According to COUNTRYAAH, Tajikistan is a State of Central Asia (143,100 km²). Capital: Dušanbe. Administrative division: provinces (2), autonomous province (1), city (1), others (1). Population: 7,215,700 (2008 estimate). Language: Tajik (official), Russian, Uzbek. Religion: Sunni Muslims 80%, Shia Muslims 5.1%, Orthodox 1.4%, non-religious / atheists 13.5%. Monetary unit: somoni (100 branches). Human Development Index: 0.684 (124th place). Borders: Kyrgyzstan (N), China (E), Afghanistan (S), Uzbekistan (W). Member of: CSI, EBRD, OCI, OCS, UN and OSCE.
Independent since 1991, according to the 1994 Constitution, Tajikistan is a presidential republic; the head of state, holder of executive power and head of the armed forces, is elected by direct suffrage and remains in office for seven years. The bicameral Parliament is elected for five years and exercises legislative power. The judicial system is divided into a series of bodies: the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Economic Court, the Military Court, the provincial, district and city courts, whose members remain in office for five years. Then there is the Court of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO). The death penalty is in force in the country. The military force is composed of the three traditional corps and provides for a two-year compulsory military service. Education is free and compulsory and consists of two cycles. The first starts at 7 and lasts for 4 years; the second is in turn divided into 2 microcycles of 5 and 2 years, of which only the first is compulsory. Higher education is given in the only university present. The percentage of illiterates is very low, barely 0.4% (2007).
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Climate
Due to the extreme differences in altitude, there are large climatic differences in Tajikistan in the shortest possible distance : from subtropical hot in the lower valleys to moderately warm in the middle altitudes to alpine in the high mountains.
The continental location far away from all seas leads to strong seasonal and daily temperature differences in the sunshine-rich country in all regions. In addition, there is a very rapid change of seasons throughout Tajikistan. It gets hot or cold from one day to the next.
A subtropical, humid climate prevails in the valley and basin regions and in the foothills of the mountains in the southwest. Here the mean January temperature is around 0 ° C, the mean July values around 30 ° C, with maximum temperatures of over 40 ° C between June and September.
In the higher mountain regions it gets significantly cooler. At 2,300 m the average values are -8 ° C in January and 23 ° C in July. Long winters from October to May with a continuously closed snow cover and violent snow storms with temperatures as low as -45 ° C are normal in the mountains.
Heavy dust storms can occur in the lowlands from June to October.
The precipitation is also unevenly distributed in Tajikistan, in much of the country but it is dry. At the wettest with rainfall up to 1,700 mm per year are southern slopes of Hissargebirges. The western mountain ranges have precipitation of 900 to 1,200 mm per year. In the Pamir, on the other hand, the annual rainfall is only below 100 to 300 mm. In the Fergana Basin, the annual mean rainfall is only around 100-150 mm. The main times of precipitation are the months of January to May. The summers are dry. Only in the Pamir does it rain most frequently in July and August. Due to the low rainfall, the air is relatively dry, so there is no uncomfortable humidity.
Best travel time for Tajikistan
Spring (April to June) and autumn (September to November) are the best times of the year to visit Tajikistan with their mild temperatures. In this way you can avoid the extremely hot values in the summer months on the one hand and the very cold temperatures in winter on the other.
Mountain hikes and trekking tours in the Pamir and other high mountain regions, on the other hand, are practically only possible between July and September due to the long winter. Many roads in the mountains are only passable then.
