DUSHANBE, May 4, 2015, Asia-Plus:
April 1 – Prices for mobile phone services rose 2.0 percent in Tajikistan. Companies offering cellular communication service in Tajikistan note that the coming of the law on amendments to the country’s tax code into force has led to the increase in the rate of excise tax on mobile phone services from 3.0 to 5.0 percent.
April 2 – Foreign ministers from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held talks in Dushanbe. The ministers discussed the situation in Afghanistan and Dushanbe”s steps to widen ties with its southern neighbor, as well as cooperation with international bodies such as the United Nations and joint efforts against terrorism, extremism, transnational crime, and cybercrime. Tajikistan called on its partners to implement concrete measures to help increase security along its long border with Afghanistan;
– Murodali Aliamrdon was relieved of his post of Deputy Prime Minister of Tajikistan and appointed to Open Joint Stock-Company (OJSC) Agroinvestbonk, which is considered the second largest commercial bank in Tajikistan.
April 3 – Mudslides killed at least 10 in the Fayzobod district, about 50 kilometers from Dushanbe;
– The foreign Ministers of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, deputy foreign ministers of Moldova and Uzbekistan, and special envoys from Azerbaijan and Ukraine gathered in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to discuss ways to increase cooperation between the CIS member nations. The talks reportedly also touched upon joint efforts to resolve the crisis along the CIS borders;
– Three Afghan drug traffickers were detained with 38.815 kilograms of hashish and 9.002 kilograms of raw opium in Khatlon’s Farkhor district.
April 6 – Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov met here with Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, who arrived in Dushanbe on a fact-finding visit. Sirojiddin Aslov and HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Thailand. In this context, they reportedly pointed to the necessity of launching air route between Dushanbe and Bangkok. They also exchanged views on the high-level international conference on the implementation of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Life”, 2005-2015, which is expected to take place in the Tajik capital from June 9-11.
April 7-13 – 15 servicemen from Tajikistan and Belarus together with 85Russian paratroopers spend a week on ice near the North Pole as part of drills on carrying out search-and-rescue operations.
April 8 – President Emomali replaced a number of police officials. According to the president’s official website, chiefs of five departments of the Interior Ministry and the Interior Ministry’s offices in Dushanbe, Kulob, Jomi, Qubodiyon, Rumi, Jilikul, Danghara, Norak, Spitamen, Jabborrasoulov, Asht, Jirgatol, Shugnan and Murgab were replaced. Besides, commanders of four military units of the Interior Ministry Internal troops have been replaced;
– A court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district sentenced Mahmadali Jobirov, 35, and Muhammadrizo Shamszoda, 23, to 3½ and 3 years respectively. Both of them are residents of the Vahdat Township. The sentence followed their conviction on charges of organizing an activity of an extremist group (Article 307’ of Tajikistan’s Penal Code) and association with the opposition organization Group 24. Group 24 was founded by fugitive tycoon Umarali Quvvatov, who was shot dead in Turkey on March 5.
April 8-9 – The CSTO Military Committee held a meeting in Dushanbe to discuss issues related to challenges and threats in the CSTO area of responsibility (AoR).
April 9 – Members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) met in the Tajik northern province of Sughd to discuss the threat posed by the rise of the Islamic State (IS) group in Afghanistan. During the meeting, the heads of military delegations from the CSTO countries reportedly analyzed the challenges of military security in the CSTO”s collective security regions. Particular attention was given to the current situation in Afghanistan with regard to the activities of the IS international terrorist organization.
April 10-13 – Tajik President Emomali Rahmon paid an official visit to South Korea. On April 12, he attended the ceremony of an official opening of 7th World Water Forum in Daegu. A ceremony of an official opening of the Tajik Embassy in Seoul, South Korea was held on April 13.
April 13 – Tajikistan banned the hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, for citizens younger than 35. The Committee on Religious Affairs said it is intended to give older Muslims a greater opportunity to undertake the hajj, as Saudi Arabia limits the number of pilgrims from each country annually.
April 14 – Tajik Ambassador to Iran Nematullo Emomzoda met in Tehran with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Pacific Affairs, Ebrahim Rahimpour. The two reportedly discussed issues related to preparations for the high-level international conference on the implementation of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Life”, 2005-2015, which will take place in the Tajik capital from June 9-11 this year. Emomzoda and Rahimpour also discussed ways to expand bilateral mutually beneficial economic cooperation between Tajikistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
April 17 – The National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) suspended operations of private currency-exchange points in the country;
– Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev was reelected Chairman of the Majlisi Milli (Tajikistan’s upper house of parliament).
April 18 – Rasht officials say an anonymous letter demanding female teachers quit their jobs or face death was left at a school in the Rasht district. Vandals who left the threatening letter at the school also burned two maps of Tajikistan and school news bulletins.
