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| Main square in Khorog: statue of Lenin opposite the University |
HISTORY
Persian Empire
The territory of present-day Tajikistan was a crossroads for the
passage of the many different tribes and ethnic groups that controlled
Central Asia over the past 3000 years. Cimmerian and Scythian tribes,
several Persian dynasties, Macedonian/Greek armies under Alexander the
Great, Parthians, Kushan Chinese, Huns, Hephtalites, Mongol hordes,
Nestorian Christians, Arabs, Russians, even British - all left their
mark on the region.
Alexander the Great
From about 500 BCE until the Arab invasions, beginning in the 7th
century CE, shortly after the death of the prophet Mohamed, most of Central
Asia was under Persian influence or control. Bactria (today Balkh in
Northern Afghanistan) on the banks of the Oxus (now called the Amu Darya)
was the centre of Persian civilisation in Eastern Iran. The Persians
displaced the Scythian and Cimmerian nomadic tribes in the region. Afrosiab
(now Samarcand) was the centre of the region known as Sogdiana that
covered what is today Southern Uzbekistan and much of Tajikistan. The
cities of Samarcand and Boukhara, although today in the territory of
Uzbekistan, are centres of Tajik/Persian culture.
White Huns
In 400 CE a new wave of Central Asian nomads under the Hephthalites
took control of the region. According to Procopius' History of the
Wars, written in the mid 6th century, the Hephthalites or “White
Huns”, “are of the stock of the Huns in fact as well as in name:
however they do not mingle with any of the Huns known to us. They are
the only ones among the Huns who have white bodies....” If Procopius’
description is correct (and this is disputed by the accounts of other
travellers), the relatively large number of inhabitants of Gorno-Badakhshan
with blond hair and blue eyes may be related to this ethnic ancestry,
although other theories link these features with Scythian, Macedonian and
Russian ethnic stock.
The Hephthalites were defeated in 565 CE by a coalition of Sasanids and Western
Turks. The Sasanids took Bactria and the Western Turks ruled over Sogdiana.
Arab invasions
Soon after the death of the prophet Mohammed, Central Asia was invaded
successively by the Arabs of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties.
These conquests brought a flowering of Islamic thought, philosophy and
mysticism and stemmed Chinese expansion in Central Asia. However, Persian
influence remained strong, and new Islamic Persian dynasties sprang up, of which
the most important was that of the Samanids (875 to 999). The Samanid
period, marked by the scientific work of Muhammad al-Khorezmi, Abu-Nasr al-Farabi,
Zakariya al-Razi (Razes), Abu Ali Ibn Sino (Avicenna), Abu Reikhan al-Biruni
and the poetry of Abu Abdullak Rudaki and Abdulkosim Firdousi, made
a major contribution to the development of the cultural identity of the
peoples that were subsequently to call themselves Tajiks.
The defeat of the Samanids by the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty in 999
marked the beginning of the decline in Persian influence in Central
Asia. From the end of the first century CE, there had been sporadic
westward movements of nomadic Turkic peoples from the area of what is
now Mongolia: the massive military invasions under the leadership of
Genghis Khan (Temujin - 1167?-1227) and Tamerlane (Timur-Lang -
1336?-1405) ended Persian dominance in the region. Largely due to the
protection provided by the mountainous terrain, the peoples of what is
now Tajikistan were better able to preserve their society and Persian
culture. While the languages of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and
Turkmenistan all have Turkic roots, Tajikistan is the only former
Soviet Republic with an Iranian language; music, dance and poetry in
the Persian tradition play a major role in Tajik society.
The” Great Game”
Until the Soviet period, the territory of what is now Tajikistan was
part of the Emirate of Boukhara. In the latter part of the 19th century,
because of its geographical location at the confines of the Russian Empire
and contiguous to China and British India, the territory of Tajikistan –
especially the Pamir region of Gorno-Badakhshan – had considerable strategic
importance.
