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
Independence Day (Tajikistan) second session of the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik SSR adopted the Declaration "On the Sovereignty of the Tajik SSR." But this sovereignty was declared while the Soviet Union still existed. Despite this, the Declaration was the first document to on the path to the real independence of Tajikistan. It declared that "the Tajik SSR in the territory independently solve all political, economic, social and cultural issues, in addition to the issues that Tajikistan voluntarily transfers the competence of the USSR". According to the former Minister of Justice of the Republic of Tajikistan H. Hamidov, "Declaration was the first document