Tajikistan

I

INTRODUCTION

Tajikistan, landlocked republic in southeastern Central Asia, bordered on the north by Kyrgyzstan, on the north and west by Uzbekistan, on the east by China, and on the south by Afghanistan. Dushanbe is the country’s capital and largest city. Tajikistan contains the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (Badakhshoni Kuhi), an ethnically based political subunit that occupies about 45 percent of the country’s territory.

In Tajik, the official state language, the country is called Jumhurii Tojikiston (Republic of Tajikistan). Tajiks, who speak a form of Persian, constitute a majority of the country’s population. In 1929 Tajikistan became the Tajik (or Tadzhik) Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Tajikistan became independent in 1991. Shortly after independence, a civil war broke out between the Communist-dominated government and opposition groups. The two sides formally signed a peace accord in June 1997.

II

THE PEOPLE OF TAJIKISTAN

The population of Tajikistan (2008 estimate) is 7,211,884, giving the republic an average population density of 51 persons per sq km (131 per sq mi). The lowlands of northern and western Tajikistan are the most densely populated areas. Large cities include Dushanbe, the capital, a modern city located in the Hisor Valley of western Tajikistan; and Khujand, an important cotton-processing center located in northern Tajikistan’s Fergana Valley.

Tajikistan was the least urbanized republic of the former USSR. In 2003 only 24 percent of the population lived in urban areas. From the late 1950s strong urban growth, fed by immigrants from other republics, was matched by rapid growth in the rural population. Between 1959 and 1989, the population of the republic increased by more than 100 percent due to a high birth rate and improvements in medical care. During the early 1990s, however, the growth rate began to decline due to civil war and emigration.

A

Ethnic Groups and Languages

Tajiks constitute the largest ethnic group in Tajikistan, making up about 65 percent of the population. The peoples who live in Gorno-Badakhshan, located in the Pamirs, are classified as Tajiks, although their languages and customs are distinct. The largest minority group in the country is the Uzbeks, who constitute nearly 25 percent of the population. Uzbeks live primarily in the Fergana Valley and in the vicinities of Kŭlob in south central Tajikistan and Tursunzoda in western Tajikistan. The next largest minority group is Russians, although they began leaving the country in large numbers in 1989. By the mid-1990s Russians represented only 3 percent of the population, as at least half of the Russian population had emigrated to Russia. Other ethnic groups include Tatars, Kyrgyz, Ukrainians, Turkmens (or Turkomans), and Koreans.

Tajiks descend from the Aryans, an ancient people who spoke Indo-European languages. This differentiates them from the other Central Asian peoples, who are of Turkic descent. The official state language is Tajik (or Tojiki), an Indo-Iranian language that is another form of modern Persian. The Tajik language originally developed in a modified Arabic script. However, the Soviet government forced the Tajiks to adopt a modified Latin (Roman) alphabet in the 1930s, and then a modified Cyrillic script (the script of the Russian language) in 1940. These changes were part of a program to increase literacy and to foster loyalty to the Soviet regime by isolating the Tajiks from the written works of their own heritage and kindred peoples outside the USSR. In a move toward greater sovereignty under the Soviet system, the government of Tajikistan declared Tajik to be the official state language in 1989. The 1994 constitution recognizes Tajik as the official state language and Russian as the language of interethnic communication. The country’s language law calls for the gradual return to a modified Arabic alphabet, but the change has not been systematically implemented.

The peoples of Gorno-Badakhshan speak several Iranian languages of a group called Pamiri, which is quite distinct from Tajik. Small communities of Yaghnobs, who are also classified as Tajik, speak Yaghnobi, another Iranian language. Tajikistan’s minority groups tend to speak their own native languages. Uzbeks speak a Turkic language, as do other indigenous Central Asian peoples.

B

Religion

The predominant religion in Tajikistan is Islam. Most Tajiks and Uzbeks, amounting to about 80 percent of the population, are Sunni Muslims. About 5 percent of the populations are Shia Muslims. Most of the country’s Shias, notably the peoples of the Pamirs in the Gorno-Badakhshan region, are Ismailis.