The “Great Game”, between Russian and British adventurers, soldiers
and diplomats – staking the limits of the respective Empires – was
largely played out in the mountains of the Pamir and the Hindu Kush.
Subsequently, at the time of the Soviet invasion and occupation of
Afghanistan (1979-1989), the Pamir region again assumed strategic
importance for the Soviet Union as one of the main supply routes for
the logistic support of Soviet military operations in Afghanistan.
Soviet Union
After the 1917 Bolshevik coup d’état, communist power in Central Asia
was challenged by the remnants of the White Army and a strong
resistance movement organised by indigenous tribes (the so-called
“Basmachi” revolt); moreover, the embryonic Soviet state was faced
with vigorous opposition (including more or less covert support to the
Basmachis) from Britain, with imperial interests to defend in the
region. These concerns led to the determined military subjugation and
forced sovietisation of the native peoples of “Turkestan” in the
1920s. Under Stalin, the region – in particular the Fergana Valley,
the most fertile area in Central Asia – was divided in 1924 between
separate Soviet Republics in such a way as to maintain a mix of ethnic
groups, the tensions between which could be exploited to justify the
necessity of the strong centralising influence of the Soviet system.
Tajikistan, initially an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan, became
a federated Soviet Socialist Republic in 1929.
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| Main square in Khorog: statue of Lenin opposite the University |
The sovietisation of Central Asia, while imposing a degree of
communist orthodoxy, did not lead to the total destruction of local
culture and religion: the region was far from the centre, it comprised
a large number of backward rural communities where traditions remained
strong and, in addition, the government in Moscow found it politically
advantageous to pay a certain amount of lip service to the concept of
the “multicultural identity” of the Soviet Union.
Soviet rule brought economic and social benefits for the Republics of
Central Asia. Universal education and health services achieved a level
of literacy and public health far superior to that achieved in the
former British Empire just across the Wakhan Corridor to the South.
Subsidies from Moscow maintained a standard of living and social
services that bore little relationship to the actual economic
development of the region.
Independence and civil war
Tajikistan was the poorest of the Soviet Republics. When the Soviet
Union broke up in 1991, Tajikistan became an independent state but was
immediately faced with the economic problems associated with the
breakdown of the centrally planned Soviet economy: withdrawal of
subsidies, disruption of former guaranteed markets, exchange
instability etc. Today Tajikistan ranks as one of the poorest
countries of the world.
In 1992 civil war broke out. Its causes are complex and relate to some
extent to the previously mentioned ethnic (and regional) tensions that
were the legacy of the boundaries attributed to the new Soviet Republics
in 1924, but also to premature attempts - imitating the policies
implemented under Gorbachev in Russia - to liberalise the Tajik
political system. At the end of the Soviet period, power in Tajikistan
was tightly guarded by representatives of the Leninabad district in the
North. Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost led to demands in Tajikistan
that other regions of the country should also participate on equal terms
in the political process and that the communist party should abandon its
monopoly of political power in favour of a multiparty system.
1991 Presidential elections
In 1991,
Tajikistan was the first ex-Soviet Republic to hold free elections: not
totally free, of course, and probably subject to some manipulation, but,
in comparison with experience under the Soviet regime, nevertheless free.
The new "Democratic Party" had formed an alliance against the ruling
Communists with the "Popular Front" (Rastokhez) and the "Islamic Renaissance
Party", a moderate Islamic organisation that did not at the time agitate
for Sharia law or the introduction of "Islamic values" in society. The
opposition presidential candidate - a popular film-maker with origins
in Gorno-Badakhshan - was beaten by the communist candidate, but his
score of some 30% of votes put pressure on the government to open the
country to a multi-party system.
Refusal of power-sharing
Despite the moderating influence of Gorbachev, the Tajik regime was not
ready to face up to the profound changes implicit in the fall of the
Berlin wall in 1989 and refused power-sharing. This inflexibility led
to civil war.
