Batken Province

Batken Province (Kyrgyz: Баткен областы, Batken oblast; Russian: Баткенская область) is a province (oblast) of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital and largest city is Batken. It is bounded on the east by Osh Province, on the south, west and north by Tajikistan and on the northeast by Uzbekistan. The northern part of the province is part of the flat, agricultural Ferghana Valley. The land rises southward to the mountains on the southern border: the Alay Mountains in the east, and the Turkestan Range in the west.

The de facto population of the province was reported as 380,256 by the census of 2009. Of them, 24.2 per cent lived in the province's four towns and five urban-type settlements, and 75.8 per cent in the rural areas. The majority (76.5 per cent) of the province's population are Kyrgyz; there are also Uzbeks (14.7 per cent) and Tajiks (6.9 per cent), as well as a few Russians (0.8 per cent), Tatars (0.4 per cent), and Turks (0.2 per cent).

Batken province was created on 12 October 1999, from the westernmost section of Osh Province. This was partly in response to the activities of the Islamic Movement for Uzbekistan (IMU), with bases in Tajikistan. In 1999 they kidnapped a group of Japanese geologists and in 2000 some American climbers. In the two years, 49 Kyrgyz soldiers were killed. There have been no incidents since, except for an attack on a Tajik border post in May 2006, which was probably connected to drug running.

Read more about Batken Province:  Basic Socio-Economic Indicators, Demographics, Subdivisions of Batken Province, Enclaves and Exclaves, Travel

Famous quotes containing the word province:

    It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)