July 1 – The third meeting of the Coordination Council on Free Economic Zones took place in Dushanbe;
– Latvian SMP Bank opened its representative office in Dushanbe;
– The lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of the parliament went on summer recess.
July 3-4 – Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov paid working visit to the northern Sughd province.
July 4-8 – A delegation of experts from Saudi Arabia was on visit in Tajikistan to participate in preparation of a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for avoidance of double taxation.
July 5-6 – An international two-day roundtable titled “Conflict and Peace Building in Afghanistan: State and Prospects” was held in Dushanbe.
July 5-8 – The Shelter and Recovery training to increase the collective response capacity of the Central Asian Red Crescent National Societies in shelter and early recovery programs and activities was held in Varzob district. About 20 experienced staff from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Red Crescent as well as Hungarian Red Cross Societies participated in the training, organized by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) jointly with the Tajikistan Red Crescent under financial support of IFRC donors and DIPECHO VI.
July 6 – Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi met here with the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) also Head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy in Central Asia (UNRCCA) Ambassador Miroslav Jenca. The two considered a number of regional issues being of mutual interest.
July 7 – Deputy Foreign Minister, Nizomiddin Zohidov, yesterday met here with Dr. Alaa El-Hadidi, Egypt’s Assistant Foreign Minister for Cultural Affairs also Ambassador of Egypt to Tajikistan. The sides discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation between Tajikistan and Egypt;
– U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan Ken Gross and National Guard Commander General Rajabali Rahmonali laid the cornerstone of the live-fire training building at Tajikistan’s National Training Center at Qaratogh. The $3.1 million project was funded by the U.S. Central Command and is scheduled to be completed by winter;
– Tajik national Makhsoudjon Ismatov, who was serving his sentence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for involvement in murder of former Chechen warlord Sulim Yamadayev, was deported to Tajikistan. We will recall that a Dubai court on December 22, 2010 slashed the prison terms for Ismatov and Iranian national Lurnia convicted in the 2009 slaying of a former Chechen warlord from life to just three years in a surprise ruling.
July 9 – The 29th congress of the Communist Party of Tajikistan took place in Dushanbe. The congress reviewed the results of five-year’s work of the party and elected new management of the party and reelected the 67-year-old Shodi Shabdolov leader of the party;
– Tajikistan established diplomatic relations with the Republic of Benin. A joint communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations between Tajikistan and the Republic of Benin was signed in New York by Ambassador Sirojiddin Aslov, Tajikistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Ambassador Jean-Francis Zinsu (phonetically spelled), Benin’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
July 11 – Two escapees from a high-profile jailbreak last year were detained in eastern Tajikistan. In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Tajik Prosecutor-General Sherkhon Salimzoda revealed on July 12 the prison escapees — Kazbek Jabrailov, 25, and Nizami Abiyev, 25 — were detained in Jirgatol district, eastern Tajikistan while attempting to illegally cross the Tajik-Kyrgyz border. Jabrailov and Abiyev — both residents of the Russian republic of Daghestan — had served long prison terms in Tajikistan;
– Criminal case of resident of Qurghon Teppa Murodbek Qalanadarov, charged with creating a women”s organization that belongs to the banned Islamic group Jamaat ut-Tabligh, moved to court in the city of Sarband. According to Khatlon law enforcement authorities, Murodbek Qalandarov created a branch of the women”s organization Masturot (“hidden” or “closed” in Arabic) in Sarband.
July 12 – The trial in Tajikistan of 53 people suspected of belonging to the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) thought to be behind a suicide car-bomb attack last year began in Khujand. We will recall that on September 3, 2010, Akmal Karimov drove a car packed with explosives into the main gate of the headquarters of the organized crime control unit of Sughd police directorate in Khujand, killing himself and three others and injuring 28 people. It was the first-ever such suicide bombing reported in Tajikistan;
– Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi accepted copy of credentials of Pakistan’s new Ambassador to Tajikistan Amjad Hussain Barkat Ali Sial.
July 13 – Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov met here with Mr. Vladimir Garkun, Principal Deputy Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee. According to the PM Secretariat, the sides discussed preparations for the next meetings of the CIS heads of state and the CIS foreign ministers that will take place in Dushanbe in early September. The two also discussed the process of implementation of the plan of events dedicated to the 20th anniversary of founding of the CIS and other issues being of mutual interest;
– The Government of Tajikistan and the World Bank signed Financing Agreements for three development projects that will support the Government’s reform efforts in social protection, improve the water supply services in Dushanbe and hydro-meteorological services in Central Asia.
July 13-16 – The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha was in Tajikistan on a working visit. During his stay in Tajikistan, Mr. Bordyuzha held talks with high-ranking Tajik state officials to discuss issues related to providing regional security, military and military-technical cooperation between the CSTO member nations.
