The Tajik authorities are continuing to rename settlements. Thus, the government has proposed to rename twenty-six settlements in Khatlon province and districts subordinate to the center. The request has been sent for consideration to Tajikistan’s upper house (Majlisi Milli) of parliament.
Having purged Tajikistan of most Russian and Soviet labels, the authorities have also targeted places with names of Turkic origin.
Some had their former Tajik names restored and some others were given new Tajik names.
They, in particular, propose to rename the jamaoat of Dehkonarik the jamoat of Dehqonobod, the jamoat of The 20th Anniversary of Independence of Tajikistan the jamoat of Istiqlol, te jamoat of Ghairat the jamoat of Khuroson, the jamoat of Ghalaba the jamoat of Khutan and the village of Khurramzamin the village of Oriyon. All these settelments are located in the Farkhor district, Khatlon province.
In Khatlon’s Danghara district, they propose to rename the jamoat of Oqsou the jamoat of Safobakhsh, the village of Khoja Shaqiqi Balkhi the village of Sebiston, the village of Mundoq the village of Domanakuh, and the village of Kangi the village of Mehrgon.
In Khatlon’s Jaloliddin-Balkhi district, the jamoat of Uzun will renamed the jamoat of Zoli Zar, the jamoat of Frunze the jamoat of Navoi, the village of Moskva he village of Zarzamin, the village of Hosilot the village of Obchakoron, the village of Kirov the village of Dashtobodand the village of Tashrobod the village of Sabzadasht.
In Khatlon’s Temourmalik district, the Sovet settlement will be renamed Bahmanroud, the jamoat of Laqai Qarmishev Qushteppa, the jamoat of Bobo Yunus Chilchah and the jamoat of Qaramish Husainobod.
In the Tojikobod district (district subordinate to the center in Rasht Valley), the jamoat of Munavvarsho Shogadoyev will be renamed the jamoat of Zarafshon, the village of Kelinboqi Surkhkuh, the village of Kapali Safedmun, the village of Zarafshon Shing, and the village of Anvar Qalandarov Anvarobod.
During the Soviet Era countless towns were renamed in Soviet style. With independence came a wave of new city names as the newly independent states sought to separate themselves from their neighbors physically, historically, and culturally.
In Tajikistan, the process of renaming settlements began in 2015. President Emomali Rahmon sent parliament a list of new names for several towns and districts. The new names followed a trend in which anything not distinctly Tajik or Persian in origin was dismissed. In 2015 alone, a number of large cities and districts were renamed in Tajikistan. The city of Qairoqqum, an Uzbek name, for example, was renamed Guliston, or City of Flowers. An artificial lake by the same name was simply called the Tajik Sea. The district of Ghonchi, a name with Turkic roots, was named after Devashtich, a Sogdian ruler of the modern-day Tajik city of Panjakent in pre-Islamic Central Asia. Jillikul district in Khatlon province had its Kyrgyz name replaced with Dousti, which means friendship in Tajik. It was not just Turkic place-names that were targeted. The city of Chkalovsk was renamed “Buston,” meaning “Blooming Garden.”
