Field Reports

Tajik authorities have apparently found a new way to discipline Islamic clerics daring to criticize state policies. The novel approach consists of mobilizing state-controlled Islamic leaders to discredit and penalize the dissidents. In December 2011, the nominally independent Council of Ulamo (CoU) accused three influential clerics, the Turajonzoda brothers, of performing “alien” Shia rituals at their mosque. This is a very serious claim given that most people in Tajikistan are Sunni Muslims. The CoU is a government-controlled body of clerics charged with regulating Islamic activities in the country.

In January, 2012 President Rahmon carried out the by now traditional reshuffle in the government and state institutions. Over 20 senior officials from national and regional government were dismissed and relocated. Among the most notable were the appointments of new Interior, Education and Justice Ministers, the Head of the Security Council and the First Deputy Prime Minister. The reshuffle has also replaced a number of mayors and regional officials, most being assigned new posts. The reshuffle occurred shortly before the wrap-up government session of January 18, meant to summarize and review the major achievements and failures of the past year’s work. The session was broadcasted on the major national television channels and showed government officials of various ranks, including the Prime Minister, the heads of major ministries and chiefs of provinces, districts as well as large national enterprises awkwardly bowing their heads and reporting to President Rahmon. The president, in turn, questioned and criticized the work of some officials, sparingly complimenting others, and issuing numerous pompous orders and statements on the future work to be done.

Iranian-Azerbaijani relations have not been smooth since Azerbaijan’s independence, and recently deteriorated even further after cyber-attacks on the official sites of Azerbaijan’s governmental agencies and the disclosure of a terrorist group related to the Iranian intelligence services. The two cases are closely related to the fact that Azerbaijan is a key Muslim ally of Israel, considered a sworn enemy by official Tehran.

On January 17, Kazakhstan’s Central Electoral Commission made public the official results of the early parliamentary contest which took place two days earlier. As expected, the governing party Nur Otan received wide support from the country’s population, scoring almost 81 percent and obtaining 83 seats out of 107. The two other parties that managed to overcome the 7-percent barrier in order to qualify for entry into the Parliament’s lower chamber, the Majilis, include the Democratic Party “Ak Zhol” (7.47 percent and 8 seats) and the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan (7.19 percent and 7 seats). The overall turnout is estimated at around 75 percent. At the same time, Central Electoral Commission officials stated that more than 70 percent of the adult citizens living in the town of Zhanaozen, which was recently the scene of violent clashes between oil industry workers and police forces, gave their votes to Nur Otan.

Since late last year, a new round of tensions has emerged between Dushanbe and Tashkent. In early November 2011, a skirmish occurred on the Tajik-Uzbek border near the Uzbek town of Bekobod and the Tajik town of Khujand, resulting in the death of an Uzbek border soldier. The Uzbek border authorities rushed to connect the skirmish to drug trafficking into Uzbekistan, with the support of Tajik border guards. The later joint Uzbek-Tajik investigation concluded that the incident was an attempt to smuggle electric appliances by private individuals from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan. It is, however, unclear why this led the Uzbek government to mass a large amount of military hardware on the Tajik border.

On January 12, Tajik journalist Dodojon Atovulloev, a fierce critic of Tajikistan’s government, was attacked and stabbed by a stranger in Moscow. Atovulloev was delivered to a hospital with several stab wounds affecting his liver and lungs and with extensive loss of blood. After spending several days in resuscitation department in the hospital, there is no instant danger to his life but the journalist is still in a poor condition. According to unofficial sources, Atovulloev was attacked by a stranger “with a Tajik appearance.”

The United Russia party has dominated the Russian Parliament for almost a decade, and officially received 49.4 percent of the votes in the State Duma elections held on December 4. While this implied a loss of the two thirds constitutional majority it held during the previous term, United Russia still won 238 of the 450 seats and will keep an absolute majority in the legislature. However, the Duma elections also marked the start of sizable anti-Kremlin rallies that have been carried out in Russia over weeks following the elections. These protests were triggered by the numerous reports of irregularities and violations surrounding the elections, and although such reports came from all corners of the federation, the most blatant examples of rigged results can be found in the North Caucasian republics.

On New Year’s Eve, a young man dressed up as Ded Moroz (Father Frost) was lethally wounded in Dushanbe. Parviz Davlyatbekov, a 24-year-old economist, was attacked and stabbed by a group of young people near his house when he was about to visit his family for a New Year’s party. Davlyatbekov was later delivered to a hospital with multiple stab wounds and died the following night. According to Davlyatbekov’s relatives, he was killed by a group of Islamic radicals. They say that he was attacked by a crowd yelling “You Kaffir (infidel)!”

One year ago, authorities in Tajikistan announced the death of the militant Alovuddin Davlatov, aka Ali Bedaki. Despite evidence suggesting that Bedaki was captured alive in January 2011, interrogated and then executed extrajudicially, local media and human rights groups as well as the international community have mostly been silent and reluctant to address this case.

The Armenian Government has published the names of 2386 companies which will be checked by the State Revenue Committee (SRC) in 2012. Such a move and the introduction of computer technologies are aimed at decreasing contacts and tension between the tax authorities and businesses.