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Global Voices
Global Voices
Outside of the main cities, the Gorno-Badakshan Autonomous Region is mostly mountainous. Photo credits: AmanovDmitry.jpg) (Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0) Making up almost half of Tajikistan’s territory, the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (widely known by its Soviet-era acronym GBAO) is a mountainous province with which the Dushanbe government had historically difficult relations. Tensions have flared up into protests and a state of emergency in the past months, but the roots of the conflict go back in history. GBAO’s population is mostly composed of Pamiris and, in the 1990s, during Tajikist…