DUSHANBE, October 14, 2010, Asia-Plus — It is not in interest of Uzbekistan ad Russia to destabilize situation in Tajikistan, Abdunabi Sattorov, the head of the foreign policy department within the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan, noted.
According to him, an armed conflict in Tajikistan will negatively impact, first of all, Uzbekistan as well as Russia.
“If the armed conflict in Rasht drags on, the control of Tajik-Afghan border will weaken,” Sattorov said.
Moreover, Uzbekistan has been fighting terrorism for years, including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which is violent opponent of Uzbek authorities, he noted. “Using one’s enemies directly or indirectly for destabilization the political situation in neighboring country would be illogical,” the senior expert from Tajik think tank added.
Sayfullo Safarov, the deputy director of the Center for Strategic Studies, also noted that allegations that Uzbekistan and Russia were interested in destabilizing Tajikistan were absolutely baseless.
“We share similar stances with Russia and Uzbekistan on the regional security issues, and therefore, it would be absurd to accuse them of destabilizing the situation in our country” said Safarov, “May be some foreign organizations such as IMU have financed the Rasht events, but not official authorities of other countries.”
In the meantime, some Tajik officials of different level have stated that foreign countries had a hand in the Rasht events.
The Security Council Secretary Amirqul Azimov was in Rasht in early October along with the deputy heads of the Interior and Defense ministries and the State Committee for National Security (SCNS).
Without naming any specific country, Amirqul Azimov blamed “foreign states” for backing the insurgency that he said were interested in destabilizing Tajikistan. “We have information about interference of other countries in the Rasht events, but we will not yet name them,” Azimov said, warning that if they go on at that rate they will be named.
