DUSHANBE, June 26, 2008, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan would have hardly been able to reestablish peace and national unity without concurrence of geopolitical interests of Russia and Iran in the region, Professor Abdunabi Sattorzoda, head of the department for international relations within the Center for Strategic Studies, remarked at a roundtable meeting in Dushanbe on June 25.
The meeting formally titled “Challenges Tajikistan Faced with in the New Period of Its Development: Importance of Peacekeeping Experience” was held on the occasion of the National Unity and Accord Day, which is marked in Tajikistan on June 27.
According to him, there are three factors that contributed to reestablishment of peace and national unity in Tajikistan. “Firstly, it is the fact that confronting sides put national interests above all else,” said Professor Sattorzoda. “Secondly, concurrence of geopolitical interests of powers that have maintained broad presence in Tajikistan (especially Russia and Iran), and thirdly, active support of international organizations for the peacekeeping process,” Sattorzoda said, especially stressing services of international organizations that were initiators of the first negotiations between the confronting sides.
He noted that over the whole period of its functioning, the United Nations has participated in almost 70 such peacekeeping process. However, representatives of the United Nations have managed to achieve peacekeeping goals only in five or six cases, “and one of these cases is our country.”
For comparison Mr. Sattorzoda termed the example of war-torn Afghanistan. According to him, there are no the abovementioned three key factors in Afghanistan, and therefore, the reconciliation process has not even started there.
Professor Sattorzoda is former activist of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) and former member of the National Commission for Reconciliation (NCR). Having been appointed Deputy Foreign Minister as part of a power-sharing agreement that gave the opposition 30-percent representation in government, he was retired on January 31, 2006 for age reasons.