With support from the southern region of Kulyab (and, it is claimed, of
the Russian military forces stationed in Tajikistan), the leaders of the
government faction defeated the opposition coalition forces recruited
essentially from fighters of Pamiri (Gorno-Badakhshan) and Garmi
(Karategin/Rasht) origin. Large numbers of people from these mountainous
regions had been relocated in the 1950s to the cotton-growing areas of
the south-west (Kurgan-Tyube); in Dushanbe, the capital, many of the
intellectual elite were of Pamiri origin.
Exactions against these ethnic
groups in the aftermath of the civil war forced large numbers to return
to their traditional homeland. Many fighters fled to Afghanistan and
subsequently returned with fundamentalist ideas gained there in the
refugee camps, mainly to the Karategin valley but also to a few
predominantly Sunni areas in the North of Gorno-Badakhshan. The result
was a sharp polarisation of national politics and the radicalisation
of the Islamic Renaissance Party.
Humanitarian crisis
The civil war compounded the economic disruption caused by the
break-up of the Soviet system and the people of Gorno-Badakhshan and
the Karategin/Rasht valley found themselves virtually isolated. This
national crisis was largely ignored by the international community:
few had even heard of Tajikistan, fewer still knew where it was located, and
most considered that it was a problem in Russia’s backyard of little
relevance to the West. Those few serious newspapers that reported a
little of what was going on too easily adopted the cliché of a
conflict between former hard-line communists and Islamic
fundamentalists.
Peace Agreement
The civil war continued at relatively low intensity – mainly through
sporadic cross-border incursions from Afghanistan – until June 1997,
when a peace agreement was signed between the government of Tajikistan
and the United Tajik Opposition. This agreement opened the way for an
interim “power-sharing” government and Presidential and Parliamentary
elections; it provided also for the integration of opposition forces
into the regular armed forces of Tajikistan.
In November, President
Emomali Rahmon was re-elected for a seven-year term, and, in March
2000, elections were held for the upper and lower houses of
parliament, in which the former opposition parties did not make a
strong showing (around 10% of votes).
Although the speed in reaching agreement was undoubtedly influenced by
the unstable situation in Afghanistan, the peace accord was
nevertheless a remarkable achievement; its subsequent relatively
problem-free implementation is even more remarkable. After a civil war
characterised in its opening stages by extreme brutality (cf the
Amnesty International report Tadzhikistan – Hidden terror:
political killings, ‘disappearances’ and torture since December 1992,
May 1993) the integration of former fighters in the national armed
forces and in civil life has been exceptionally smooth: the process
can indeed be held up as a model for other inter-community or ethnic
conflicts in countries with considerably higher economic and social
resources than Tajikistan.
Despite occasional “incidents”, the peace
process has so far been remarkably successful and the former
opposition seems to have accepted its poor electoral showing without
protest. Tajikistan today offers one of the few examples in the modern
world of the full integration of opposition fighters into regular
armed forces.
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| Tank in riverbed near Kalaihussain – the furthest point in Gorno-Badakhshan reached by government troops during the civil war: a symbol of futility |
The Tajik civil war resulted directly from laudable efforts to promote
pluralism and was not – as a reading of the
contemporary Western press might have led readers to conclude
– a conflict between neo-communists and Islamic fundamentalists. The
eyes of Western journalists were turned towards other man-made
tragedies closer to home in Bosnia and Somalia: Tajikistan was
described in simplistic clichés for readers already saturated with
disasters. Moreover, then as today, the cliché of the threat of
Islamic fundamentalism served the interests of those major powers that
wished to maintain or extend their power and influence in Central Asia.
Regrettably, much of the world press continues to be obsessed with
fears of Islamic fundamentalism in the whole of Central Asia without
distinguishing between the very different situations of each Republic.