Arab conquerors introduced Islam to the region of present-day Tajikistan, along with other parts of southern Central Asia, in the 8th century ad. The peoples of the Pamirs were introduced to the Ismaili religion, a Shia Muslim sect, in the 11th century. During the Soviet period, the officially atheistic Communist regime severely restricted religious practice. Then in the mid-1980s when the Soviet government eased many of its restrictions on religion, a resurgence in Islam began in Tajikistan. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 allowed even more religious freedom, and more Tajiks turned to their Islamic heritage. However, the government of Tajikistan has attempted to suppress Islamic groups, which it perceives as a threat to its hold on power.

C

Education

Most people age 15 and older in Tajikistan can read and write, a result of the Soviet system of free and universal education. Until the 1920s, when the Soviet authorities introduced secular (nonreligious) education, the main education centers were Muslim madrasas (religious schools). In principle, a general education involving the completion of seven grades is compulsory for all children. However, the government has not maintained adequate state funding for schools due to the country’s economic and political instability. Institutions of higher education in Tajikistan include the Tajik State University, the Tajik Agricultural University, and the Tajik Technical University, all located in Dushanbe. The Tajik Academy of Sciences, also located in Dushanbe, is an important research institute.

D

Literature

Tajiks share a literary heritage with other Persian-speaking peoples. Many important contributions to Persian literature emerged from Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan) during the 9th and 10th centuries, when the city was an Islamic center of learning under a Persian dynasty, the Samanids. Several prominent cultural figures lived in Bukhara during the 10th century, including Rudaki, who is venerated as the father of Persian poetry, and the Persian philosopher-scientist Avicenna.

A modern body of literature emerged from Bukhara in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most notably with the works of Abdurauf Fitrat. A dramatist and teacher who also became active in nationalist politics, Fitrat wrote poems, tracts, dramas, and scholarly books in both the Tajik and Uzbek languages. His early work, including Munozira (Dispute, 1909) and Bayonoti sayyohi hindi (Statements of an Indian Traveler, 1911-1912), was concerned with Islam in the modern world and social and political reforms. During the Soviet period, Tajik novelist Sadriddin Ayni and poet Mirzo Tursunzoda gained widespread recognition. Tursunzoda won the Lenin Prize in 1960 for his poem Sadoi Osiyo (The Voice of Asia; 1956).

In a tradition that is common throughout Central Asia, the epos (a partly historical and partly legendary poem) is performed to a melody by a minstrel. This tradition, which dates from prehistoric times, has preserved an ancient oral literature. Because the poems and stories are delivered orally rather than in written form, they were accessible to what used to be a largely illiterate population.

III		ECONOMY

           

Tajikistan was the poorest of the former Soviet republics. Civil war wracked Tajikistan’s economy from the time of independence until a peace accord was signed in 1997. Turmoil in the south destroyed much of the region’s infrastructure, created thousands of refugees, and sorely disrupted agricultural production. A large number of Russian-speaking people, many of them technically skilled workers or professionals, fled the country to seek safety and more favorable economic conditions. The combination of these factors caused the gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of goods and services produced, to drop an average of 16 percent a year between 1990 and 1996. However, in 1997 the GDP began to rebound. GDP was $2.81 billion in 2006.Economic reforms planned at the time of independence were mostly suspended because of the war. After the war, the government was able to focus on the difficult process of transforming the centrally planned economy of the Soviet period into one based on free-market principles. The government turned to mass privatization—the selling of state assets to the private sector—as a way to generate revenue, promote foreign investment, and gain support from international financial institutions such as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). Although the reform process proceeded rapidly beginning in 1997, Tajikistan continued to face many serious economic problems, both as a legacy of Soviet central planning and civil war and as a consequence of economic transition.

A

Agriculture

Agriculture forms the foundation of Tajikistan’s economy. The sector employed 67 percent of the workforce in 2000. The principal crop is cotton, which is grown on irrigated lands along the tributaries of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. The cultivation of cotton is a legacy of the Soviet period, when government planners mandated that cotton be grown as an export crop. Cotton continues to be an important source of revenue. Other major crops include grain, primarily wheat; vegetables, particularly potatoes, onions, and tomatoes; and fruit, such as grapes and apples. Silkworms, who feed on the leaves of mulberry trees, are also cultivated for the production of raw silk. Raising cattle and sheep is also important. Much of the best farmland is held by collective farms, which lease agricultural plots to private farmers.

