Expert Kudryats comments on history and current status of GBAO

The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Okrug of Tajikistan has recently attracted attention of the media and human rights defenders in a number of countries. A protest action in connection to the death of several people took place in Khorog. Migrants from Tajikistan held a similar action at their Embassy in the Russian Federation.

There are several versions of what happened in GBAO and why. They vary depending on the degree of “liberality” of the media. The editorial staff of CentralAsia.news decided to brief the readers about Gorny Badakhshan. This may contribute to a better understanding of the ongoing processes in the region. The editorial staff interviewed an independent expert Yevgeny Kudryats, who gave some interesting facts.

What GBAO is

This region is the middle element of a kind of “matryoshka” structure, being, on the one hand, a part of Tajikistan and occupying an area of 64,100 square kilometres, corresponding to 44.9% of the entire land area of Tajikistan. As for the population, a diverse ethnolinguistic and religious community resides in Gorny Badakhshan. Tajiks and Pamiris make up the majority, while the small populations of Kyrgyz and Uzbeks reside in their villages. The communities speaking the Pamir languages of the group of the Eastern Iranian languages reside in the region.

Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Okrug was created in January 1925. It was “attached” to the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic after its creation in 1929. According to the interlocutor, during the 1950s, the indigenous population of Gorny Badakhshan, including ethnic Pamiris, was forcibly relocated to southwestern Tajikistan. Gorny Badakhshan absorbed some of the territory of Primorsky Region when this administrative unit was dissolved in 1955.

In 1963, Badakhshan consisted of Baghlan, Pul-i-Khumri, Dushi, Dahan-i-Gori, Kanabad, Andarab, Kunduz, Hazrat-i-Imam and Talokan districts. The Katakhan-Badakhshan province was dissolved in the same year, and since then the territory has been divided into four separate provinces: Badakhshan, Baghlan, Kunduz and Takhar, the expert said.

The interlocutor also noted that GBAO has huge water resources, accumulated in 10,000 mountain glaciers. The region has metal deposits and healing hot springs. This area has the tourism development potential, although it requires substantial investments. Now the coronavirus pandemic is impeding the development of this sector.

Difficult times

The idea of the independence of GBAO reached its climax in 1992, with the outbreak of a civil war in the Republic.

“When the civil war broke out in Tajikistan in 1992, the local government in Gorny Badakhshan declared independence from the Republic of Tajikistan. During the civil war, many Pamiris aimed at killing rival groups, and Badakhshan became a stronghold of the opposition,” Kudryats noted.

Shortly after, the local authorities “changed their minds” and ceased its calls and attempts to achieve independence, the expert said.

In late November 2021, the actions of the security forces provoked a protest action in GBAO. Kudryats noted that the protesters had refrained from political demands.

Rise of Taliban

Gorny Badakhshan has a quite long border with Afghanistan. The Taliban terrorist organisation, banned in the Russian Federation, is ruling Afghanistan. A number of analysts have assumed that Tajikistan could come to the attention of the Taliban. It is quite possible that it is through this region, due to the relief, that radicals will break into the country.

“This region can be attractive for the Taliban, who can use GBAO as their military base. It is difficult to say whether local populations will support the organisation banned in Russia and be willing to contact and cooperate with it, although such a scenario of events cannot be ruled out,” the expert noted.

Kudryats added that the Taliban members are unlikely to “sit still” in the neighbouring country. They may become a “headache” for Dushanbe.

15 дек 2021, 08:06
Photo source: 1tv.ru

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