Osh is a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

. Its capital is Osh, which is not part of the region. It is bounded (clockwise) by

Jalal-Abad Region Jalal-Abad (; ) is a region (''oblast, oblus'') of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is the city of the same name, Jalal-Abad. It is surrounded by (clockwise from the north) Talas Region, Chüy Region, Naryn Region, Osh Region, and Uzbekistan. Jalal-Abad ...

Naryn Region Naryn Region is the largest region of Kyrgyzstan. It is located in the east of the country and borders with Chüy Region in the north, Issyk-Kul Region in the northeast, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China in the southeast, Osh Region i ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

( Districts under Central Government Jurisdiction and

Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its popul ...

Batken Region Batken is a Regions of Kyrgyzstan, region of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Batken. It is bounded on the east by Osh Region, on the south, west and north by Tajikistan, and on the northeast by Uzbekistan. The northern part of the region is part of th ...

, and

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

(

Andijan Andijan ( ), also spelt Andijon () and formerly romanized as Andizhan ( ), is a city in Uzbekistan. It is the administrative, economic, and cultural center of Andijan Region. Andijan is a district-level city with an area of . Andijan is the most ...

and

Fergana Region Fergana Region is one of the regions of Uzbekistan, located in the southern part of the Fergana Valley in the far east of the country. It borders the Namangan and Andijan Regions of Uzbekistan, as well as Kyrgyzstan (Batken and Osh Regions) and ...

s). Its total area is . The resident population of the region was 1,391,649 as of January 2021. The region has a sizeable Uzbek (28.0% in 2009) minority.

Geography

Most of the population lives in the flat northern part of the region, on the edge of the

Ferghana Valley The Fergana Valley (also commonly spelled the Ferghana Valley) in Central Asia crosses eastern Uzbekistan, southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Encompassing three former Soviet republics, the valley is ethnically diverse and relation ...

. The land gradually rises southward to the crest of the Alay Mountains, drops into the

Alay Valley The Alai Valley is a broad, dry valley running east–west across most of southern Osh Region of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Geography The valley spreads over a length of east–west. It has a width of in the west, in the central part, and i ...

and rises to the Trans-Alai Range which forms the border with Tajikistan. In the east, the land rises to the Ferghana Range, roughly parallel to the Naryn border. This area is drained by the Kara Darya which flows northwest to join the Naryn to form the

Syr Darya The Syr Darya ( ),; ; ; ; ; /. historically known as the Jaxartes ( , ), is a river in Central Asia. The name, which is Persian language, Persian, literally means ''Syr Sea'' or ''Syr River''. It originates in the Tian Shan, Tian Shan Mountain ...

in the Ferghana Valley. Highway M41 goes south over the mountains from Osh to the Tajik border. At Sary-Tash a branch goes east to the Chinese border crossing at Irkeshtam. The other main road goes west through the flat country to Batken Region.

Divisions

The Osh Region is divided administratively into seven districts:

Kara-Suu Kara-Suu () is a town in Osh Region, Kyrgyzstan, in the Fergana Valley. The town is 23 km northeast of Osh and is the capital of Kara-Suu District. Its population was 26,609 in 2021. It is a major industrial and trade center, on the border ...

, Nookat and Özgön are cities of district significance. There are no

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

s in the region.

Demographics

The resident population of Osh Region, according to the Population and Housing Census of 2009, was 1,104,248. Of these, 87,824 people live in urban areas, and 1,016,424 in rural ones. The official population estimate for the beginning of 2021 was 1,391,649.

Ethnic composition

The largest ethnic minority group in Osh Region is

Uzbeks The Uzbeks () are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, being among the largest Turkic ethnic groups in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakhs, Kazakh and Karakalpaks, Karakalpak ...

, forming 28% of the regional population (308,688 people) according to the 2009 census. In 2009, 40% of all Kyrgyzstan's Uzbeks lived in Osh Region. According to the 2009 Census, the ethnic composition of the Osh Region (resident population) was:

Enclaves and exclaves

Kyrgyzstan's only

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

within Uzbekistan is administratively part of Osh Region (Kara-Suu District). This is the tiny village of

Barak Barak ( or ; ; Tiberian Hebrew: '' Bārāq''; "lightning") was a ruler of Ancient Israel. As military commander in the biblical Book of Judges, Barak, with Deborah, from the Tribe of Ephraim, the prophet and fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israe ...

(population 627) in the

Fergana Fergana ( uz-Latn-Cyrl, Fargʻona, Фарғона, ), () or Ferghana, also Farghana is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 320 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km southwest of A ...

valley, located on the road from Osh (Kyrgyzstan) to Xoʻjaobod (Uzbekistan) about 4 km north-west from the Kyrgyz–Uzbek border in the direction of

.Map showing the location of the Kyrgyz exclave Barak
Retrieved on 2 May 2009.

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

*Laurence Mitchell, Kyrgyzstan, Bradt Travel Guides, 2008 {{Authority control Regions of Kyrgyzstan