Category: Key Issues

Over the first six months of this year, more than 219 foreign tourists, including 195,000 citizens of the CIS member nations, have visited Tajikistan, which is 59 percent fewer than in the same period last year, Tojiddin Jurazoda, the head of the Tourism Development Committee under the Government of Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 26.

133,000 citizens of Uzbekistan (68 percent), more than 49,000 of nationals of the Russian Federation (25 percent), more than 11,000 citizens of Afghanistan as well as from 2,000 to 6,000 citizens of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China have visited Tajikistan over the reporting period, Jurazoda noted.

According to him, nationals of the United States and European countries accounted for only 11 percent foreign tourist who visited the country in January-June this year.

“Compared to the same period of last year, the number of tourists from Iran and Turkey has also decreased,” the Tourism Development Committee head

He further noted that the share of tourism in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen from 2.0 to 1.0 percent.

“However, we plan to increase the share of tourism in the country’s GDP to 5.0 percent by 2030,” Jurazoda added.

Recall, more than 410,000 foreign nationals reportedly visited Tajikistan last year, which is 909,000 people fewer than in 2019.

The Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan noted last year that in accordance with the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) methodology, more than 350,000 of those foreign nationals are estimated as tourists. Compared to 2019, the number of foreign tourists last year reportedly fall 72.2 percent.

Tajikistan’s rich cultural heritage, hospitality and abundance of mountain snow peaks, rivers, lakes and recreational opportunities contribute to the development of country’s tourism industry. In 2018, Tajik Government announced a year of tourism development. The tourism sector is considered a priority for the development of Tajikistan’s economy. At the same time, undeveloped infrastructure and low levels of quality of services delay the growth of the tourism industry.

Source: Asia-Plus

Conditions in northern Afghanistan are more chaotic than ever as Afghan government forces, local militias, the Taliban fighters battle for control of districts.

The surprisingly rapid deterioration in the region in recent weeks has prompted the governments in the three Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan -- Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan -- to implement a range of measures designed to deal with a variety of possible developments in the current Afghan conflict.

On this week's Majlis Podcast, RFE/RL's media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on what is happening in northern Afghanistan and what the governments of the countries on the other side of the border are doing.

This week's guests are: from Washington, former U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan John Herbst, who is currently the director of the Atlantic Council's Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center and author of a recently published article about the situation along the Central Asian-Afghan border and its wider ramifications; from Arlington, Virginia, Umida Hasimova, who is an analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses and author of a recently published article on Central Asia's response to the deteriorating situation in northern Afghanistan; from Prague, Amin Mudaqiq, a native of northern Afghanistan and the former director of RFE/RL's Pakistani service, known locally as Radio Mashaal; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

Source: Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

(NIAT Khovar) – Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed the attention of the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon to Afghanistan.

Karzai wrote on his official Facebook page that during fourteen years of his service he had very good and fraternal relations with Tajikistan, and especially with the President Emomali Rahmon himself.

“Tajikistan has always called for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan, and this fact was once again reflected in the recent speech of His Excellency Emomali Rahmon. I wish that as a result of comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, Afghanistan will have universal and lasting peace and tranquility as soon as possible,” said Former Afghan President.

On July 22, President Emomali Rahmon in his speech before the members of the Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies spoke about the situation in neighboring Afghanistan and its people.

Particularly, he stated that the situation in the neighboring Afghanistan, especially in the northern regions bordering Tajikistan, remains extremely difficult and uncertain, it is getting more complicated day by day and even hour by hour.

“Such a difficult situation has arisen for the first time in 43 years of continued internal confrontation in Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan that possesses an ancient history, civilization and culture, is not to blame for such tragic events,” noted Tajik President.

These destructive processes are the result of outside interference in the internal affairs of a neighboring country, which has been going on for over forty years.

“The people of Tajikistan experienced such a tragedy that is foreign intervention, which became the cause of the imposed civil war in the early 90s of the last century and still is in the process of eliminating of its grave consequences. As a result of the war, over 150,000 of our citizens died, 50,000 children were left orphans,” mentioned Emomali Rahmon.

Given this bitter historical experience, he noted that we will never interfere in the internal affairs of our neighbors.

Source: National information agency of Tajikistan

(NIAT Khovar) – Today, per initiative of the Kazakh side, the Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda held a telephone conversation with his Kazakh counterpart Askar Mamin.

PMs discussed topical issues of Tajik-Kazakh interaction in trade, economic, investment, cultural and humanitarian spheres.

They paid particular attention to the implementation of the agreements reached following the official visit of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev to Tajikistan on May 19-20 this year.

While considering the severe drought observed in the region this year, the Tajik side, based on the principles of mutual support, friendship and good neighborliness, made a decision on an additional release of water from the Bahri Tojik reservoir in the amount of 50 cubic meters per second for the irrigation needs of Kazakhstan.

Source: National information agency of Tajikistan

In July 2021, the article of the Chairman of the SCO Council of Heads of State, President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon entitled "20 years of the SCO: cooperation for stability and prosperity" was published on the website of the Information Agency "Dunyo" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan. The interview of the Head of State Emomali Rahmon with NIAT “Khovar” has been republished in the Tajik language on the website and in the newspaper “Ovozi Tojik”.