While the economic situation in Tajikistan remains probably more
precarious than in any other former Soviet Republic, the exceptionally
high level of literacy and secular education achieved under the Soviet
Union and the political maturity shown by leaders of both government
and opposition give ground for some optimism that Tajikistan may
ultimately prove more stable than its neighbours. If, on the other
hand, the international community withdraws from engagement in the
development of the country and its institutions from fear of Islamic
fundamentalism, this fear may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Contrary to many people's expectations, President Rahmon has brought
a remarkable degree of stability to Tajikistan and has so far succeeded in
balancing (and outmanoeuvering) the various factions and interest groups.
However, the International Crisis Group (ICG), which reports regularly on
the political situation in Tajikistan, points in its report of May 2004
("Tajikistan's Politics: Confrontation or Consolidation") to signs that
this balance may now be precarious and suggests that there is an imminent
danger of a return to factionalism. See ICG website
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1255&l=1
for this and other excellent reports on Central Asia.
HISTORY OF GORNO-BADAKHSHAN
Badakhshan, sometimes spelled "Badakshan", was known by medieval Arab and
European writers as "Balascian"; the name "balas" ruby, mentioned by Marco Polo,
is still found in gemmology and defines the "lale badakhshan" that was
then considered the finest form of ruby (technically spinel) and is still
mined in Gorno-Badakhshan.
In his book Marco Polo (Faber 1959) Maurice Collis writes of Marco Polo’s
visit to Badakhshan, where he recuperated from an illness: “Balkh, besides being
a symbol of the extreme limit of Greek civilization, was a place beyond which
there came a geographical change. The tangled mass of mountains, called the Roof
of the World and which includes the Pamirs and the Hindukush, towered up to the
east of it, and to cross them was a greater undertaking than anything the
travellers had faced as yet. But among the mountains they found a tableland
called Badakhshan which was a delightful place. ‘It’s a hard day’s work to get
to the top,’ writes Polo, ‘and there you find a wide plain covered with grass
and trees.’ Through this parkland flowed streams of sparkling water full of
trout. The air was so pure that the plateau was regarded as a sanatorium by
those living in the valleys, and a visit there cured you of a fever. ‘I have
proved this by experience,’ Polo continues, ‘for when in those parts I had been
ill for about year, but on visiting the plateau, as I was advised to do, I
recovered at once.”
The Pamir region (Gorno-Badakhshan) was incorporated into the Tajik Soviet
Socialist Republic (SSR) in 1925. Prior to this it had been de jure under the
Emirate of Boukhara but – since the end of the 19th century - de facto under
direct Russian rule.
“Politically, the Pamir peoples have always been heterogenous. Formerly the
Yazgulami, for example, were connected with Darvaz through Vandzh, belonging, as
did the latter, to the state of Darvaz. The speakers of the Shughni-Roshani
languages constituted the states of Shughnan and Roshan. In the 18th century
Roshan became a vassal to the Shughnan, both contending against their closer
neighbours, Badakhshan and Darvaz and alternately falling under the supremacy of
one or the other. Bartang, at the time, was part of the state of Roshan.
Shughnan and Vakhan were constantly at war with each other over Ishkashim where
ruby deposits are to be found. From the late 16th century the small Pamir states
were occasionally vassal-states to Bukhara. In the 18th and the beginning of the
19th century the nomadic Kirgiz tribes caused the Pamir peoples hardship,
cutting them off from the cultural and trade centres in the Kashgar and Fergana
valleys. In the second half of the 18th century Afghanistan's interest in the
Pamir began to grow. In 1883 the Emir of Afghanistan, supported by the British,
seized Vakhan, Shughnan and Roshan. By the second half of the 19th century
Russia had seized most of Central Asia, including the East Pamir. In 1868 Russia
established a protectorate over the Bukhara Khanate. In 1895 Russia and Britain
came to an agreement over the border in the Pamir, according to which the left
banks of the Roshan, the Shughnan and the Vakhan went to Afghanistan. The right
banks were ceded nominally to the vassal of Russia, the Emir of Bukhara. The
border divided the ethnic territories between two countries. In 1905, real power
went to the commander of the local Russian military force. Soviet power was
wholly established by the end of 1921. In 1925 a Pamir District was established
in Badakhshan, an area that had been left to the U.S.S.R. Later in the same year
this area was renamed the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region and placed under
the jurisdiction of the Tadzhik SSR, with Khorog as the administrative centre.”
