DUSHANBE, October 8, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has noted that documents on military cooperation between Tajikistan and Russia signed in Dushanbe laid a solid legal foundation for creation of modern armed forces in Tajikistan.
Under the agreement on status and the conditions of Russian military base’s presence in Tajikistan Russia jointly with Tajikistan will ensure the establishment of modern armed forces in Tajikistan, President Rahmon said while addressing soldiers and officers of the Russian-leased base in Tajikistan.
“I has created the [Tajik] national army at training grounds and in tents by myself. We had no army, no defense ministry. We asked another state for more than 200 officers and from among them I chose Colonel Shishlyannikov and appointed him defense minister. We started from scratch. Tajik armed forces are being developed,” Rahmon said. Information about that meeting is posted on Russian president’s website.
For his part, President Putin reportedly noted that Emomali Rahmon is not a stranger for the Russian army. “He served in the Soviet armed forces,” said Putin during a meeting with soldiers and officers of the Russian military base in Tajikistan. “Emomali Rahmon served in the Soviet Navy.”
Tajikistan”s armed forces consist of Land Forces, Mobile Forces, Air and Air Defense Forces, Presidential National Guard, and Security Forces (internal and border troops). Unlike the other former Soviet states of Central Asia, Tajikistan did not form armed forces based upon former Soviet units on its territory. Instead, the Russian Ministry of Defence took control of the Dushanbe-based 201st Motor Rifle Division; actually control simply shifted from the former district headquarters in Tashkent, which was in now-independent Uzbekistan, to Moscow.
