Ethnic groups in Tajikistan
In Tajikistan in addition to the majority population of Tajiks live some other ethnic groups .
Iranian peoples
Tajiks , the Sunni Persians of Central Asia, make up 84.3% of the population and, unlike in Afghanistan, speak Tajik , a variant of Persian written in Cyrillic. Since many other peoples emigrated after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Tajiks came from neighboring countries, their share of the population has increased steadily since 1989. There are also some other small eastern Iranian peoples such as the Shughni, Jagnoben or Yazgulami in Tajikistan. Due to the low demands of these cultures and languages, many of these small peoples are threatened with extinction. Refugees from Afghanistan make up a fraction of the population.
Turkic peoples
The Uzbeks make up the largest Turkic-speaking ethnic group in Tajikistan with almost 12%. Many Uzbeks have emigrated to Uzbekistan since the fall of the Soviet Union and the ensuing civil war, as have other Turkic peoples such as the Kyrgyz , Kazakhs , Tatars and Turkmens , who only make up a fraction of the population.
Other peoples
The Russians who settled in Tajikistan during the Soviet Union also make up a significant minority . Just like the Turkic people, many Russians emigrated after the collapse of the Soviet Union , especially to Russia. While almost 400,000 Russians lived in Tajikistan in 1989, there were just under 140,000 in 2005 and only 26,000 in 2019. Over 90% of the Jews , mostly Bukhari or Ashkenazi Jews, have emigrated from Tajikistan since 1989, mostly to Israel or Europe. There are now less than 1,000 Jews living in Tajikistan .
German minority
A small minority of Germans, mostly Volga Germans, still live in Tajikistan today . However, their number has fallen sharply, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union . Most of them emigrated to Germany .
Today people of German origin belong to the poorest stratum of the population in Tajikistan. They now live less in their own villages (e.g. Thälmann, after Ernst Thälmann ) in the province of Chatlon, most of them live in the capital Dushanbe . Former German settlements such as the town of Taboschar , founded by Germans in the Sughd province in the 1940s, are now inhabited by Tajiks. The German-Tajik foundation “Wiedergeburt” aims to preserve German churches and cemeteries . A few years ago the German embassy in Dushanbe held a Christmas party for the population of German origin.
The Tajik foundation “Sawob” now wants to preserve the legacy of the Germans in Tajikistan. To do this, it needs the financial support of the German federal government.
table
The following figures are based on estimates by the University of Québec .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Données demolinguistiques de Tadjikistan. University of Quebec, accessed July 26, 2020 .
- ^ Tajikistan Virtual Jewish History Tour. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
- ↑ In the village of foreign Germans. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
- ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): German Cultural Heritage in Tajikistan | DW | 01/20/2005. Retrieved on July 26, 2020 (German).