Kyrgyzstan also has contributed to the CIS peacekeeping forces in Tajikistan.

Historically, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were also home to Bukharan Jews, who trace their ancestry to the Lost Tribes of Israel taken captive by the Babylonians in the 7th century BC, but almost no Bukharian Jews are left in Tajikistan.

Although the goal is to improve trade, the president of Tajikistan expressed concern that it could also increase drug traffic.

India provided extensive counter-insurgency military training to Tajikistan and also supplied them with new aircraft.

Tajikistan also promises to help keep the heroin out of Russia.

A series of border incidents also inflamed tensions with neighboring Tajikistan.

Bordering Turkmenistan to the southwest, Kazakstan to the north, and Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to the south and east, Uzbekistan is not only one of the larger Central Asian states but also the only Central Asian state to border all of the other four.

The pistachio, Pistacia vera in the Anacardiaceae family, is a small tree originally from Greater Iran ( Iran and Iraq ) which now can also be found in regions of Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Tunisia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Italy ( Sicily ), Uzbekistan, Afghanistan ( especially in the provinces of Samangan and Badghis ), and the United States, specifically in California.

The population also increased with thousands of ethnic Tajiks migrating to Tajikistan following the transfer of Bukhara and Samarkand to the Uzbek SSR.

Uzbek vocabulary has also been heavily influenced by the neighboring Modern Persian dialects of Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

** Parnassius autocrator, a Parnassius butterfly found in Afghanistan and Tajikistan also commonly known as the Apollo

It includes present-day Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang. Many would also include Turkic regions of Russia ( Tatarstan & parts of Siberia ) as well.

It also occurs in semi-dry sub-tropical areas of Central Asia ( Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Oman, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan ), southern Europe ( Italy, Malta, Albania, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus ), North Africa ( Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia ), and along the shores of the Gulf of Aden and in the Middle East.

It extended from southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, north of the Amu Darya ( Oxus ) in the north west to Northern India, as far as Mathura in the south east ( the Rabatak inscription even claims he held Pataliputra and Sri Champa ), and his territory also included Kashmir, where there was a town Kanishkapur, named after him not far from the Baramula Pass and which still contains the base of a large stupa.

* September 26-An article in The Guardian on September 26, 2001, also adds evidence that there were already signs in the first half of 2001 that Washington was moving to threaten Afghanistan militarily from the north, by way of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

*- i ( Afghanistan → Afghanistani, Azawad → Azawadi, Azerbaijan → Azerbaijani, Bahrain → Bahraini, Bangladesh → Bangladeshi, Bengal → Bengali, Bihar → Bihari, Dagestan → Dagestani, Desh → Desi, Gujarat → Gujarati, Hyderabad → Hyderabadi, Iraq → Iraqi, Israel → Israeli ( in the Modern State of Israel ), Kashmir → Kashmiri, Kazakhstan → Kazakhstani ( also " Kazakh "), Kuwait → Kuwaiti, Nepal → Nepali, Oman → Omani, Pakistan → Pakistani, Punjab → Punjabi, Qatar → Qatari, Rajasthan → Rajasthani, Sindh → Sindhi, Somalia → Somali ( not Somalian ), Tajikistan → Tajikistani ( also " Tajik "), United Arab Emirates → United Arab Emirati, Uzbekistan → Uzbekistani ( also " Uzbek "), Yemen → Yemeni, Yerevan → Yerevani ), mostly for Middle Eastern and South Asian locales and in Latinate names for the various people that ancient Romans encountered ( e. g. Allemanni, Helvetii )

He also served as the U. S. ambassador to Tajikistan from 1998 through 2001.

Popular music also included Indian and Pakistani cinema film and music imported from Iran, Tajikistan, the Arab world and elsewhere.

Nowruz ( also Naw-Rúz, Norooz, Newroz, Navroj, and many other variants ) which means " New Day " in Persian language, marks an important traditional holiday festival celebrated in Iran as well as in many other countries with a significant population of Persian people, such as Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and by Kurdish communities in Turkey and Iraq and elsewhere.

Namangani led IMU fighters back to the Tavildara Valley in Tajikistan, and from there launched multipronged attacks into Batken in Kyrgyzstan, and also into northern Uzbekistan, close to Tashkent.

Juraqulov also said that the IMT was not a major security threat to Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan.

Azerbaijan currently has diplomatic relations with 160 countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the People's Republic of China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Libya, Luxembourg, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Republic of India, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Tajikistan gained independence in 1991, and has experienced three changes in government and a civil war since then.

With an area of, Tajikistan has a maximum east-to-west extent is, and its maximum north-to-south extent is.

Most of the southern border with Afghanistan is set by the Amu Darya ( darya is the Persian word for river ) and its tributary the Panj River ( Darya-ye Panj ), which has headwaters in Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

The 2008 global financial crisis has hit Tajikistan hard, both domestically and internationally.

Tajikistan has been hit harder than many countries because it already has a high poverty rate and because many of its citizens depend on remittances from expatriate Tajikistanis.

Passenger transit through Tajikistan has been hindered by periodic failures of Tajik Railways to pay transit tariffs and by safety issues.

Tajikistan has an estimated 30, 000 kilometers of roads, nearly all of which were built before 1991.

China has invested approximately $ 720 million for infrastructure improvements in Tajikistan, including the rebuilding, widening and improvement of the road between Dushanbe and Khujand which as of August 2007 is proceeding using equipment, labor, and oversight from China.

Tajikistan has no access to the sea and no navigable inland waterways.

Despite their common efforts, bilateral trade has been comparatively low, valued at US $ 12. 09 million in 2005 ; India's exports to Tajikistan were valued at US $ 6. 2 million and its imports at US $ 5. 89 million.

Landlocked Afghanistan has no seaports but the Amu Darya river, which forms part of the nation's border with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, does have barge traffic.

The government has justified its restraint of public assembly, opposition parties, and the media by emphasizing the need for stability and a gradual approach to change during the transitional period, citing the conflict and chaos in the other former republics ( most convincingly, neighboring Tajikistan ).

Since that time, Uzbekistan has participated in the CIS peacekeeping force in Tajikistan and in United Nations-organized groups to help resolve the Tajik and Afghan conflicts, both of which it sees as posing threats to its own stability.

The UNCCD has 194 country Parties: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, the People's Republic of China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d ' Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, the Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Iran has astonishingly even supported Christian Armenia against Shi ' ite Azerbaijan and has been careful not to lend too much support to Islamic Tajiks in Tajikistan, where the language is basically a dialect of Persian .</ BLOCKQUOTE > In this regard the Islamic Republic resembles another revolutionary state, the old Soviet Union.

In addition to Turkey, Israel has diplomatic relations with 6 non-Arab Muslim states in Asia ( Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan ).

* Despite UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's reassurances in early March that the plight of the hundreds of thousands of internal refugees has not been forgotten by the international community, the UN withholds its aid to refugees stranded on the border with neighbouring Tajikistan later in the month.

Southern Tajikistan has a distinctive form of folk music called falak, which is played at celebrations for weddings, circumcisions and other occasions.

* Tajikistan has officially recognised 9 May since 1946 ;