DUSHANBE, February 12, 2013, Asia-Plus — Exactly 23 years ago, massive riots also known as “February Events” took place in Dushanbe.
Mahmadali Hayit, a deputy head of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP), claims that the Dushanbe riots were masterminded by the Soviet Union’s Committee for State Security (KGB).
At that time, Mahmadali Hayit was one of activists of the Rastokhez Movement.
The Rastokhez (Revival) party was a political party in Tajikistan in the years of independence and civil war (1989–1997). It was founded on September 14, 1989, by members of the Tajik intelligentsia, with a moderate nationalist and democratic program.
Its prominent position in the opposition to the ruling Communist Party of Tajikistan insured that it became the main scapegoat for the Dushanbe riots of February 1990. The party was banned, which ensured total victory for the Communists in the upcoming elections. During the next years and the Tajik Civil War, Rastokhez, then underground, as well as the similarly minded Democratic Party, participated in the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) along with more Islamic groups. The party ceased to exist at the same time as the UTO, its members having mostly joined the Democratic Party at the time of the peace treaty (June 1997).
Mahmadali Hayit is sure that KGB and the then Tajik government were seriously concerned over arising democratic forces in the country.
“Besides, parliamentary elections were scheduled for late February and many representatives of the Tajik intelligentsia expressed their wish to participate in the elections,” said Hayit. “Only massive disorders, the responsibility of which could be imposed on Rastokhez, could be for the benefit of the then authorities.”
At the same time, he does not share opinions of some political scientists and experts that the February Events could not be called the beginning of the civil war in Tajikistan that started in spring of 1992.
“The Tajik Civil War is another venture that was masterminded by special services of some post-Soviet countries,” Hayit said.
According to some sources, in 1988, in the aftermath of the Sumgait pogrom and anti-Armenian riots in the Azerbaijan SSR, 39 Armenian refugees were temporarily resettled from Azerbaijan to Dushanbe. In 1990, the Armenian influx became a subject of the rumor that triggered riots in Dushanbe. The rumor inflated the number of refugees to 2,500–5,000. According to rumor, Armenians allegedly were being resettled in new housing in Dushanbe experiencing acute housing shortage at that time. Despite the fact that Armenian refugees resettled not in public housing but with their relatives, and by 1990 already left Tajikistan for Armenia, official denouncement of the rumors was not able to stop the protests. Assurances by Communist Party First Secretary Qahhor Mahkamov that no resettlement of Armenians was taking place were rejected by the demonstrators. Soon, demonstrations turned violent. Radical economical and political reforms were demanded by the protesters. Government buildings, shops and other businesses were attacked and looted. Armenians, Russians, and other ethnic minorities were targeted. Abuse of Tajik women wearing European clothes in public also took place. The riots were put down by Soviet troops that were called into Dushanbe by Qahhor Mahkamov. On February 14, 1990 Mahkamov, Prime Minister of Tajik SSR Izattullo Khayoyev and Chairman of the Board of the Supreme Council of Tajik SSR Ghoibnazar Pallayev submitted their resignations, but they were not accepted by the Central Committee of the Tajik Communist Party.
During the Dushanbe riots, a period lasting a couple of days, 25 people were killed and 565 were injured.
