InvestigationLocated at the heart of a crossroads of regional influences, this small Central Asian country with an authoritarian regime, is called upon to play a crucial role at the time of the Taliban’s return to its Afghan neighbor. Russia, a traditional military ally, and China, a new investor, are vying for its favors.
Noon, at the time of the great Friday prayer in the Haji Yakoub Mosque, located in the center of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. The entrance to the blue-green earthenware building is controlled by two large arms of the police in uniform, wearing the “pie shovel” cap inherited from the late USSR. Several plainclothes policemen, wearing red armbands, observe the crowd of faithful who rush towards the ablution room. The table reflects a reality very specific to this small central Asian republic of ten million inhabitants whose culture and language are associated with the history of the Persian world, and who are 97% Muslim: religion of the Prophet Muhammad is practiced here under the meticulous surveillance of the regime, on the lookout for the slightest sign of “drift” towards political Islam.
In the preaching of the imam – a function under control in post-Soviet Tajikistan: imams are paid by the state -, the words “ douchman “ (“Enemies”, in Persian), “ taliban “ and “ terrorists “ come back repeatedly. This vocabulary is expressed in a particular context linked to the return, in mid-August, of the Taliban to neighboring Afghanistan. Located at the center of a crossroads of influences where powerful neighbors are agitated, Tajikistan has just been propelled to the forefront of the geopolitical scene of this region of the “midst of empires”. It may thus be called upon to play a crucial role in these times of instability which the new masters of Kabul have revived.
Engaged in the anti-jihadist fight
Of all the countries of Central Asia, Tajikistan is the one which has adopted the most hostile attitude towards the ultra-puritans of Afghanistan. While Russia cultivates ambiguity, China adopts a resolutely pragmatic position, and Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have decided to open up to the Taliban regime, Tajikistan continues to brandish the scarecrow of terrorism, a possible consequence of the new politico-military situation in its southern neighbor with whom it shares 1,300 kilometers of border.
The country’s strongman, President Emomali Rahmon, is particularly upset against Afghan extremists. In Dushanbe, when it hosted in mid-September the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (a regional body bringing together several Central Asian republics alongside China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran), Mr. Rahmon got angry with the Taliban. The latter, he accused, have “ imposed medieval Islamic law “. “ Over the next two or three years, he alarmed, extremist ideology in Afghanistan will radicalize, and the likelihood of such destructive ideas spreading into adjacent regions will increase. “
You have 86.79% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.