Tajikistan

Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, one of former Soviet Union Republics, is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. It borders Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China. Most of Tajikistan's population belongs to the Tajik ethnic group, who share culture and history with the Persian peoples and Uzbek people and speak the Tajik language.

The Tajik people came under Russian rule in the 1860. Tajikistan became an autonomous Soviet socialist republic within Uzbekistan in 1924; and Tajikistan became one of the component Soviet socialist republics in 1929 called Tadzhik SSR from 1936 to 1991.

Tajikistan gained independence in 1991, and has experienced three changes in government and a civil war since then. A peace agreement among rival factions was signed in 1997 but its implementation has progressed slowly. Since the end of the war, newly-established political stability and foreign aid have allowed the country's economy to grow. Its natural resources such as cotton and aluminum have contributed greatly to this steady improvement, although observers have characterized the country as having few natural resources besides hydroelectric power and its strategic location.