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KYRGYZSTAN: A GEOPOLITICAL PORTRAIT
Murat SUIUNBAEV
Murat Suinbaev, Assistant professor at the Kyrgyz National University (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)
An analysis of Kyrgyzstan’s geopolitical orientation requires first taking a look at its geopolitical portrait from the perspective initially understood by the founders of geopolitics.
Our country is located in the center of Eurasia a long way from the World Ocean (from 1,700 to 6,530 km), it is 453.9 km long from north to south, 925 km wide from east to west, and 199,900 sq km in area. But the latter would be more if the folds of the Earth’s crust, which form mountains, were smoothed out. The territory of Kyrgyzstan is approximately equal to the area of Portugal, Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland put together. Nevertheless, it constitutes only 5% of the territory of Central Asia, and 0.1478% of the planet’s total area. The republic’s population amounts to no more than 9% of the region’s population and 0.08% of the Earth’s population, and 6.5% and 0.0051% of the GDP, respectively. Forests cover 4.2% of our country’s territory, water 4.4%, farmland 53.5%, and its border is 4,104 km long, 1,084 km of which it shares with China, 1,051 with Kazakhstan, 870 with Tajikistan, and 1,099 with Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan occupies part of western (“Soviet”) Tien Shan, and the eastern (larger) part of Tien Shan belongs to China. The highest elevation above sea level in Kyrgyzstan (Victory Peak) is 7,439 m, the lowest is 401 m (in the Liayliaksk District of the Batken Region), creating a difference in height of 7,038 m between the highest and lowest points, and an average elevation above sea level of 2,750 m. So 94.2% of the republic’s territory is 1,000 m, and 40.8% is 3,000 m above sea level. More than 50% of the population settlements are located at elevations between 1,000 m and 2,000 m, in which 1,745,000 people live (36% of the population), while 240,000 people live at elevations above 2,000 m (approximately 5% of the population).
The territory of mountainous states does not form an………………
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