Geography of Tajikistan has headwaters in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The other neighbors are the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan (to the west and the north) and Kyrgyzstan (to the north). The lower elevations of Tajikistan are divided into northern and southern regions by a complex of three mountain chains that constitute the westernmost extension of the massive Tian Shan system. Running essentially parallel from east to west, the chains are the Turkestan, Zeravshan (Zarafshan), and Hisor (Gissar) mountains. The last of these lies just north of the capital, Dushanbe, which is situated in west-central Tajikistan. More than half of Tajikistan lies above an
Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic 1988, the Estonian SSR became the first republic within the Soviet sphere of influence to declare state sovereignty from Moscow. On 30 March 1990, the Estonian SSR declared that Estonia had been occupied since 1940 and declared a transitional period for the country's full independence. The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed as the Republic of Estonia on May 8, 1990. The independence of the Republic of Estonia was re-established on August 20 during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt the following year and the Soviet Union itself recognized the independence of Estonia on September 6, 1991. As part of