Uzbekistan Regions (original) (raw)

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Updates:

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-4, dated 2002-12-10, adds one division, Toshkent city. Its ISO code is UZ-TK. If this new division is valid, it was probably created by splitting it from Toshkent region.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It says that Uzbekistan officially adopted a Roman alphabet in 1995-05. The only change to the standard is the use of the new alphabet. Wherever the former transliteration of a division name had 'gh', it's been replaced by 'g`' (using a left apostrophe) in the new name; 'kh' has been consistently replaced by 'x'. For example, Khorazm is now spelled Xorazm. ISO has also changed the code for Xorazm from UZ-KHto UZ-XO.

Change Notice 7 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2002-01-10. The codes for two regions in Uzbekistan have changed. Jizzakh will be UZ15 henceforth, and Sirdaryo will be UZ16. Usually a change of this sort means that there has been a transfer of territory from one division to the other. Jizzakh and Sirdaryo are neighbors, so such a transfer is possible, but I have no information about the nature or extent of it.

Country overview:

In 1900, the area which is now Uzbekistan was partly contained in Imperial Russia, the remainder being under Russian protection. The Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva had been protectorates since 1868 and 1873 respectively. The part that was in Russia proper was contained in the general government of Turkestan. Turkestan was divided into oblasts (regions), and the part that became Uzbekistan lay mainly in the Syr-Daria, Ferghana, and Transcaspian oblasts. In the years following the Russian Revolution, all of Turkestan joined the Soviet Union. Uzbekistan appeared on the map in 1924. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it became an independent country.

Other names of country:

1. Danish: Usbekistan
2. Dutch: Oezbekistan, Republiek Oezbekistan (formal)
3. English: Republic of Uzbekistan (formal)
4. Finnish: Uzbekistan
5. French: Ouzb�kistan m
6. German: Usbekistan n
7. Icelandic: �sbekistan
8. Italian: Uzbekistan
9. Norwegian: Usbekistan, Republikken Usbekistan (formal)
10. Portuguese: Uzbequist�o, Usbequist�o, Rep�blica f do Uzbequist�o m (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Узбекистан (formal)
12. Spanish: Uzbekist�n
13. Swedish: Uzbekistan
14. Turkish: �zbekistan, �zbekistan Cumhuriyeti (formal)
15. Uzbek: Ozbekiston Respublikasy (formal)

Origin of name:

land of the Uzbeks, from Turkish uz: free, bek: completely

Primary subdivisions:

Uzbekistan is divided into twelve wiloyatlar (sing. wiloyat: regions), one respublikasi (autonomous republic), and one shahar (autonomous city).

Postal codes:

Uzbekistan appears still to be using Soviet-era postal codes, six-digit numbers always beginning with '7'.

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Uzbekistan page.

Territorial extent:

Farg`ona includes five exclaves within Batken province of Kyrgyzstan. The largest is around Sokh; the next-largest contains Iordan and Shakhimardan; and the other three are negligibly small.

The UN LOCODE page for Uzbekistan lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names:

1. Buxoro: possibly from Sanskrit vihara: monastery
2. Karakalpakstan: after the inhabitants, from Turkic kara: black, kalpak: hat
3. Tashkent: Uzbek = stone village

Change history:

A.S.S.R. = Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; S.S.R. = Soviet Socialist Republic. An S.S.R. was a constituent republic, or first-level division of the Soviet Union.

1. 1920-04-04: Khanate of Khiva became Khwarazman People's Soviet Republic, also translated People's Republic of Khorezm.
2. 1920-10-05: Emirate of Bukhara became Bukharan People's Soviet Republic.
3. 1921-04-11: Turkestan A.S.S.R. formed from Amu-Darya (Petro-Alexandrovsk, modern Turtkul'), Ferghana (Skobelev), Pamir, Samarkand (Samarkand), Semirechensk (Verniy), and Syr Darya (Tashkent) regions, and the southern part of Transcaspian. (Capitals in parentheses.)
4. 1922-12-30: By the Treaty of Union, Bukhara and Khorezm were linked to the newly formed Soviet Union. Turkestan A.S.S.R. was part of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, one of the constituent republics.
5. 1923-03: Bukhara and Khorezm merged with Turkestan A.S.S.R. Khorezm became an S.S.R. in 1923-10; Bukhara followed suit in 1924-09.
6. 1924-10-27: Turkestan A.S.S.R., Bukhara S.S.R., and Khorezm S.S.R. reorganized into several entities, ostensibly to match ethnic groups. One of the new entities, formed from most of Bukhara and Khorezm along with parts of Turkestan, was the Uzbekskaya S.S.R. The Tadzhikskaya A.S.S.R., in turn, was part of the Uzbekskaya S.S.R.
7. 1929-10-15: Tadzhikskaya A.S.S.R. split from Uzbekskaya S.S.R.
8. 1930: Capital of Uzbekskaya S.S.R. moved from Samarkand to Tashkent.
9. 1936-12-05: Kara-Kalpak autonomous oblast merged with Uzbek; status of Kara-Kalpak changed to A.S.S.R.
10. 1963-02-16: Syr-Darya oblast split from Samarkand.
11. 1963-09-19: 40,000 sq. km. transferred from Kazakh S.S.R. to Uzbek S.S.R.
12. 1973-12-29: Dzhizak oblast split from Samarkand.
13. ~1981: Navoi oblast split from Bukhara.
14. 1991-08-31: Uzbekistan declared independence from the Soviet Union. Westerners began to use the Jagatai Turkish, rather than the Russian, version of place names.
15. ~1996: Tashkent City split from Tashkent region (former HASC code UZ.TO). This change needs confirmation.

Other names of subdivisions:

Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, western sources normally used transliterations from Russian rather than indigenous names. There are various methods for transliterating from the Cyrillic to the Roman alphabet. The most common variant uses h instead of kh, c for ts, j for consonantal y, č for ch, š for sh, and ž for zh.

1. Andijon: Andijan (variant); Андижан (Russian)
2. Buxoro: Бухара (Russian); Bukhoro (variant); Mawarranahr, Transoxania, Turan (obsolete)
3. Farg`ona: Farghona, Ferghana (variant); Фергана (Russian)
4. Jizzax: Джизак (Russian); Jizzakh (variant)
5. Karakalpakstan: Кара-Калпакия, Республика Каракалпакстан (Russian); Qoraqalpoghiston, Qoraqalpog`iston (variant); Qoraqalpoghiston Respublikasi (formal)
6. Kashkadarya: Кашкадарья (Russian); Qashqadaryo (variant)
7. Namangan: Наманган (Russian)
8. Navoi: Navoiy, Nawoiy (variant); Навои (Russian)
9. Samarkand: Samarqand (variant); Самарканд (Russian)
10. Sirdaryo: Сырдарья (Russian)
11. Surxondaryo: Sukhan-Dar'ya, Surkhondaryo (variant); Сурхандарья (Russian)
12. Tashkent: Taschkent (German); Taskent (Spanish); Toshkent (variant); Ташкент (Russian)
13. Xorazm: Khiva, Khwarazm (obsolete); Khorazm, Khorezm (variant); Хорезм (Russian)

Sources:

1. [1] The United States Embassy in Uzbekistan had a General Background Fact Sheet at http://www.usembassy.uz/albright/uzbekst2.htm (dead link, dated 2000-04-16, retrieved 2002-12-31).
2. [2] Uzbekistan government website (http://www.gov.uz/eng/index.shtml, dead link).