Editing Amu Darya (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2021}}
[[File:BactriaMap.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Ancient [[Bactria]]]]
[[File:Homage being paid to Babur, in 910 AH1504 CE, by Bāqī Chaghānyānī near the river Oxus (Daryā Āmū).jpg|thumb|Bāqī Chaghānyānī pays homage to [[Babur]] beside the Amu Darya river, AD 1504]]

The ancient [[Greeks]] called the Amu Darya the ''Oxus''. In ancient times, the river was regarded as the boundary between [[Greater Iran]] and [[Turan|Ṫūrān]] ({{langx|fa|{{Nastaliq|تُوران}}}}).<ref name="Iranica" /> The river's drainage lies in the area between the former empires of [[Genghis Khan]] and [[Alexander the Great]], although they occurred at very different times. When the Mongols came to the area, they used the water of the Amu Darya to flood [[Konye-Urgench]].<ref name="Sykes">{{cite book|last=Sykes |first=Percy| author-link = Percy Sykes |title=A History of Persia|year=1921|publisher=Macmillan and Company|location=London|page=64|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/7307/view/1/64/}}</ref> One southern route of the [[Silk Road]] ran along part of the Amu Darya northwestward from [[Termez]] before going westwards to the [[Caspian Sea]].

According to the Quaternary International, it is possible that the Amu Darya's course across the [[Karakum Desert]] has gone through several major shifts in the past few thousand years.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Létolle|first1=René|last2=Micklin|first2=Philip|last3=Aladin|first3=Nikolay|last4=Plotnikov|first4=Igor|date=October 2007|title=Uzboy and the Aral regressions: A hydrological approach|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1040618207000791|journal=Quaternary International|language=en|volume=173-174|pages=125–136|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2007.03.003|bibcode=2007QuInt.173..125L}}</ref> Much of the time – most recently from the 13th century to the late 16th century – the Amu Darya emptied into both the Aral and the Caspian Seas, reaching the latter via a large [[distributary]] called the [[Uzboy River]]. The Uzboy splits off from the main channel just south of the river's delta. Sometimes the flow through the two branches was more or less equal, but often most of the Amu Darya's flow split to the west and flowed into the Caspian.

People began to settle along the lower Amu Darya and the Uzboy in the 5th century, establishing a thriving chain of agricultural lands, towns, and cities. In about AD 985, the massive [[Gurgānj Dam|Gurganj Dam]] at the bifurcation of the forks started to divert water to the Aral. [[Genghis Khan]]'s troops destroyed the dam in 1221, and the Amu Darya shifted to distributing its flow more or less equally between the main stem and the Uzboy.<ref name="Oxus">{{cite web |last=Volk |first=Sylvia |url=http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/OxusRiver.htm |title=The Course of the Oxus River |publisher=University of Calgary |date=2000-11-11 |access-date=2010-02-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091223173101/http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/OxusRiver.htm |archive-date=2009-12-23}}</ref> But in the 18th century, the river again turned north, flowing into the Aral Sea, a path it has taken since. Less and less water flowed down the Uzboy. When Russian explorer Bekovich-Cherkasski surveyed the region in 1720, the Amu Darya did not flow into the Caspian Sea anymore.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kozubov |first=Robert |url=http://www.turkmenistaninfo.ru/?page_id=6&type=article&elem_id=page_6/magazine_55/478&lang_id=en |title=Uzboy |work=Turkmenistan Analytic Magazine |date=November 2007 |access-date=2010-02-08}}</ref>

[[File:KarazinNN PereprTurkOtrARTM.jpg|thumb|Russian troops crossing Amu Darya, [[Wiktionary:circa|c]]. 1873]]
By the 1800s, the ethnographic makeup of the region was described by [[Peter Kropotkin]] as the communities of "the vassal Khanates of Maimene, Khulm, Kunduz, and even the Badakshan and Wahkran."<ref>{{cite web
 | title=The Coming War
 | author=Peter Kropotkin
 | year=1913
 | publisher=The Nineteenth Century: A monthly Review
 | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=139
 | access-date=2020-01-04
 | archive-date=2019-10-16
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016222939/http://www.revoltlib.com/%3Fid%3D139
 | url-status=dead
 }}</ref> An Englishman, [[William Moorcroft (explorer)|William Moorcroft]], visited the Oxus around 1824 during the [[Great Game]] period.<ref>Peter Hopkirk, ''The Great Game'', 1994, page 100</ref> Another Englishman, a naval officer called [[John Wood (explorer)|John Wood]], came with an expedition to find the source of the river in 1839. He found modern-day [[Lake Zorkul]], called it Lake Victoria, and proclaimed he had found the source.<ref>Keay, J. (1983) ''When Men and Mountains Meet'' {{ISBN|0-7126-0196-1}} Chapter 9</ref> Then, the French explorer and geographer Thibaut Viné collected a lot of information about this area during five expeditions between 1856 and 1862.

