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Tajikistan
Forces of Nationalism
Ethnic tensions increased in Tajikistan, as they did elsewhere
in Central Asia, under the troubled conditions of the late Soviet
era. Already in the late 1970s, some ethnic disturbances and anti-Soviet
riots had occurred. One consequence of heightened resentment of
Soviet power was violence directed at members of other nationalities,
who were made scapegoats for their attackers' economic grievances
(see Economic Conditions in the Early 1990s, this ch.). An example
of this conflict was a clash between Tajiks and Kyrgyz over land
and water claims in 1989. Antagonism between Uzbeks and Tajiks
reached a new level during Tajikistan's civil war of 1992, when
Uzbeks living in Tajikistan joined the faction attempting to restore
a neo-Soviet regime to power (see Transition to Post-Soviet Government,
this ch.).
In 1989 attacks on Meskhetians (one of the Muslim groups deported
from Central Asia by Stalin) spilled over from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan
when about 2,000 Meskhetians were evacuated from eastern Uzbekistan
to a remote settlement in northern Tajikistan. A violent conflict
between inhabitants of the area and the Meskhetians resulted in
the intervention of security forces and removal of the Meskhetians
entirely from Central Asia.
The late 1980s and early 1990s also saw open criticism by Tajiks
of their treatment as a people by the central Soviet authorities
and by their Turkic neighbors, especially the Uzbeks. A key issue
was disparagement of the Tajik heritage in statements of Soviet
nationalities policy, which labeled the Tajiks a "formerly backward"
people that only began to progress under Russian and Soviet tutelage.
Tajiks, who claimed a heritage of more than 2,000 years of Persian
and Eastern Iranian civilization, also were indignant at the emphasis
on Russian and Western civilization, at the expense of the Tajik
heritage, in the history and literature curricula of Soviet-era
schools in their republic. Soviet policy toward publication of
literature and the two Soviet-mandated alphabet changes served
to isolate Tajiks from their cultural heritage.
One of the important consequences of the growth of Tajik nationalism
in the late Soviet era was the enactment in 1989 of a law declaring
Tajik the state language (although the use of Russian, Uzbek,
or other languages was still recognized under some circumstances).
The law officially equated Tajik with Persian and called for a
gradual reintroduction of the Arabic alphabet. By the early 1990s,
however, the law's main impact was to alarm the republic's Russian
speakers; although some Russian loanwords were dropped in favor
of contemporary Iranian Persian terms, the use of the Arabic alphabet
remained sharply limited.
Like the Russians, the Uzbeks were criticized for denying the
Tajiks' distinctive ethnic identity and ancient roots in Central
Asia. Tajik nationalists accused the authorities in Soviet Uzbekistan
of practicing overt discrimination against the Tajik population
by forcing Tajiks to register their nationality as Uzbek, undercounting
the size of the Tajik minority in Uzbekistan, and failing to provide
Tajiks there with adequate access to educational and cultural
resources in Tajik. Tajik nationalists also complained that the
central government and their Central Asian neighbors had exploited
Tajikistan's raw materials and damaged its environment.
Although nationalism had an increased appeal in Tajikistan in
the late Soviet and early independence periods, it was not a dominant
political force there. No popular movement advocated secession
from the Soviet Union before its dissolution at the end of 1991,
although there was support for renegotiating the union treaty
to obtain more favorable conditions for Tajikistan. In the late
1980s, supporters of the communist old guard played on nationalist
feelings to enhance their own position, but after Tajikistan became
independent, those individuals became increasingly antinationalist;
identification with local patron-client networks continued to
rival nationalism as a political force.
Data as of March 1996
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