Tag: Soviet Union

FY 1998 Assistance to the NIS Request: $15,400,000 (Tajikistan Request to USAID)

TAJIKISTAN

FY 1998 Assistance to the NIS Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15,400,000

Introduction

Tajikistan is the poorest of the five Central Asian Republics and the only one of the five in which underlying ethnic, regional, economic and ideological strains have led to open warfare and major population displacements. A cease-fire has continued to be in partial effect since late 1993, while UN-moderated peace talks appear to be making incremental progress in establishing a political consensus. The UN Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) monitors the cease-fire agreement, while Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Russian-led troops, at the request of the local government, guard the southern Tajikistan boundary and monitor the ceasefire. Donor efforts are making a difference in Tajikistan’s situation. For example, the economy, in free fall since independence, achieved a measure of economic stability last year. U.S. interests are based on providing humanitarian aid, helping to establish a framework for sustainable economic growth, promoting regional stability in Central Asia and promoting an independent, democratic and market-oriented Tajikistan that is friendly to the U.S. and constructively engaged in international political and economic relationships.

 

Continue reading FY 1998 Assistance to the NIS Request: $15,400,000 (Tajikistan Request to USAID)

The History of a National Catastrophe by Rahim Masov

Editor’s Note, Preface, Tajiks Within the ASSRT, The Condition of the Tajiks in the PSRB, National-Administrative Divisions, Infringement Upon the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights of the ASSRT.

Summary

Appendix

Preface

A number of issues in the history of Tajikistan demand careful scrutiny. The most compelling of these issues, however, belong to the early phases of Soviet rule in Central Asia. One such issue is the outcome of the national-administrative divisions of Central Asia, especially the treatment that the Tajiks received at the hand of their Soviet compatriots. Admittedly, this is a somewhat obscure issue, but one that merits attention-one that illustrates a disturbing aspect of Soviet history.

An involved issue, an understanding of the national-administrative divisions requires an intimate knowledge of the 1917 Revolution, the establishment of Soviet rule in Central Asia, and the extent of the authority of the Soviets and the Communist Party during the life time of V. I. Lenin and thereafter. It also requires documentation of glaring “mistakes” that, in the long run, complicated the Tajiks’ achievement of a national government at that time. Our understanding of this latter issue is contingent upon other factors like an understanding of Pan-Turkism, the retrogressive and anti-nationalistic movement that incurred great losses on the Tajiks and, of course, the availability of documents that prove the point. The fact that this movement continues to frustrate the Tajiks’ aspiration for self-government-it is an issue at the present-makes the need for dealing with it more imperative.

Continue reading The History of a National Catastrophe by Rahim Masov

Human Rights Watch Report on Tajikistan

Tajikistan shares a 1,200 kilometer border with Afghanistan and is one of the countries identified by military planners as a possible base of U.S. military and humanitarian operations in the region. Tajikistan has been a low priority for U.S. foreign policy makers since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Suddenly, it has become a strategic partner in the U.S. government‘s counter-terrorism campaign following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.. It is also a potential haven for tens of thousands of displaced people seeking to flee Afghanistan.

Read the report

Tajiks to Strengthen Border With Afghanistan

As the international troop withdrawal from Afghanistan draws closer, Tajikistan is trying to strengthen its long frontier with that country as a safeguard against attempts to export instability.

Since Tajikistan took over border protection from Russia, whose troops performed the role until 2005, it has sought donor funding to modernise and consolidate its defences.

New border posts have been built or are planned, but existing ones are in need of refurbishment. And the Tajik frontier force is still using obsolete arms, equipment and radios from the Soviet era. Its vehicles date mostly from the early 1980s.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Islam Reborn – Tajikstan Documentary Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fzoFekT490

June 1996

Islam Reborn follows the return of Islamic refugees from Afghanistan to Tajikistan who were pushed out during the civil war.

The ruling Kulabis are reliant on Russian funding, and the resurrection of an Islamic mosque suggests the Islamists are yet again establishing a strong hold.

