Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, with its capital and largest city at Tashkent. It operates as a unitary semi-presidential republic with a secular governance structure, currently led by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who assumed office in December 2016 after the death of Islam Karimov. The republic declared state sovereignty on 20 June 1990 and formally declared independence on 31 August 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed, with 1 September observed as National Independence Day. With more than 39 million people, Uzbekistan is the most populous republic in Central Asia; Uzbeks make up more than 89 percent of the population, with Tajik, Karakalpak, Kazakh and Russian minorities. Uzbek, written in both Cyrillic and Latin scripts, is the official language, though Russian continues to serve as a lingua franca, and about 94 percent of the population practices Islam, mostly of the Sunni tradition.