Wikipedia: Khatlon Region

Wikipedia article on Khatlon Region, one of the four provinces of Tajikistan and the most populous, situated in the southwest between the Hisor Range and the Panj river, bordering Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The report states Khatlon has an area of 24,700 km² and, according to 2020 data, a population of 3,348,300 (up from 2,677,251 in the 2010 census). It states the capital is Bokhtar (formerly Qurghonteppa and Kurgan-Tyube), and that the region comprises 21 districts and four district-level cities (Kulob, Levakant, Norak and Bokhtar). The article states Khatlon became one of the two main cotton regions during the Soviet era, with aggressive collectivisation in the early 1930s involving violations against peasants, extensive expansion of the irrigation network, and forcible resettlement of mountain peoples and people from Uzbekistan to the lowlands. It states that the Tajik population of Khatlon identifies either as Gharmis (resettled from the mountains) or Kulobis, that these groups “never melted” and fought against each other during the Tajik Civil War, and that Khatlon oblast suffered the heaviest damage in Tajikistan. It states the Kulyab clan, based in Khatlon, is home to the president and has gained significant political influence, while Islamic opposition has support among the Garmis in Bokhtar and parts of Kulob. According to 2010 data cited, the region’s ethnic composition was 81.8% Tajik, 12.9% Uzbek, 0.5% Turkmen and 4.6% other; Bokhtar city’s breakdown was 59% Tajik, 32% Uzbek and 3% Russian. The article also notes the 29 July 2018 attack in which four foreign cyclists were killed.