July 14 – Urunboy Usmonov, a correspondent for the BBC who was taken into custody one month ago on suspicion of belonging to the banned Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir group, was freed from jail in Khujand. Prosecutor-General Sherkhon Salimzoda told Asia-Plus that the government had “studied a criminal case against Usmonov and come to the conclusion [that it] can continue conducting the case without keeping the accused in custody.” Urunboy Usmonov, 60, was detained on June 13 and accused of belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir, which he denies. Investigators have since dropped two initial charges. They had originally accused Usmonov of being a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and of making “public calls to forcibly change the constitutional system of Tajikistan.” The journalist is being charged with failing to report the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir group to the Tajik law enforcement authorities.
July 15 – President Emomali Rahmon visited Fayzobod district, some 56 kilometers to the east of Dushanbe. The main purpose of the visit is for the president to get acquainted with the socioeconomic situation of the district and pace of reforms carried out in Fayzobod’s agrarian sector.
July 15-17 – Mr. Olivier Descamps, Managing Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Turkey, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, was in Tajikistan on a working visit.
July 19 – The Kyrgyz authorities suspended operations of the Shangri-La Casino located on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border and which was very popular among residents of northern Tajikistan.
July 20 – One person was killed and at least four others injured in an earthquake. The death was reported in Khujand. A 43-year-old resident of Khujand Abdullojon Askarov was building a private house and he stayed overnight at the half-finished house. He apparently jumped out of the second-floor window to escape the quake. At least four other residents of Khujand were injured in the quake. They also jumped out of windows to escape the quake;
– Tajikistan and Switzerland have signed a government-to-government agreement on trade and economic cooperation, according to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT). The agreement was signed in Dushanbe by Farrukh Hamraliyev, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, and Stephan Nellen, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Switzerland to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.
July 21 – Members of Tajikistan’s upper chamber (Majlisi Milli) of parliament unanimously seconded the law on holding parents responsible for their children’s action and education.
July 21-22 – The fifth annual OSCE Preparatory Human Dimension Implementation Meeting during which government and civil society representatives discussed human rights issues was held in Dushanbe.
July 22 – President Emomali Rahmon visited Shahrinav and Tursunzoda districts.
July 24 – An arms cache containing 18 RGD-5 and F-1 hand grenades, 23 bullets for the KPVT heavy machine gun, four shells for attached grenade launcher, 13 shells for the BMP (infantry fighting vehicle) gun, some 5,000 bullets of different caliber, and two unserviceable antipersonnel mines was discovered on territory of the building materials enterprise in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district.
July 25 – Another one of the 25 convicts who escaped last year from a high-security Tajik prison was recaptured while a second one was killed in Tavildara district, some 250 kilometers east of Dushanbe. Jonibek Ziyoev, 32, was reportedly apprehended during an operation in the village of Childara. The second escapee, Bahriddin Hasanov, 43, was mortally wounded in a shoot-out in which one police officer was also killed and two others injured;
– Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi met here with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek.
July 26 – President Emomali Rahmon visited Khuroson and Jomi districts in Khatlon province;
Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi met here with Lord Viscount Waverley, Chairman of the British All Party Parliamentary Group fro Central Asia and Tajikistan. The meeting reportedly focused on issues related to regional cooperation, the current situation in Afghanistan, state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the United Kingdom, as well as ways of bringing British investors to Tajikistan.
July 26-27 – Extended European Union – Tajikistan civil society seminar on the rights of labor migrants was held in Dushanbe. Organized by the EU Delegation in Tajikistan in cooperation with civil society organizations, the two-day event served as an open forum to examine labor migrants’ rights related issues.
July 27 – President Emomali Rahmon sent a draft amnesty law to the lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of the parliament to mark the 20th anniversary of Tajikistan”s declaration of independence, which is on September 9. In all, more than 15,000 people are expected to fall under the 2011 amnesty; more than 4,000 prison inmates will be released, while others may have their prison terms cut or their suspended sentences annulled;
– The youth organization of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) called Sozandagoni Vatan (Creators of Homeland) held a founding conference in Dushanbe. The conference elected Adham Mirsaidov, formerly head of the PDP organizing department, chairman of the Sozandagoni Vatan organization;
– A criminal case of real-estate development company Movarounnahr”s chairman, Jurabek Okhunov, moved to the Supreme Court, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports. Jurabek Okhunov is reportedly accused of selling the same apartment to several people.
July 27-30 – Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rasoul was in Dushanbe on a working visit. During his stay here, Zalmay Rasoul met with a number of high-ranking Tajik state officials to discuss cooperation issues.
