The Tajik authorities are continuing to rename cities, districts and villages.
By president’s decrees issued on January 20 a number of cities, districts and settlements in the southern Khatlon province have been renamed.
The city of Qurghon Teppa (an Uzbek name), the capital of the Khatlon province, was renamed Bokhtar.
The city of Sarband was renamed Levakand.
The district of Bokhtar was renamed Kushoniyon.
The township of Vose, the administrative center of the Vose district, was renamed Hulbuk.
Besides, several villages in Vose and Yovon districts have been renamed.
Recall, having purged Tajikistan of most Russian and Soviet labels, the authorities have begun targeting places with names of Turkic origin.
Some had their former Tajik names restored, some were named after historic Tajik figures, and others were given new Tajik names.
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.
Jirgatol district in the Rasht Valley had its old, Turkic-rooted name, Lakhsh, restored. Jillikul district in Khatlon province had its Kyrgyz name replaced with Dousti, which means friendship in Tajik.
It's not just Turkic place-names that are being targeted.
The city of Chkalovsk was renamed “Buston,” meaning “Blooming Garden.”
The authorities also changed the district of Tavildara’s Arabic-sounding name to its historical name, Sangvor.