Links to articles and interviews in Tajik, Uzbek and Russian:

https://ovozitojik.uz

https://dunyo.info

https://dunyo.info/ru

Source: Ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan

On July 24, 2021 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan Sirodjidin Muhriddin received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to Tajikistan Imran Haidar.

During the meeting the sides discussed the state and prospects of bilateral relations and exchanged views on cooperation in the framework of international and regional organizations.

Source: Ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan

DUSHANBE -- Tajikistan has said it is ready to shelter up to 100,000 refugees from neighboring Afghanistan amid increasing security concerns in Central Asia over the fallout of the Taliban's territorial gains in the northern part of the war-torn country.

Imomali Ibrohimzoda, the first deputy chief of the Committee for Emergency and Civil Defense, said on July 23 that if the number of Afghan refugees exceeds that number, Dushanbe will turn to international groups for help.

Ibrohimzoda added that the construction of two large food depots has started in the southern region of Khatlon as part of preparations for the possible influx of refugees.

According to Ibrohimzoda, 11 flights were organized in recent days to repatriate 1,600 Afghan citizens who entered Tajikistan to flee military clashes between Afghan government forces and Taliban militants.

Earlier this week, Khatlon regional Governor Qurbon Hakimzoda said that a temporary camp for refugees will be set up in the region's Jaihun district.

Hundreds of Afghans, including police and government troops, have fled the country in recent weeks and entered Tajikistan and neighboring Uzbekistan amid the Taliban offensive. The militants are said to have captured large swaths of the border regions since the start of the international military withdrawal on May 1.

Last week, almost 350 ethnic Kyrgyz shepherds from Afghanistan with their families and some 4,000 livestock entered Tajikistan. They have since been sent back to their village in Afghanistan after Kabul guaranteed their safety.

The United States has announced the withdrawal of all its forces by August 31. Earlier this month, U.S. forces vacated their largest base in Afghanistan at Bagram, north of Kabul.

The rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces, and the Taliban's battlefield successes, are stoking concerns that the Western-backed government in Kabul may collapse.

Source: Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, a representative of the Emergencies Committee under the Government of Tajikistan noted on July 23 that a new modernized monitoring and Early Warning System (EWS) at Lake Sarez in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) will be introduced into operation in August this year.

According to him a US$750,000 contract has been signed with Italian company CAE, which was competitively selected as a result of an open tender organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Within the framework of the Lake Sarez Risk Mitigation Project (LSRMP), CAE and its local partner are responsible for a complete replacement of the current monitoring and Early Warning System (EWS), established between 2003 and 2006, as it is approaching the end of its design life.

According to information posted on CAE’s website, the new monitoring and EWS is expected to protect 17 villages located along the Murgab River and the Bartang River and reduce the vulnerability of the population to natural disasters, including the potential outburst of Lake Sarez.

The contract scope includes the supply, installation, and commissioning of the monitoring and EWS that will enable real time and reliable monitoring of Lake Sarez right and left banks, as well as upstream and downstream rivers for data gathering, Early Warning System activation and communications with required units.

The approach to the early warning and monitoring system was based on triggering effects and the concatenation of possible triggering events for the Usoi Dam and the Lake Sarez, respectively. The main triggering events considered were a right bank slide, an earthquake affecting the dam or causing an increase in water level in the lake, the dam overtopping by a wave due to either a significant landslide into the lake proper or a glacial lake outburst above the lake, and the internal disturbance of the dam. Since the 2000-2006 analysis, it has been noted that a left bank slide area in the lake has been documented as a primary concern. Most of the triggering events are not mutually exclusive.

CAE is the Italian company leader in designing, creating and servicing multiple risk alerting and monitoring systems and technologies. Research and continuous improvement of the technologies and services the company offers are reportedly its distinguishing trait, creating a system whose value is widely recognized nationally and internationally.

Source: Asia-Plus

Tajikistan today is able to accept about 100,000 Afghan seeking refuge and place them in training grounds of the Tajik Ministry of Defense, which are located near the border with Afghanistan, the deputy chief of the Emergencies Committee under the Government of Tajikistan, Colonel Emomali Ibrohimzoda, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 23.

“In case of necessity, the country can accept even more refugees from Afghanistan,” Tajik emergencies official noted.

“We together with international organizations are currently studying the country’s capacity to accept refugees from Afghanistan,” Ibrohimzoda said.

According to him, two special warehouses to store tents, bedding, hygiene products and kitchen utensils for Afghan seeking refuge will be commissioned in Khatlon’s Kushoniyon district and the city of Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).

He further noted that 1,574 Afghan refugees sought shelter in Tajikistan this month and they were provided with medical aid, tents, bedding, kitchen utensils and hot meals three times a day.

“These Afghan refugees were repatriated by elven charter flights back to their homeland, to the cities of Kabul and Mazar-i Sharif,” Ibrohimzoda said.

Source: Asia-Plus