October 2 – Deputies of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) unanimously endorsed government’s proposal on placing libel and insult in Tajikistan’s civil code. By president’s proposal libel and insult were removed from the Penal Code and were placed in the Civil Code of Tajikistan.
October 3 – To protect rights and interests of media and ensure solidarity of journalists of Tajikistan, heads of media and media organizations of Tajikistan started an action, dubbed “100 Days of Freedom in Tajnet.” This action stipulates holding online events in Tajnet, posting modular advertising materials on social networking sites, airing public service announcements (PSAs) on radio, creating banners for all media, general avatar for journalists for 100 days, etc.
October 3-4 – Dushanbe hosted the 27th meeting of the EAEC (Eurasian Economic Community) council of heads of central (national) banks. The meeting considered conditions of international balance of payments and dynamics of international reserves of the EAEC member nations, opportunities of unification of the regulative capital requirements as well as the results of analysis of the level of development of currency markets of the Community member nations. The meeting also discussed the program of actions of the EAEC council of heads of central (national) banks for 2013-2014.
October 4-5 – Russian President Vladimir Putin aid a visit to Tajikistan. State and prospects of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation were a major topic of talks of Putin’s talks with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and other high-ranking Tajik state officials. Tajikistan-Russia negotiations at the highest level that took place on October 5 resulted in signing of six cooperation documents, including an agreement on the conditions of Russian military base’s stay in Tajikistan and a memorandum on the conditions of cooperation between ministries of defense of Tajikistan and the Russian Federation.
October 4-6 – The Forum on Sustainable Development of Central Asian Mountain Regions took place in Dushanbe. In order to institutionalize regional multi-level dialogue, the first Central Asian Mountain Partnership (CAMP) Forum was held in 2002 in Bishkek. Since then, the event has been repeated annually rotating among Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. The main theme of the Annual Conferences changes each year and the venue rotates annually between the three involved countries. The theme of this year’s conference is “Sustainable Land Management – up-scaling benefits for rural communities.”
October 7 – Electricity rationing has been introduced in rural areas of Tajikistan. The rationing resulted in the supply of daily electrical power in rural areas being reduced to fourteen hours – six hours in the morning (from 4:00 am to 10:00 am) and eight hours in the evening (from 16:00 pm to 24:00).
October 8 – The Education Ministry instructed the heads of all universities in the country to ban students from attending seminars, workshops, and other gatherings organized by foreign and international groups. The ministry sent a letter to university administrations instructing them to strictly control students” participation in gatherings arranged by foreign organizations.
October 9 – Officers from the Drug Control Agency (DCA)’s office in Khatlon province seized a large amount of hashish in the Qumsangir district bordering Afghanistan. 122 packages of narcotic drug that tested positive to hashish weighing 85 kilograms were found hidden in car belonging to local resident. Criminal proceedings were instituted against the alleged drug peddler under the provisions of Article 200 (4) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – a large-scale drug trafficking; an investigation is under way.
October 9-10 – The fourteenth joint board meeting of the interior ministries of Tajikistan and the Russian Federation took place in Dushanbe. Presided over by the interior ministers of the two countries, the meeting considered issues related to bilateral cooperation between the law enforcement agencies of the two countries in preventing crime, addressing extremism and fighting transnational crime groups. The meeting also discussed a draft plan of work of the joint board meeting of the interior ministries of Tajikistan and Russia for 2013;
– The U.S. State Department’s Preventing Nuclear Smuggling Program (PNSP) held a two-day workshop in Dushanbe to review current response protocols related to illicit radiological and nuclear smuggling. The workshop is part of the Joint Action Plan between the U.S. Government and the Government of Tajikistan.
October 10-11 – President of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Michel Platini, visited Tajikistan. Platini’s visit to Tajikistan was part of his tour of Central Asia. Platini held talks with Tajik state officials to discuss issues related to state and prospects of further development of football in Tajikistan, construction of modern sports facilities in Tajikistan, propagation of healthy lifestyle, etc.
October 11-12 – Organized by the EU funded project “Targeted Awareness Raising for Enhanced Partnership between European Union and Central Asia” (AWARE), a national seminar formally titled “Raising Awareness on Shared Environmental Information System” took place in Dushanbe. The seminar brought together experts of ministries and agencies responsible for environmental data collection and information dissemination, representatives of international, non-governmental organizations, as well as experts from other Central Asian countries to discuss the perspectives of the implementation of the Shared Environmental Information System in Central Asia. The AWARE project gave a special presentation for the overall objectives and goals in Central Asia and its implementation plans in Tajikistan. Besides, representatives of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan shared experience on environmental data collection and dissemination.
