Fergana Valley
The Ferghana Valley ( usbek. Fargona vodiysi; . Kyrgyz Фергана өрөөнү / Fergana öröönü; Tajik водии Фарғона / wodii Farghona; . Persian دره فرغانه / Dara -e Fargana; Russian Ферганская долина / Ferganskaja dolina ) is a densely populated valley between the Tianshan and the Alay Mountains in Central Asia. The valley is drained by the river Syr Darya. More than ten million people, or 20 % of the population of Central Asia live in the only 300 km long and up to 110 km wide valley. This is generally regarded as the cultural center of Central Asia. The valley extends to territories of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Population
The population of the Ferghanatals is very diverse and includes Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Tatars and people of a large portion of the minorities in Central Asia. It always came back to conflict, as in the late 1980s / early 1990s, and in the spring of 2010 (see riots in southern Kyrgyzstan, 2010). This also called for several times fatalities.
History
The Ferghana valley has a long history. The first traces of settlement in the Ferghana dated to the Middle Bronze Age. Especially from the northwestern area known many remains of settlements and necropolises. The inhabitants of these settlements apparently operated livestock and metallurgy. Around 1500 BC, the Middle Bronze Age Andronovo Tazabag'jab culture was superseded by the Late Bronze Age Tschust culture whose institutions already well practiced agriculture. Around 900 BC, the Ejlatan culture, named after the fortified city Ejlatan arose.
In the early Iron Age was the Ferghana Dayuan the kingdom, which was known for its highly developed agriculture and its horse breeding. Major settlements of this period are Schur Abas chat and the younger Marchamat. To 329 BC Alexander the Great conquered the Ferghana Valley, in the 3rd century BC, it became part of the Graeco - Bactrian kingdom. In the period following the Ferghana Valley was alternately ruled by different peoples until it was conquered in the 6th century, the Kingdom of Göktürks.
From here, Babur, a descendant of Timur, the conquest of India and the grounds of the Mughal dynasty broke up.
From the 18th century it is the center of the khanate of Kokand with rule based in Kokand. This khanate was later restored in the 19th century into a major territorial state, which was right next to the Emirate of Bukhara and its fiercest competitor.
In the early 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Ferghana Valley was the area of operations of various Islamist groups.
Economy
Main economic activities are the irrigation industry ( Big, Southern and Northern Ferghanakanal, cotton, rice, fruit, wine); Mining (especially fuel), light and heavy industry. Due to the idiosyncratic boundary between the former Soviet republics under Stalin major transport connections are interrupted by national borders in the Ferghana Valley today.