as the Pamiris are increasingly excluded from central posts and have to obtain visas from Dushanbe to travel to China, which is very costly. In June 2022, after local protesters blocking the road were imprisoned, some even killed, a Chinese company started the modernization of a Pamir highway section at the cost of US$ 200 million. In 2019, the European Union and Germany , in coordination with Tajikistan, committed 37 million euros to finance

1050-891: The north. Within Tajikistan, Gorno-Badakhshan's western border is with the Districts of Republican Subordination (DRP) and the tip of its southwestern finger ( Darvoz District ) borders Khatlon Region . The highest elevations in the region are in the Pamir Mountains (notably Mount Imeon ), nicknamed "the roof of the world" by locals. Three of the five 7,000 meter summits in Central Asia are located here, including Ismoil Somoni Peak (formerly Communism Peak, and, before that, Stalin Peak; 7,495 m), Ibn Sina Peak (formerly Lenin Peak, and still known by that name on its Kyrgyz flank; 7,134 m), and Peak Ozodi (formerly Korzhenevskoi Peak, 7,105 m). The population living in Gorno-Badakhshan as of 2019

1085-512: The opposition in early and late 1992. In Kulob, Safarov's units put the biggest pressure on the opposition. In early October, the forces of the Popular Front, acting under communist slogans, tried to seize the capital, which was then controlled by the Islamist forces. According to Human Rights Watch , after the Popular Front entered Dushanbe, 'they conducted a campaign of summary executions" as well as "disappearances" of people who originate from

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1120-507: The subjects at the strategically important Soviet 'frontier'. When the Tajikistani Civil War broke out in 1992, the local government in Gorno-Badakhshan declared independence from Tajikistan. Many politically active Pamiris later joined the democratic political movement La’al-e Badakhshan during the Tajik Civil war, which demanded autonomy and democratic rule for the region. Regionalism was an important structuring factor in

1155-474: The subsequent cover-up. Additionally, the government seized properties and kidnapped even oppositional Pamiris abroad. Some human rights activists describe the situation as 'ethnic cleansing'. Genocide watch is stressing the polarization and the persecution of Pamiris through the government. Darvoz District is the western "beak" of the province. West-central Gorno-Badakhshan is mostly a series of east–west mountain ranges separated by valleys of rivers that flow into

1190-623: The vision for nationhood of the Tajik state. In 2009 the year of I'mam Hanafi Islam was celebrated, but a majority of Pamiris are followers of Ismaili Shia Islam . Subsequently, religious institutions had to be reregistered leaving all institution ousted not fitting the state's religious beliefs. The 2010 law on language requires all documents to be made in Tajik. This creates difficulties for the many inhabitants of Gorno Badakhshan who do not speak Tajik to access state services. Facing this marginalization Pamiris express their distinctive identity against western Tajiks along secterian lines, even though there

1225-583: Was created as autonomous republic in 1925. Later in 1929, this was changed to autonomous oblast , of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik SSR). The Soviet Orientalists' obsession with categorization of peoples led to the fixation of among others the identity category of Pamiris, or 'Mountain Tajiks' in the Soviet ethnogenesis. During the Soviet Union years, a lot of resources had been allocated to Gorno Badakhshan as borderland of

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