(From
http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/pamir_peoples.shtml
)
Within the Tajik SSR, Gorno-Badakhshan became an autonomous Oblast (province).
At the height of the civil war in 1993, the Gorno-Badakhshan parliament decided
to declare the Oblast an independent Republic and seek re-incorporation in
Russia.
Visiting card from 1993 of the Chairman of the Council
of People’s Deputies of “the Autonomous Republic of Badakhshan”
Contrary to misleading press reports that continue to today, Gorno-Badakhshan
was not at any time since 1992 a home or hotbed of hardline Islamic opposition.
Some parts of Gorno-Badakhshan were indeed occupied by armed opposition groups
until the Peace Agreement was signed (Sagridasht and the Vanch and Yazgulom
Valleys) but did not serve as a base for launching attacks either on government
troops or Russian border guards: most such attacks came from across the frontier
in Afghanistan. Many Pamiris fought in the civil war alongside the followers of
the Islamic Renaissance Party and created their own militia. In 1995, however,
the leaders of the Pamiri militia gave a solemn undertaking to His Highness the
Aga Khan, spiritual leader of a large number of Pamiris, that they would never
initiate hostilities against the State or the Russian forces. Despite much
provocation – including the poisoning of their leader, Majnoon Palaev, in June
1996 – this undertaking was respected.
The website of the Aga Khan Development Network
www.akdn.org
gives examples of development activities that have contributed to stability in
the Pamir region and helped to prevent a slide into “warlordism” and drug
dependence. Under these programmes many former fighters have been successfully
re-integrated into civil society as farmers or small businessmen – AKDN can
claim with some justification that Pamiri society has witnessed the conversion
of “kalashnikovs into ploughshares”.
Links:
General
See section on Archaeology.
By far the best Internet resource for historical
research on Central Asia is the "Silk Road Seattle" project at the
University of Washington
http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad.
The site includes digitized historical texts and very useful overview maps.
The French Société de Géographie has also digitized a number of their 19th century
Proceedings that deal with the exploration of the Pamirs. These can be researched
and downloaded (pdf format) from
http://gallica.bnf.fr/. Click on the button "Recherche"
and enter "Pamir" in the box labelled "Recherche libre".
In addition to web searches on historical references in this summary, the
following books are useful: History of Civilizations of Central Asia, UNESCO,
Paris 1996; The Resurgence of Central Asia, Ahmed Rashid, Zed Books, London
1994; Samanid Renaissance and Establishment of Tajik Identity, Iraj Bashri,
1997,
www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Samanid/Samanid.html;
The Great Game, Peter Hopkirk, London 1990; Tajikistan: Disintegration or
Reconciliation? Shirin Akiner, London 2001; Rand Corporation, US and Russian
Policymaking with Respect to the Use of Force, California 1996 – Chapter 3
Tajikistan by Arkady Dubnov
www.rand.org/publications/CF/CF129/CF-129.chapter3.html
; Aid to Tajikistan, Ernest Greene, Central Asia Monitor 4/1993.
http://www.fco.gov.uk
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ti.html
http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/tj.html
http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/tajikist.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108024.html
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ta/Tajikist.html
Persian Empire
http://ancienthistory.about.com
http://www.eduseek.com/static/navigate631.html
http://www.geocities.com/amuse_amenace/cimmerian.htm
http://home.btconnect.com
http://www.iranian.com/History/2001/July/Sogdiana/
Alexander the Great / Kushan Empire
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/alexander/
http://www.kushan.org/
White Huns / Hephthalites / Sassanids
http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sassanids/sassanids.htm
http://www.sabawoon.com
http://spotlightongames.com/variant/maharaja/eph.html
http://www.silk-road.com/artl/heph.shtml
http://depts.washington.edu