Yaghnobis

[3] The Yaghnobi Tajiks are considered to be descendants of the Sogdian-speaking peoples[4] who once inhabited most of Central Asia beyond the Amu Darya River in what was ancient Sogdia.

[1] Their traditional occupations were in agriculture, growing produce such as barley, wheat, and legumes as well as breeding cattle, oxen and asses.

The ancient Sogdians fled to the Yaghnob Valley to escape the medieval Arab Caliphate.

The first contact with Soviet Union in the 1930s during the Great Purge led to many Yaghnobis being exiled, but perhaps the most traumatic events were the forced resettlement in 1957 and 1970, from the Yaghnob mountains to the semi-desert lowlands of Tajikistan.

[8][9] In the 1970s, Red Army helicopters were sent to valleys to evacuate the population, ostensibly because Yaghnobi kishlaks (villages) were considered at risk from avalanches.

[10][11] As a result of overwork and the change in environment and lifestyle, several hundred Yaghnobis died of disease.

[19] Yaghnobi Tajiks are genetically more similar to "present-day western Eurasian populations and Iranians".

Genetic data further indicates that Yaghnobis "have been isolated for a long time with no evidence of recent admixture".

[20] The Yaghnobi Tajiks may be used as proxy for historical Central Asian Steppe ancestry associated with the initial spread of Iranian languages.