A report on the defeat and recovery of Islam in Tajikistan. A bus rumbles through the shimmering heat to a Russian check point. Behind it, 1300 miles of barbed wire mark Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan. The bus contains anxious Garmis returning home from Afghan refugee camps. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, they were driven out by a vicious civil war between their own Islamic forces and the Soviet backed Kulabis. They now return, fearing reprisals from a new Kulabi government, but hoping after 4 years to resume normal life. In the south where the worst fighting took Place, villages are full of bombed out buildings and weary widows crouching in the dust. Starving hungry, they wait patiently for flour from the World Food Programme to be weighed out on antique scales and distributed. In the capital, Dushanbe, the Prime Minister claims stiffly that the economy is not collapsing and that “in the very near future we will be able to pay salaries”. With Russia‘s financial support, Kulabis cling onto power, stationing their khaki tanks on every tree lined avenue. But the careful restoration of an blue mosaic mosque represents an Islamic renaissance. If Russia pulls out, Garmis in exile may storm the capital and transform Tajikistan into an Islamic state. Report on the aftermath of civil war and the suppression of ethnic/political differences. Includes archive footage of the civil war.

Produced by ABC Australia
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Tajikistan in the context of Central Asia

Central Asia is known by many names, including Eurasia, Middle Asia, and Inner Asia. At its core, the region is composed of five states that became independent nations following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Scholars sometimes include Afghanistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang province of China within the label Central Asia. For this project, Central Asia is restricted to the five former Soviet countries, while Afghanistan is classified in Southwest Asia, and Mongolia and Xinjiang as part of East Asia. These states have a shared landmass of 1.5 million square miles, about one-half the size of the United States.

The region’s unity comes from a shared history and religion. Central Asia saw two cultural and economic traditions blossom and intermix along the famed Silk Road: nomadic and sedentary. Nomadic herdsmen, organized into kinship groupings of clans, lived beside sedentary farmers and oasis city dwellers. Four of the countries share Turkic roots, while the Tajiks are of Indo-European descent, linguistically re- lated to the Iranians. While still recognizable today, this shared heritage has devel- oped into distinct ethnic communities. Continue reading Tajikistan in the context of Central Asia

GAFUROV, BOBOJAN GAFUROVICH

GAFUROV, BOBOJAN GAFUROVICH

(1908–1977), Tajik politician and scholar. Bobojan Ga- furovich Gafurov led the Tajikistan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1946 until 1956 as the first secretary of the Communist Party. Born in Ispisar (a remote northern province of the republic) in 1908, he began his career as a journalist and lecturer before joining the Communist Party apparatus and climbing up to the highest political post in the republic under Josef Stalin (1879–1953), then Soviet leader. In 1956 he left the republic to become the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Science in Moscow. Continue reading GAFUROV, BOBOJAN GAFUROVICH

HORSE, KARABAIR

HORSE, KARABAIR

Also known as Karabair- skaya (Russian), the Karabair is one of the most ancient horse breeds of Central Asia. In appearance the Karabair resembles the Arabian, Persian, and Turk-menian as well as the steppe horse breeds. The breed is improved through pure breeding. Karabair horses show good endurance and versatile working qualities. This breed was developed in Uzbekistan and north- ern Tajikistan (former Soviet republics of Central Asia) under the influence of southern and steppe breeds. It is well adapted to both saddle and harness, and has the typical build of a saddle and harness horse. Continue reading HORSE, KARABAIR

Tajikistan in Focus

Hello, this is a blog that will try to bring some of the history and also current events in Tajikistan into focus.  I will try to use both scholarly sources, and also popular media sources.  I am not above referring to Wikipedia.

Tajikistan
Politics
History
Geography
Economy

 

Society
Culture · Demographics · People · Ethnic groups · Language · Education · Health · Media · Music · Literature · Sports · Cuisine · Cinema · Religion · Symbols · Flag · Anthem · Public holidays

 

Turkestan ASSR — Formed on 30th of April 1918, on the territory of the former Turkestan General-Governorate. As part of the delimitation programme of Soviet Central Asia, the Turkestan ASSR along with the Khorezm SSR and the Bukharan PSRwere disbanded on 27th of October 1924, and in their place came the Union republics of Turkmen SSR and Uzbek SSR. The latter contained the Tajik ASSR until December 1929 when it too became a full Union republic, the Tajik SSR. The RSFSR retained the newly formed Kara-Kirghiz and the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Oblasts. The latter was part of the Kirgiz, then the Kazak ASSR until 1930, when it was directly subordinated to Moscow.

 A mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People’s Republic of China to the east. Tajikistan also lies adjacent to Pakistan‘s Chitral and the Gilgit-Baltistan region, separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor, which is claimed by both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

-Wikipedia