Karakalpakistan

Qoraqalpogʻiston Respublikasi Qaraqalpaqstan Respublikasi ( Karakalpakisch ) Republic of Karakalpakistan
Location of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakistan in Uzbekistan
Symbols
Flag of Karakalpakistan coat of arms
Basic data
Country	Uzbekistan
Capital	Nukus
surface	164,900 km²
Residents	1,817,500 (January 1, 2017)
density	11 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	UZ-QR

Coordinates: 43 ° 15 '  N , 58 ° 45'  E

Karakalpakstan , officially the Republic of Karakalpakstan ( Karakalpak Qaraqalpaqstan Respublikasi ; Cyrillic Қарақалпақстан Республикасы; Uzbek Qoraqalpog'iston Respublikasi ; Russian Каракалпакстан , Karakalpakstan of batteries and Karakalpakstan), a autonomous republic in western Uzbekistan on the Aral Sea . It has 1,817,500 inhabitants and an area of ​​164,900 km². The capital is Nukus .

geography

In the east is the Kyzylkum , in the north the Aralkum , in the west the Ustyurt plateau , in the middle part the delta of the Amu Darya .

The volume of water in the Aral Sea has decreased dramatically in recent decades, as the earlier tributaries of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers no longer fully reach the lake.

This led to major changes in the water balance of the entire region, to climate and soil changes and to immense environmental damage. The shores of the lake have withdrawn from the earlier ports and health resorts. Whole fleets of ships are now instead of in the water, in a sand and salt sea. One speaks of "ship cemeteries".

population

The population within the republic in 2009 consisted of the following population groups: 36% Uzbeks , 33% Karakalpaks (not to be confused with the Karapapaks ), 25% Kazakhs , 6% Turkmens , Russians and other ethnic minorities .

politics

The autonomous republic has its own parliament, its own council of ministers and its own flag. The Karakalpakische together with the Uzbek official language . But Russian also plays a major role in the region. Karakalpak separatists are active in the region and are calling for the region to be independent. They accuse the Uzbek government of suppressing and failing to invest in Karakalpakistan. Up to 200,000 caracalpaks have left the country in recent years, most of them emigrating to Russia and Kazakhstan .

One of the deputies of the chairman of Oliy Majlis (Parliament of Uzbekistan) is currently also chairman of Joqargʻi Kenʻes (Parliament of Karakalpakistan).

Administrative division

Karakalpakistan is divided into 14 districts (Karakalpakian rayon , Uzbek tuman , Russian rajon ) and 7 independent cities (Karakalpakisch qalas , Uzbek shahar ). The independent cities are Beruniy (Uzbek name; Karakalpakisch: Biruniy), Nukus (Noʻkis), Taxiatosh (Taxıyatas), Toʻrtkoʻl (Toʻrtkuʻl), Xoʻjayli (Xojeli), Chimboy (Chimbay) and Qoʻngʻirot (Qonʻrat). The Kegeyli district in its current form was created in 2004 by merging the former Kegeyli and Boʻzatov (Buzatov; main town was Qozonketkan / Qazanketken).

Districts in Karakalpakistan

No	district	main place	No	district	main place	No	district	main place	No	district	main place
1	Amudaryo Aʻmu daʻrya	Mangʻit Manʻgʻıt	5	Kegeyli Kegeyli	Kegeyli Kegeyli	9	Qoʻngʻirot Qonʻırat	Qoʻngʻirot Qonʻırat	13	Toʻrtkoʻl Toʻrtkuʻl	Toʻrtkoʻl Toʻrtkuʻl
2	Beruniy Biruniy	Beruniy Biruniy	6th	Mo'ynoq Moynaq	Mo'ynoq Moynaq	10	Qoraoʻzak Qaraoʻzek	Qoraoʻzak Qaraoʻzek	14th	Xoʻjayli Xojeli	Xoʻjayli Xojeli
3	Chimboy Chimbay	Chimboy Chimbay	7th	Nukus No'kis	Oqmangʻit Aqmanʻgʻıt	11	Shumanay Shomanay	Shumanay Shomanay	the first names are the Uzbek, the second the Karakalpak
4th	Ellikqalʼa Ellikqala	Bo'ston Bustan	8th	Qanlikoʻl Qanʻlıkuʻl	Qanlikoʻl Qanʻlıkuʻl	12	Taxtakoʻpir Taxtakoʻpir	Taxtakoʻpir Taxtakoʻpir

history

prehistory

The Shilpiq Fortress (Shilpiq Kala) is located between Nukus and Beruniy in Karakalpakstan

