The Tajik Civil War
Independence in 1991 removed the structure that had allocated power among Tajikistan's regions, and within months the country fell into war. The fighting aligned along regional rather than purely ideological lines: forces from Kulob and Khujand, backed by Russia and Uzbekistan, against an opposition coalition from Gharm and Badakhshan that combined Islamist, democratic and nationalist currents and drew support from across the Afghan border. Estimates of the dead range from forty thousand to over a hundred thousand in a population of five and a half million; more than a million people were displaced. Russia's 201st Motor Rifle Division remained in the country throughout and was decisive in securing the government of Emomali Rahmon, who took power in 1992. The 1997 General Agreement, negotiated under UN auspices with Russian and Iranian involvement, was unusual: it guaranteed the United Tajik Opposition thirty per cent of government posts and legalised the Islamic Renaissance Party, making Tajikistan the only Central Asian state with a legal Islamist party. That settlement was dismantled by degrees. The quota lapsed, opposition figures were prosecuted or driven abroad, and in 2015 the Islamic Renaissance Party was banned and designated a terrorist organisation. Rahmon has since been declared Leader of the Nation with lifetime immunity.
- Year: 1992 CE
- Category: Civil War