B

Mining and Manufacturing

Mineral resources in the republic are extensive. Tajikistan has metals such as gold, silver, iron, lead, and tin; mineral fuels, mainly coal; and industrial materials such as phosphates and semiprecious stones. Much of the country’s mineral resources have yet to be developed. Many are in remote mountainous areas where the lack of transportation and severe weather make mining difficult. Several foreign companies have entered into joint ventures with the government of Tajikistan to mine gold, silver, and coal.

Some industrialization has taken place since the 1930s, but manufacturing still accounts for a relatively small part of Tajikistan’s economy. While Tajikistan produces substantial amounts of cotton, only about one-tenth of it is processed into textiles inside the country. Heavy manufacturing is limited to a few concerns, principally a massive aluminum plant located in Tursunzade, west of Dushanbe. However, the country has no deposits of aluminum ore and must import the raw material from other countries, mainly Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

C

Energy

Mountain Rivers provide ample sources of hydroelectric power in Tajikistan, and an extensive hydroelectric power system was built during the Soviet period. Massive dams produced 98 percent of the country’s electricity in 2003, with the rest coming from thermal plants fueled by natural gas. Large quantities of electricity are needed to refine aluminum; the abundant supply of electricity in Tajikistan is why Soviet planners built the massive aluminum smelter in Tursunzade. New power stations are being built in Tajikistan with international assistance, positioning the country to become a major exporter of electricity in the region. Tajikistan is dependent on imports for other energy sources, including gas and oil.

IV				HISTORY
A			Russian Conquest and Soviet Rule

The rule of the Manghits had become fractured by the time Russia invaded Central Asia in the latter half of the 19th century. Russian forces took Khujand and Bukhara in 1866. Bukhara was forced to become a vassal state in 1868, and the khanate of Khiva fell in 1873. Qŭqon was formally annexed in 1876. In 1916 many Tajiks and other Central Asian peoples rebelled against the Russian government when it attempted to conscript them into the Russian Imperial Army.

The Russian Empire collapsed during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Bolsheviks (Communists) seized control of the Russian government. With the Russian government in upheaval, the Central Asians grabbed the opportunity to rebel against Russian rule, establishing armed rebel groups that came to be known by the Russians as basmachis. Despite fierce resistance, the Bolsheviks proceeded to bring Central Asia under their domination. In 1921 the northern part of present-day Tajikistan became part of the Bolshevik-designated Turkistan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). The Turkistan ASSR also included present-day Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, a small portion of northern Turkmenistan, and southern Kazakhstan.

After the Bolsheviks emerged victorious against their enemies in the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), they established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922. By the mid-1920s the basmachi rebellion was mostly subdued. In 1924 the Bolsheviks decided to delineate new borders in Central Asia, carving up the region among its majority ethnic groups. That year the Soviet authorities created the Tajik (or Tadzhik) ASSR, making it part of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). Then in 1929 the Tajik ASSR was upgraded to the status of an SSR, which made it a separate political entity from the Uzbek SSR. At this time the Soviet authorities transferred the territory of Khujand, located in the Fergana Valley, from the Uzbek SSR to the Tajik SSR.

The national delimitation policy of the Soviet authorities aimed to assign ethnic groups to particular homelands. However, the desire to break up older regional entities to which inhabitants might maintain allegiance also played a part in the process. Furthermore, centuries of interethnic cohabitation in Central Asia rendered clear-cut divisions impossible. A large proportion of Tajiks continued to reside outside the borders of the Tajik SSR (mostly in the cities of Bukhara, Samarqand, and Toshkent in the Uzbek SSR), while many Uzbeks and other groups resided in the Tajik republic.

Isolated on the far southeastern fringe of the Soviet Union, the Tajik SSR was at first only nominally important in the new Soviet state. In the 1920s the Soviet authorities encouraged local peoples to become active in the Communist Party of Tajikistan, which was the only legal political party. However, during the purges of the 1930s, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin expelled many Tajiks from the local Communist Party apparatus in an attempt to eliminate any opposition to his rule.