April 20 – Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received Mr. Zhang Chunxian, the China Communist Party Secretary for the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The two sides discussed a broad range of issues related to cooperation between Tajikistan and China’s XUAR;
April 21 – Officials in the Rasht district say three people were detained on suspicion of vandalizing a school and leaving a note threatening female teachers with death if they do not stop teaching. They said that the incident was motivated by ‘personal issues’ and had nothing to do with religion or extremism;
– Well-known Tajik-Russian filmmaker Bakhtiyor Khudoinazarov died in a clinic in Berlin, aged 49. Bakhtiyor Khudoinazarov was a film director, producer and screenwriter from Tajikistan. He became well-known across the former Soviet Union for his movie
Lunny Papa
(A Moon Dad). In this hilariously surreal adventure through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, the story of a young, simple Tajik girl is narrated by her unborn child;
April – Resident of the northern province of Sughd was jailed for propagation of ideas of Jamaat ut-Tabligh, a Sunni missionary group. The Khujand city court sentenced the 35-year-old resident of the Bobojonghafourov district, M.S., to three years in prison. Tajik authorities believe that Jamaat ut-Tabligh has a dangerous agenda and poses a threat to national security. Jamaat ut-Tabligh was placed on Tajikistan”s official list of banned religious extremist groups in 2006, although it was not very widely known among the general public.
April 21-23 – Tajik servicemen participated in a military exercise for special force units from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states that took place in the Shamsi Gorge in Kyrgyzstan. Special force units from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and China participated in the exercise aimed to practice fighting illegal armed groups and terrorists in open spaces and inside buildings, and securing the release of hostages.
April 22 – President Emomali Rahmon convened a meeting in Dushanbe of senior police and security officials to discuss efforts to strengthen Tajikistan’s common border with Afghanistan and to combat terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking.
April 23 – Police in the Tajik southern district of Panj on the Afghan border killed a Russian citizen suspected in being a radical Muslim. Local law enforcement officers shot Semyon Nagibin, who is from the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, after he escaped from a local hospital with two pistols he took by force from police officers. According to the officials, Nagibin was shot dead after he started shooting at police. Nagibin, 28, had been treated in the hospital after he was wounded when trying to illegally cross the Afghan border on April 15. Officials said that Nagibin called himself “Salim” and criticized Tajik authorities, calling them “not real Muslims.”
April 24 – U.S. interagency team, led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Daniel Rosenblum and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia Christine Abizaid, met with Tajik delegation in Dushanbe for Afghan consultations. Representatives of the U.S. interagency team reportedly informed the Tajik side of the current political, economic and security situation in Afghanistan;
– The first Tajik-French business forum took place in Dushanbe. A large business delegation of France, led by Mr. Phillipe Gautier, Deputy Director-General of the Movement of Enterprises of France (MEDEF), arrived in Tajikistan for participation in the forum. Senior representatives of 22 leading companies of France reportedly participated in the forum. Tajikistan was represented at the forum by top managers of more than 50 local companies and senior representatives of relevant government bodies.
April 25 – The third auto retro exhibition, dubbed Tajikistan Auto Retro, took place in Dushanbe. The exhibition featured such legends on wheels as the GAZ-M20 “Pobeda,” ZIM-12, Chaika M-13, GAZ M21 Volga, GAZ-24 Volga several models of Moskvitch, Zaporozhets, Opel Admiral, MG (the MG Car Company Limited was a British sports car manufacturer), 1929 Mercedes Gazelle, ZIS-101 (a limousine that was manufactured in the Soviet Union from1936 to 1941) Buick, Willys Jeep and GAZ AA, also known as “Polutorka” (1½ ton truck).
April 27 – Deputy Interior Minister, Ikrom Umarzoda, said that two law enforcement officers in the northern Sughd region were officially rebuked after local residents complained that they were forced to shave their beards. “We have ordered regional police departments to talk to local residents about extremism, but have never called on them to work with people through force and pressure,” Umarzoda said. There have been increasing reports of police officers” pressuring Muslims across the country to shave their beards.
April 28-29 – The 6th meeting of the Tajikistan-Turkmenistan intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation that took place in Dushanbe. Co-chaired by Tajik Minister of Energy and Water Resources Usmonali Usmonzoda and Turkmen Minister of Finance Muhammedguly Muhammedov, the meeting discussed issues related to economic cooperation between the two countries.
April 29 – Ten residents of the northern province of Sughd were convicted of membership in a banned Islamic group Jamaat Ansarullah the Tajik government has classified as extremist. The defendants are residents of the northern city of Isfara, aged 30 to 38. They reportedly joined Jamaat Ansarullah while working in the Russian Federation. The Khujand city court sentenced them to 8½ in prison each.
April 30 – Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received Mr. Thomas Jordan, the chairman of Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB). They reportedly discussed a broad range of issue related to state and prospects of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Switzerland.
