DUSHANBE, March 9, 2015, Asia-Plus — Radio Liberty reports the March 5 slaying of the Tajik opposition organization Group 24 leader Umarali Quvvatov on the streets of Istanbul, where he settled after fleeing Tajikistan in 2012, immediately led to questions of whether it was a politically motivated assassination.
Many came from fellow political opponents of Rahmon, whose ruling People”s Democratic Party just won a landslide victory in flawed parliamentary elections.
“Considering that Quvatov was a politician, his death concerns us,” said Rahmatillo Zoyirov, chairman of the Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan.
“His killing was not accidental. It was pre-planned,” he told RFE/RL”s Tajik Service the morning after the killing.
Details on Quvvatov”s killing and the continuing investigation are scant. RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports that according to Turkish media, Quvvatov was shot once in the head from behind, at close range, by a Tajik-speaking man. The unidentified assailant immediately fled the scene.
The attack took place in Istanbul”s central Fatih district at approximately 10:30 p.m., after Quvvatov and his family had dined at the home of a Tajik citizen identified only as “Sulaymon.”
Quvvatov”s cousin and leading Group 24 member, Sharofiddin Gadoyev, told RFE/RL by telephone that the man was Sulaimon Qayumov, who had been living in Turkey for a few months and had portrayed himself as a Quvvatov sympathizer.
Qayumov, who reportedly left the crime scene before investigators arrived, was arrested on the morning of March 6, according to Turkish media.
Counterterrorism experts are reportedly involved in the homicide investigation.
The killing, coming just days after the slaying of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, reportedly led some to draw parallels.
Rajabi Mirzo, an independent political analyst, described Quvvatov”s death in a Facebook post as a “shameful and terrible event” that could be compared with Nemtsov”s killing. “Nemtsov was killed the day before the announced a rally, and Quvatov after the announcement of the [parliamentary] election results,” he wrote.
Tajik Communist Party leader Shodi Shabdolov, who recently called the March 1 elections “a political farce,” described Quvvatov”s killing as a “bad signal.”
“He had no special authority or influence in Tajikistan,” Shabdolov said of Quvvatov. “But he acted as an opposition leader, and killing him in this way, perhaps, could lead to protests.”
Leading Group 24 member Gadoyev, who lives in exile in Spain, directly accused Tajik security services of the killing in a video posted on YouTube on March 6.
Quvvatov”s short political pedigree does not compare with that of Nemtsov”s, but the former tycoon had certainly riled the Tajik authorities in recent years, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports. Rahmon”s government accused him of creating an extremist organization and seeking to change the constitutional order in Tajikistan.
Quvvatov was once known as a successful businessman with close commercial ties to Rahmon”s family. But amid business disputes and allegations of fraud, Quvvatov left the country in 2012 and went on to become an ardent critic of the Tajik government and media.
He established his opposition Group 24, which the Tajik Supreme Court banned just before a planned anti-presidential rally in Dushanbe in 2014. His extradition was sought by Dushanbe after he was arrested in Turkey for visa violations, but he was released in February and relatively little had been heard from him since.
Despite his reputation as a thorn in Rahmon”s side, and the many who are quick to connect the Tajik government to Quvvatov”s killing, Dushanbe itself has reserved comment pending further information.
Saifullo Safarov, deputy director at the Center for Strategic Studies under the President fo Tajikistan, suggested Quvvatov”s death was related to his business activities. He said the Tajik government had no reason to go after Quvatov or other opposition figures living out of the country. “The government does not care about them,” Safarov said. “They are free to live abroad.”
