Author: Ardshir

Afghanistan’s canal project is deepening anxieties on water security. This and more in this week’s Akhal-Teke Bulletin. With little advance warning, the presidents of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan held a summit in Ashgabat on August 4. No explicit explanation has been provided by any of the governments on why these three partners would be forming a united front in this format. The highlights of the joint declaration offered some clues, though. First, there was the matter of water. All three countries border Afghanistan and stand to suffer immediate repercussions from ongoing work there on construction of the Qosh Tepa Canal. Though not yet complete, the…

Behruz Khojazoda, a famous Tajik wrestler, won a silver medal in his weight category up to 73 kg on the second day of the Hungary Masters-2023 judo tournament, which takes place from August 4 to 6 in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The Tajik judoka, who started the fight from the second round, after three victories over Manuel Lombardo from Italy, Daniel Szegedi from Hungary and the reigning world champion Nils Stump from Switzerland, reached the semifinals of this prestigious tournament, where he managed to overcome the Georgian wrestler Giorgi Terashvili. In the final round, the Tajik judoka met with…

The national team of Tajikistan at the II Games of the CIS countries, which are held from August 4 to 14 in Belarus, with one silver and 5 bronze medals, takes 10th place among 22 states participating in these competitions. On the sixth day of the competition – August 9 – Tajik athletes won 2 bronze medals in freestyle wrestling and one bronze medal in a boxing tournament. In freestyle wrestling in the weight category up to 70 kg Mustafo Akhmedov and in the weight category up to 79 kg Somonjon Ikromov took third places. In boxing, the third place in…

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns Tajikistan’s decision to ban Pamir Daily News, an independent news site that is one of the few sources of coverage of Gorno-Badakhshan (GBAO), an isolated autonomous mountainous region in the east of the country. The ban is clearly designed to cut this troubled region off from the rest of the world, says RSF. Tajikistan’s supreme court declared Pamir Daily News to be an “extremist organisation” on 14 June, thereby banning it from any form of activity in Tajikistan. The decision was made public and effective on 19 July. Its website is now blocked and any participation in its…

An update on recent developments in Chinese-Central Asian affairs. Central Asia The Chinese Communist Party is ready to help Central Asian states create “a China-Central Asia community of common destiny,” according to the party’s chief propagandist. The official Xinhua news agency reported that Li Shulei, a CCP Politburo member and head of the Central Committee’s Publicity Department, met on June 12 with “foreign representatives participating in the China-Central Asia Political Party Dialogue.” Xinhua quoted Li as expressing China’s readiness “to cooperate with the political parties of the five countries of Central Asia to implement the important consensus reached by Chinese President Xi…

Legal options for getting to Europe, United States and South Korea are limited, not that that stops many from making the trip. The worsening state of the Russian economy and sustained abuse from law enforcement there is pushing ever more expatriate laborers from Tajikistan to seek out alternative countries in which to find work. The trend stands in the long term to reduce Tajikistan’s overwhelming economic reliance on remittances flowing in from Russia. For the workers themselves, the shift presents the hope of more dignified employment and, often, much better pay. Azimjon Badalov, 35, traveled to the United Kingdom…

Uzbekistan is working to introduce penalties for wasting water. Uzbekistan says it expects the volume of water in the region’s two main rivers to shrink by 20 percent in the coming irrigation season as compared to a recent multi-year average. In an emergency presidential decree on economizing water that came into effect on April 3, a 10-15 percent reduction of the volume of the Syr Darya is forecast, while the amount of water in the Amu Darya is seen contracting by an even more dramatic 15-20 percent. Both rivers once flowed into the Aral Sea, 90 percent of which has vanished since 1960.…

Alexander Lukashenko, at a meeting with the foreign ministers of the CSTO countries, called on the organization to make efforts to solve the problems of Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. According to him, this must be done on its own, until these problems are solved by the West. Recall that the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have border disputes, their border is not demarcated, which leads to clashes. “I will say that there are problems. And very serious problems. If we do not solve these problems, we will always reproach each other, express dissatisfaction with the functioning…

An agreement on cooperation in the field of use and exploration of peaceful space was signed by Russia and Tajikistan, on June 19, the press service of Roscosmos reports. “In Moscow, an agreement was signed between Russia and Tajikistan on cooperation in the field of exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes ,” the press service noted. It is noted that the document defines all the necessary principles and norms for the development of Russian-Tajik cooperation in the field of exploration and use of space and regulates the procedure for protecting intellectual property rights, export control, customs operations,…

You are not Forgotten. Berlin, Brussels (14/5 – 40) In the vast and remote mountain lands of Central Asia, the Ismaili Pamiris have long faced systemic discrimination and persecution at the hands of the Tajik government. Despite their proud history, rich cultural traditions, and highly educated populace, they have been targeted for cultural extermination in a chilling campaign of ethnic cleansing. Tajikistan President Imomali Rahmon has demonized them as “inbred” and “criminals” and launched a brutal program to replace their community with ethnic Tajiks. In May and June 2022, the government launched a final assault on the Pamiris to end…