The collectivization of agriculture, in which all farmland was placed under state ownership, was completed in the Tajik republic in the 1930s, although the policy met widespread resistance. In the 1960s the Soviet authorities instituted a policy to increase cotton production in Central Asia, and the Tajik republic eventually became the third largest cotton-producing republic in the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, heavy industries were introduced in the Tajik SSR, such as the aluminum plant at Tursunzade near the border with the Uzbek republic. When Dushanbe was designated the capital of the Tajik republic in 1924, it was no more than a village, but it developed rapidly into a modern city.

B

Reforms and Repression

An opportunity for greater local autonomy (self-government) presented itself in the 1980s under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev introduced a program for political reforms called glasnost (Russian for “openness”). Although reform was gradual and limited in Tajikistan, this program allowed, among other things, the formation of unofficial political groups. The government of the Tajik republic relaxed its censorship policies, and the increased freedom fostered a renewed interest in Tajik culture. In 1989 the Tajik Supreme Soviet (legislature) declared Tajik the official state language.

In early 1990 social unrest broke out in Dushanbe. Protestors called for democratic reforms and challenged the government to address the scarcity of work and housing. Demonstrators clashed with police, and the local government declared a state of emergency. Some 5,000 Soviet troops were dispatched to Dushanbe and suppressed the demonstrations. Opposition parties were then refused official registration.

In August 1990 the Tajik Supreme Soviet asserted the sovereignty of the Tajik republic. Although it fell short of a declaration of independence, the assertion did indicate a desire for less centralized control over local affairs. In November the first secretary of the Communist Party of Tajikistan, Qahhor Makhkamov, was elected by the legislature to the new post of president. His only opponent was Rakhmon Nabiyev, who had served as first secretary of the party from 1982 to 1985. Makhkamov resigned in August 1991, after a failed coup attempt in Moscow by Communist hardliners to take control of the Soviet government. In reaction to the Tajikistan government’s support of the coup attempt, some advocates of reform began antigovernment demonstrations, which continued sporadically over the succeeding months. The chairperson of the Supreme Soviet then stepped in as acting president.

C

Independence

In September 1991 the Tajik Supreme Soviet declared Tajikistan’s independence from the Soviet Union, following similar declarations by most of the other Soviet republics. The USSR officially collapsed in December. Most of the former Soviet republics, Tajikistan included, joined a loose political alliance called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

After Tajikistan’s independence, Communist officials who were resistant to democratic and economic reforms continued to control the government. In November 1991 Nabiyev, the onetime head of the Communist Party of Tajikistan, won the country’s first direct presidential election with 57 percent of the vote.

Renewed antigovernment demonstrations began in Dushanbe in March 1992 after Nabiyev dismissed some prominent sympathizers of the opposition from his government. The officially banned opposition parties staged demonstrations calling for Nabiyev’s resignation. The opposition was composed of the Islamic Rebirth Party and pro-democracy secular groups (Rastokhez, the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, and Lali Badakhshon). In early May government troops fired on the demonstrators, killing several people. Violent clashes between the opposition and pro-government forces soon escalated into civil war.

In September the opposition seized Nabiyev in Dushanbe and forced him to announce his resignation. In November the Supreme Soviet abolished the office of president and appointed a hardliner official, Imamali Rakhmonov, head of the Supreme Soviet, and as such, head of state. The Supreme Soviet also elected a new neo-Soviet government, maintaining the longtime regional bias in the political power structure. Government officials came from the Khujand, Kŭlob, and Hisor regions, whereas the opposition was based in the southern Qŭrghonteppa (Kurgan-Tyube) region, the Garm (Gharm) Valley to the east of Dushanbe, and Gorno-Badakhshan in the east.

The Islamic-democratic alliance formed a military coalition called the Popular Democratic Army and held control of Dushanbe until December. They agreed to hand over the city when the new government was formed, but militias loyal to the government attacked and captured the capital anyway. Opposition rebels fled to the mountains east of Dushanbe and to Afghanistan. The Islamic opposition, from bases in Afghanistan, continued to wage guerrilla warfare along Tajikistan’s southern border. Fighting between government and rebel forces also took place in Gorno-Badakhshan. The Islamic Rebirth Party rebels, who established a political coalition of parties and individuals and armed supporters called the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), reportedly received the support of Afghan mujahideen (Islamic guerrilla fighters). The continuous fighting killed tens of thousands and drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in late 1992 and early 1993.