The Amu Darya seen from the Shilpiq Kala

The caracalpaks belonged to many regional states over the centuries. Up until the 16th century they were traceable as shepherd nomads north of the Syr-darja middle reaches . In the course of the 18th century, some of them moved under pressure from the Kazakh tribes of the Great Horde from their areas of origin to the Fergana Valley and joined the Uzbeks there. Another part of the population settled in the Amudarya Delta. On the southern Caspian Sea , in the Khiva Khanate , the caracalpaks settled down and became fishermen and farmers. The Khiva khanate was subject to tribute to the khan of the Great Horde , but the latter allowed Khiva to act autonomously.

Revolutionary years

In 1917, the Russian Empire was not only on the front lines of the First World War , but numerous battles took place within it as well. In this civil war , the “whites” loyal to the tsar faced the “ reds ”. These battles also spread to Central Asia . In the spring of 1917 a section of the Alash was founded in Bishkek . Their political leader, Mustafa Tschokajew called in November 1917 in Kokand the autonomy of. This was followed in December of the same year by the proclamation of the Alash Orda State . This proclaimed Karakalpakistan as " Kyrgyz territory " and its Turkic inhabitants as "Kazak Kyrgyz".

Establishment of the Karakalpak ASSR

After the destruction of the Alash Orda (1920), the North Karakalpakistans together with the was Kyzylkum -type region (Navoi) within the RSFSR the first Kyrgyz ASSR (now Kazakhstan assigned). The south of the region was part of the Soviet People's Republic of Khorezm until 1924 . On October 27, 1924, Karakalpakistan became part of the Russian SFSR, first as an autonomous region (autonomous oblast), and from March 20, 1932 as the Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) . With the Soviet constitution of 1936 , the Karakalpak ASSR became part of the Uzbek SSR on December 5, 1936 (independent Uzbekistan since 1991 ).

Post Soviet time

The collapse of the Soviet Union (from 1989/90) aggravated the “ national question ” in this ASSR as well . There were two possible answers for the carakalpaks : on the one hand, to remain with Uzbekistan, which only a minority of the carakalpaks supported between 1989 and 1992, and, on the other hand, the ASSR's exit from Uzbekistan and the connection to the linguistically related Kazakhstan . The latter option was ultimately favored by the majority of the Karakalpaks for a while, especially since Kazakhstan also made territorial claims against Uzbekistan and claimed all areas of Uzbekistan inhabited by the southern Kazakhs, including the ASSR Karakalpakistan. Today Karakalpakistan enjoys extensive autonomy in Uzbekistan and for the Karakalpaks there is no longer any question of joining Kazakhstan.

Economy, health and irrigation problems

The main branches of industry are the extraction of crude oil and natural gas , the extraction of salts and phosphorites , irrigation agriculture ( cotton , rice ), sheep and silkworm breeding and the textile industry.

In order to get enough water for the cotton cultivation ordered by Stalin , the waters of the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya were diverted into innumerable canals here as well as in the neighboring Kazakh SSR and thus no longer reach the Aral Sea. This has ruined the once flourishing agriculture in the Amu Darya Delta. The region has now largely dried out, the soils are salty and the region is contaminated by fertilizers and pesticides that had previously been deposited in the seabed and are now being blown away with the dust in the region. As a result, among other things, the frequency of respiratory diseases has risen sharply. The rate of esophageal cancer is among the highest in the world.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Der Fischer Weltalmanach 2011 , article "Karakalpakstan", p. 496
2. ↑ Uzbekistan: Regions, Major Cities & Towns - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts. Retrieved April 24, 2018 . 
3. ↑ http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1079744.html
4. ↑ ^{a b} Klett Verlag: TaschenAtlas Völker und Sprachen , p. 106
5. ↑ Roland Götz and Uwe Halbach: Political Lexicon GUS , p. 295.
6. ^ Roland Götz and Uwe Halbach: Political Lexicon GUS , p. 296.
7. ^ Fred Pearce , When the Rivers Run Dry: Water, the Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century . Beacon Press , 2007, ISBN 978-0-8070-8573-8 , p. 211.
8. ↑ Aral catastrophe recorded in DNA , http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3846843.stm

Web links

Commons : Karakalpakistan  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Karakalpakistan - Photography