October 12 – Senior representatives of law enforcement authorities held a meeting in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) to discuss issues related to strengthening of legality in the region.
October 14-15 – President Emomali Rahmon visited Azerbaijan to attend a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). While in Baku, Rahmon also held a number of bilateral meetings.
October 16 – 30 officers from the head office of the Drug Control Agency in Dushanbe were sent to Gorno Badakhshan and Khatlon province for participation in the ongoing anti-drug operation, dubbed Kuknor-2012 (Poppy-2012).
October 16-17 – Tajik President Emomali Rahmon participated in a summit of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) in Kuwait. On the sidelines of the summit, Rahmon held a number of bilateral meetings in Kuwait.
October 16-20 – Dushanbe hosted the Fifth Tajikistan International Film Festival, Didor 2012. More than 30 feature and short films as well as animated cartoons were shown during the festival. Movies from Tajikistan, Iran, Russia, the United States, Afghanistan, Switzerland, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia and Azerbaijan were shown during the festival.
October 18-19 – Alekasndr Sychev, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Representative for Central Asia, visited Tajikistan. During his stay in Dushanbe, the newly appointed UNODC regional representative for Central Asia held meetings with senior representatives of relevant ministries and agencies of Tajikistan as well as chiefs of diplomatic missions of the United States and Japan and heads of the United Nations agencies active in Tajikistan.
October 19 – Two Tajik pilgrims, who are performing the Hajj by foot, reached the holy city of Medina, Saudi Arabia. These two men are part of a group of seven Tajik men who had earlier pledged to travel thousands of kilometers on foot to Saudi Arabia to perform the key Muslim obligation of the Hajj. This group, led by Abdulaziz Rajabov, who has already once traveled to Mecca by foot, began the journey in May. Tajik authorities helped the men to get foreign visas for the journey. The men, most of whom are in their 60s, have pledged to walk all 4,600 kilometers, crossing at least four countries. However, two of them cut short their journey and returned home, while three others decided to take a plane to Mecca from Iran.
October 19-21 – A group of European ambassadors to Tajikistan concluded their three-day visit to Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). The visit was the first such trip by Western diplomats since Tajik government forces conducted an operation against what it described as “militants” in July. Last month, the European Union expressed concern about the situation in Gorno-Badakhshan and demanded Tajik authorities allow international organizations and diplomatic missions to the region.
October 22 – General William M. Fraser III, Commander of U.S. Transport Command (USTRANSCOM), was on a short visit to Tajikistan. While in Dushanbe, USTRANSCOM commander held talks with Lieutenant-General Sheralisho Mirzo, Head of the Border Guard Administration within the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), and Lieutenant-General Ramil Nadyrov, First Deputy Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff of Tajikistan’s Armed Forces.
October 23 – The Prosecutor-General’s Office said that the autopsy proved that Hamza Ikromzoda had hanged himself. Meanwhile, Hamza’s relatives are questioning the official autopsy results. They say his body carried traces of torture, including burns caused by a hot iron. The lawyers say they were asked to sign papers prohibiting them from making the autopsy results public. Earlier this month Tajik human rights organizations urged the government to thoroughly investigate Ikromzoda”s death, listing six other suspicious deaths in custody.
October 23-25 – President Emomali Rahmon paid an official visit to Finland. The sides signed a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Finland on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
October 24 – A court in the northern city of Khujand shut down a human rights group, Amparo, saying it operated without a proper license. Junayd Ibodov, a lawyer for the Amparo group, says the case was politically motivated.
October 26 – Tajikistan marked Idi Qurbon, or Eid al-Adha in Arabic.
October 27 – The Shahriston Tunnel was introduced into operation in the northern Sughd province.
October 29-30 – The 10th meeting of the Tajik-Kazakh commission for trade and economic cooperation, co-chaired by Davlatali Saidov, Chairman of the State Committee for Investments and State-owned Property Management of Tajikistan and Nurlan Kapparov, Minister for Environmental Protection of Kazakhstan, took place in Dushanbe.
