DUSHANBE, January 12, 2012, Asia-plus — Tajik experts are sure that there will be no armed conflict between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
“We are neighbors and we share common interests. There is the close and intimate interaction between Tajiks and Uzbeks, and therefore, there will be no any conflict,” Sayfullo Safarov, the deputy director of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan, said, answering to reporters’ question about the possibility the armed conflict between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
“When Uzbek President Islam Karimov received letter from President Emomali Rahmon over the Uzbek gas shipments to Tajikistan, he ordered Uzbek First Vice-Premier Rustam Azimov to resolve all the issues raised by the Tajik side as soon as possible,” the expert from Tajik thin tank noted.
Safarov also expressed hope that the problems blocking rail traffic along the Tajik-Uzbek border will be resolved soon “and there will be no any problems in the future.” “We ought not to accuse each other. Mistakes were made from both sides,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Abdunabi Sattorzoda, the head of the department for foreign policy and foreign economic activity of the Center for Strategic Studies, considers that Tajikistan has never acted to the detriment of Uzbekistan’s interests. “As far as I remember, Tajikistan has not taken any step to the detriment of Uzbekistan,” Sattorzoda stressed.
He noted that accumulation of Uzbek troops on the border with Tajikistan was connected just with one incident, and therefore, “there ought not to connect this fact with the probability of the beginning of armed conflict between the two neighbors.”
The expert, however, added that there ought not to expect improvement of relations between the countries in the near future. “Deterioration of relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan has been observed for already several years, unfortunately,” Sattorzoda said.