The question of finding a route between the Oxus valley and India has been of concern historically. A direct route crosses extremely high mountain passes in the [[Hindu Kush]] and isolated areas like [[Kafiristan]]. Some in Britain feared that the Empire of Russia, which at the time wielded great influence over the Oxus area, would overcome these obstacles and find a suitable route through which to invade [[British India]] – but this never came to pass.<ref>See for example ''Can Russia invade India?'' by Henry Bathurst Hanna, 1895, (Google eBook), or ''The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush'', Sir George Scott Robertson, Illustrated by Arthur David McCormick, Lawrence & Bullen, Limited, 1896, (Google eBook)</ref> The area was taken over by Russia during the [[Russian conquest of Turkestan]].

The [[Soviet Union]] became the ruling power in the early 1920s and expelled [[Mohammed Alim Khan]]. It later put down the [[Basmachi movement]] and killed [[Ibrahim Bek]]. A large refugee population of Central Asians, including Turkmen, Tajiks, and Uzbeks, fled to northern Afghanistan.<ref>Taliban and Talibanism in Historical Perspective, M Nazif Shahrani, chapter 4 of ''The Taliban And The Crisis of Afghanistan'', 2008 Harvard Univ Press, edited by Robert D Crews and Amin Tarzi</ref> In the 1960s and 1970s the Soviets started using the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya to irrigate extensive [[cotton]] fields in the Central Asian plain. Before this time, water from the rivers was already being used for agriculture, but not on this massive scale. The [[Qaraqum Canal]], Karshi Canal, and Bukhara Canal were among the largest of the irrigation diversions built. However, the [[Main Turkmen Canal]], which would have diverted water along the dry Uzboy River bed into central Turkmenistan, was never built. In the course of the [[Soviet–Afghan War]] in the 1970s, Soviet forces used the valley to invade Afghanistan through [[Termez]].<ref>Termez – See the [[Soviet–Afghan War]] article</ref> The Soviet Union fell in the 1990s and Central Asia split up into the many smaller countries that lie within or partially within the Amu Darya basin.<ref>{{cite web |last=Pavlovskaya |first=L. P. |url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/v9529e/v9529E04.htm |title=Fishery in the Lower Amu Darya Under the Impact of Irrigated Agriculture |publisher=Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan |work=Karakalpak Branch |access-date=2010-02-09}}</ref>

During the Soviet era, a resource-sharing system was instated in which [[Kyrgyzstan]] and [[Tajikistan]] shared water originating from the Amu and [[Syr Darya]]s with [[Kazakhstan]], [[Turkmenistan]], and [[Uzbekistan]] in summer. In return, [[Kyrgyzstan]] and [[Tajikistan]] received Kazakh, Turkmen, and Uzbek coal, gas, and electricity in winter. After the fall of the Soviet Union this system disintegrated and the Central Asian nations have failed to reinstate it. Inadequate infrastructure, poor water management, and outdated irrigation methods all exacerbate the issue.<ref>International Crisis Group. "[http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/central-asia/233-water-pressures-in-central-asia.pdf Water Pressures in Central Asia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160520103226/http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/central-asia/233-water-pressures-in-central-asia.pdf |date=2016-05-20 }}", [http://www.crisisgroup.org CrisisGroup.org]. 11 September 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.</ref>

===Siberian Tiger Introduction Project===
{{main|Siberian Tiger Introduction Project}}
The [[Caspian tiger]] used to occur along the river's banks.<ref name="HeptnerSludskiy1972">{{Cite book |last1=Heptner |first1=V. G. |last2=Sludskii |first2=A. A. |orig-year=1972 |year=1992 |title=Mlekopitajuščie Sovetskogo Soiuza. Moskva: Vysšaia Škola |trans-title=Mammals of the Soviet Union, Volume II, Part 2 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution and the National Science Foundation |location=Washington DC |url=https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov221992gept#page/82/mode/2up |pages=83–202 |isbn=90-04-08876-8}}</ref> After its extirpation, the Darya's delta was suggested as a potential site for the introduction of its closest surviving relative, the [[Siberian tiger]]. A feasibility study was initiated to investigate if the area is suitable and if such an initiative would receive support from relevant decision makers. A viable tiger population of about 100 animals would require at least {{convert|5000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} of large tracts of contiguous habitat with rich prey populations. Such habitat is not available at this stage and cannot be provided in the short term. The proposed region is therefore unsuitable for the reintroduction, at least at this stage.<ref name="Jungius09">Jungius, H., Chikin, Y., Tsaruk, O., Pereladova, O. (2009). [http://www.wwf.ru/data/asia/tiger/tiger_pre-feasibility_study.pdf ''Pre-Feasibility Study on the Possible Restoration of the Caspian Tiger in the Amu Darya Delta''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022065143/http://www.wwf.ru/data/asia/tiger/tiger_pre-feasibility_study.pdf |date=2016-10-22 }}. WWF Russia</ref>

