Sulukta

History

Sulukta is one of Central Asia's oldest coal extraction sites. The first industrial coal mine of Sulukta was opened in 1868. Sulukta was made into a town in 1940. Sulukta is the first town in Kyrgyzstan where Soviet rule was established.

Sulukta was an important industrial town in the Soviet Union. The town had several large coal mines. In addition to coal, deposits of gypsum, quartz sand, and limestone were also extracted. Sulukta was also home to a meat processing and packaging factory, a creamery, a brick factory, and several clothing factories. After the dissolution of the USSR, the majority of ethnic Russians and Tatars living in Sulukta left the town. There were many experienced workers among those who left. In the 1990s, almost all of the factories in Sulukta were closed down as a result of a lack professionals, disruption of Soviet trade routes, ageing machinery, and mismanagement.

Geography

Sulukta is located in the western part of Batken Oblast at an altitude of 1,380 meters above sea level. The town lies to the north of the mountains of the Turkestan Range. The landscape of Sulukta consists of hills and low mountains.

Climate

The climate of Sulukta is sharply continental with cold winters and hot summers. The winter period is not long. The spring and fall see some rainfall, while the summers are hot and dry. The climate of Sulukta is similar to the climate of Isfana. However, Sulukta gets less precipitation than Isfana.

Demographics

According to the 2009 Population and Housing Census of Kyrgyzstan, in 2009 the population of Sulukta itself was 13,378 and the population of Sulukta and the subordinated villages was 20,725. The 1999 census had put the overall population of Sulukta at 21,219.

A large number of the residents of Sulukta are migrant workers in Russia. There are no official data on the number of Suluktans who work abroad.

Representatives of many ethnic groups can be found in the town. According to official data, the Kyrgyz are the largest ethnic group. According to the 2009 Census, the ethnic make-up of Sulukta and the subordinated villages is as follows: 73.2 percent are Kyrgyz, 19.5 percent are Uzbek, 3.6 percent are Tatar, 2.6 percent are Russian, 0.7 percent are Tajik, and the rest 0.4 percent are representatives of various other ethnic groups.

Sulukta has traditionally been Muslim. The residents of the town are Sunni Muslims. There are 15 mosques and one Orthodox church in Sulukta.

According to the 2009 Census, the populations of Sulukta and the subordinated villages are as follows:

Economy

A large number of the residents of Sulukta are migrant workers in Russia. Suluktans also go to the neighboring countries of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan to make a living. There are no reliable data on the number of labor migrants from Sulukta.

Those who stay in the town engage mostly in trade. Sulukta does not have a large bazaar. However, there are several small markets. The town's sellers bring their goods from markets in Osh, Kara-Suu, and Khujand.

The economy of Sulukta, like the economy of many Kyrgyzstani towns, is primarily kiosk in nature. A large amount of local commerce occurs at the bazaars and small kiosks located all over the town. A significant amount of trade is unregulated.

Coal mining

Sulukta is one of the oldest centers of coal mining in Central Asia. Coal has been extracted in these areas since the 10th or 11th century. Geological investigations into the coal deposits of Sulukta were conducted for the first time in 1903. According to Soviet geologists, the deposits of coal in Sulukta date back to the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras.

The overall thickness of the coal beds in Sulukta ranges from 35 to 120 meters. In some places, there are coal beds of commercial value 600–750 meters below ground level. The thickness of the main coal seam is 0,1–18 meters and it stretches for about 22 kilometers.

The deposits of coal in Sulukta mainly consist of lignite or brown coal. From a petrogprahic point of view, the coal of Sulukta contains fusain and clarain. Historically, Sulukta's coal was extracted using both surface and underground mining methods. Currently, it is extracted using only the underground mining method, as there is no longer any surface mining equipment in the town. Private mines have replaced almost all of the large-scale, state-owned mines of the Soviet period.

Government

Sulukta has a mayor–council form of government. The mayor is elected at large in general elections. The Town Kenesh (Council) has 19 members. The urban-type settlement of Koshbulak (formerly called Vostochnyi) and the Village of Koltso are also governed by the Sulukta Town Council. The current mayor of Sulukta is Abduzakir Ibragimov.

Sulukta is directly subordinated to Batken Oblast. In other words, it is not part of any district. Like in other Kyrgyzstani settlements where there are large groups of ethnic minorities, virtually all administrative positions in Sulukta are held by ethnic Kyrgyz. There are very few representatives of other ethnicities among town officials.

Schools

Sulukta has many educational institutions. There are nine secondary schools in the town. One of them is a lyceum and another is a gymnasium school. In Sulukta's schools students are taught in Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Russian. The students must learn Kyrgyz and Russian, the two official languages of Kyrgyzstan. English is taught as a foreign language at all of the schools in Sulukta, but the quality of English teaching tends to be poor. Thus, in Sulukta Uzbek schoolchildren learn four languages and Kyrgyz schoolchildren learn three languages.

Colleges and universities

Sulukta is home to three institutes of higher education. The largest of these is the Sulukta Institute of Humanities and Economics, SIHE (Russian: Сулюктинский гуманитарно-экономический институт, СГЭИ). This institute is a branch of the Batken State University, BSU (Russian: Баткенский Государственный Университет, БатГУ). In addition, Sulukta is home to the Sulukta Engineering and Economics School (Russian: Сулюктинский инженерно-экономический центр Баткенского Государственного Университета) and Sulukta Pedagogical College (Russian: Сулюктинское педагогическое училище Баткенского Государственного Университета), both of which are branches of the BSU.

Sulukta is also home to Vocational School No. 73 which trains seamstresses, carpenters, electricians, and drivers.

Culture

There are two libraries in Sulukta, a general library and a children's library. Both of these libraries are public libraries. The children's library has two buildings, one in the town itself and another in the urban-type settlement of Koshbulak. While the general library has 55,138 items, the children's library has 88,016 items.

The town has a children's music school which was opened in 1936. At the music school, children can learn to sing, dance, and play various musical instruments. There is a branch of the music school in Koshbulak.

Sulukta has only one park. Near the park is a soccer stadium which can hold up to 5,000 people. Sulukta also has a town recreation center. The current building of the center was built in 1932.

There is a summer camp called "The Mountain Eagle" 35 kilometers from Sulukta in the gorge of the Beles mountain massif. The camp was opened in 1965. It was rehabilitated in 2004. The camp can serve up to 500 children in one cohort.

Transportation

There was a narrow gauge railway connection between Sulukta and the Tajikistani city of Khojand (formerly called Leninobod) in Soviet times. After Kyrgyzstan became independent, the line was closed. Sulukta has no airport. The nearest airport is in the nearby town of Isfana, which is 16 kilometers from Sulukta. Automobile roads connect Sulukta with other populated places in Leilek District. The distance between Sulukta and the capital Bishkek is 950 km.