Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region

Coordinates: 38°0′N 73°0′E / 38.000°N 73.000°E / 38.000; 73.000

The Kūhistoni Badakhshon Autonomous Region (Tajik: Вилояти Мухтори Кӯҳистони Бадахшон, Viloyati Mukhtori Kūhistoni Badakhshon; also known as Gorno-Badakhshan, after Russian: Горно-Бадахшанская автономная область, Gorno-Badakhšanskaya avtonomnaya oblast’) is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan.

Located in the Pamir Mountains, it makes up 45% of the land area of the country but only 3% of its population.

History

Prior to 1895, the area of today's Gorno-Badakhshan A.R. consisted of several semi-self governing statelets, including Darwaz, Shughnun-Rushan, and Wakhan, who ruled over territories that today are part of Gorno-Badakhshan A.R. in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan. The territory was claimed by the Chinese and Russian empires and the Emirate of Afghanistan. The Qing rulers of China claimed control of the entire Pamir Mountains, but Qing military units only controlled the passes just east of Tashkorgan Town. In the 1890s, the Chinese, Russian, and Afghan governments signed a series of agreements that divided Badakhshan, but the Chinese continued to contest these borders, until it signed a 2002 agreement with the government of Tajikistan. The Republic of China continues to claim the territory as part of its land area, along with the rest of China.