===Resource extraction===
Since March 2022, the building of the 285&nbsp;km [[Qosh Tepa Canal]] has been underway in northern [[Afghanistan]] to divert water from the Amu Darya.<ref name="Eurasianet">{{cite web |title=Uzbekistan pursues dialogue with Afghanistan on fraught canal project |url=https://eurasianet.org/uzbekistan-pursues-dialogue-with-afghanistan-on-fraught-canal-project |publisher=Eurasianet |access-date=26 March 2023 |date=24 March 2023}}</ref> [[Uzbekistan]] has expressed concern that the canal will have an adverse effect on its agriculture.<ref name="Kun">{{cite web |last1=Safarov |first1=Ilyos |title="Толибон"ни Ўзбекистон учун фожиали канални қуришдан тўхтатиб бўладими? — экспертлар билан суҳбат |url=https://kun.uz/news/2023/02/10/tolibonni-ozbekiston-uchun-fojiali-kanalni-qurishdan-toxtatib-boladimi-ekspertlar-bilan-suhbat |publisher=Kun |access-date=26 March 2023 |language=Uzbek |date=10 February 2023}}</ref> The canal is also expected to make the [[Aral Sea]] disaster worse, and in 2023 Uzbek officials held talks on the canal with the Taliban.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Duffy |first1=Seamus |title=What Afghanistan's Qosh Tepa Canal Means for Central Asia |url=https://thediplomat.com/2023/04/what-afghanistans-qosh-tepa-canal-means-for-central-asia/ |website=The Diplomat |access-date=18 May 2023 |date=19 April 2023}}</ref> The Taliban has made the canal a priority, with images supplied by [[Planet Labs]] demonstrate that from April 2022 to February 2023, more than 100&nbsp;km of canal was excavated.<ref name="Economist"/> According to the Taliban, the initiative is expected to convert 550,000 hectares of desert into farmland.<ref name="Economist">{{cite web |title=The Taliban are digging an enormous canal |url=https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/02/16/the-taliban-are-digging-an-enormous-canal |publisher=The Economist |access-date=26 March 2023 |date=16 February 2023}}</ref>

In January 2023, the [[Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company]] (aka CAPEIC) signed a $720 million four-year investment deal with the [[Taliban]] government of [[Afghanistan]] for extraction on its side of the Amu Darya basin. The deal will see a 15% royalty given to the Afghan government over the course of its 25-year term.<ref name="chwe">{{cite news |last1=Hoyt |first1=Conrad |title=Chinese company signs oil extraction deal with Taliban |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/chinese-company-signs-oil-extraction-deal-with-taliban |publisher=Washington Examiner |date=6 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="toi">{{cite news |title=Times of India |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/chinese-firm-signs-deal-with-taliban-to-produce-oil-in-afghanistan/articleshow/96791253.cms |agency=Bloomberg |publisher=Bennett, Coleman & Co |date=6 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="otvml">{{cite news |title=Afghanistan's Taliban administration signs oil production deal with China |url=https://www.offshore-technology.com/news/afghanistans-oil-deal-china/ |agency=Offshore Technology |publisher=Verdict Media Limited |date=6 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="voaag">{{cite news |last1=Gul |first1=Ayaz |title=Taliban Seal Afghan Oil Deal With China |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-seal-afghan-oil-deal-with-china/6905840.html |publisher=Voice of America |date=5 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="cnndm">{{cite news |last1=Madhok |first1=Diksha |last2=Popalzai |first2=Ehsan |last3=Popalzai |first3=Masoud |title=A Chinese company has signed an oil extraction deal with Afghanistan's Taliban |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/business/china-company-taliban-oil-deal-hnk-intl/index.html |agency=Warner Bros. Discovery |publisher=Cable News Network |date=6 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="rmyy">{{cite news |last1=Yawar |first1=Mohammad Yunus |title=Afghanistan's Taliban administration in oil extraction deal with Chinese company |url=https://www.reuters.com/business/afghanistans-taliban-administration-oil-extraction-deal-with-chinese-company-2023-01-05/ |publisher=Reuters |date=5 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="ajmn">{{cite news |title=Afghanistan signs oil extraction deal with Chinese company |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/6/afghanistan-signs-oil-extraction-deal-with-chinese-company |publisher=Al Jazeera Media Network |date=6 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="bbcph">{{cite news |last1=Hoskins |first1=Peter |title=Taliban and China firm agree Afghanistan oil extraction deal |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64183083 |publisher=BBC |date=6 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="ssf">{{cite news |language=fr |last1=SEIBT |first1=Sébastian |title=Pourquoi la Chine se laisse tenter par le pétrole des Taliban |url=https://www.france24.com/fr/éco-tech/20230110-pourquoi-la-chine-se-laisse-tenter-par-le-pétrole-des-taliban |publisher=France24 |date=10 January 2023}}</ref> The Chinese see this basin as the third-largest potential gas field in the world.<ref name=ssf/>