Читать книгу Tajikistan. The country of Islam, Mountains and Rivers - Romans Arzjancevs - Страница 5

I don’t have many ideas to write about, but there are some moments that recalls some feelings about the lovely Tajikistan. In the beginning I need to tell you about the Tajikistan’s landscapes. It is situated in the Central Asia next to Pamir Mountains with so many rivers that flow down the mountains, so many lakes with clean, cold and fresh water. Mountain areas can be really cold during winter. These areas are very isolated, with several villages and not so largely populated towns that are situated in that region which Tajik people call – Gorno Badakhshan. Badakhshan in fact is an autonomous district which is one of the official administrative division districts situated in the East part of Tajikistan near the China on the East and Afghanistan on the South. This part of the Tajikistan differs from other areas because the people of this district belong to other denomination. As maybe you already know Tajikistan’s official religion is Islam more accurately, Sunni Islam that is represented by majority of the Muslims in the world. Of course this means that the majority of Tajik people belong to Sunni Islam but inhabitants of the Gorno Badakhshan belong to Ismaili Islam. Very interesting to know about these differences. So Ismailism belongs to the Shia main stream of Islam. Although they are both branches of Islam they still have differences that you can see in everyday life of the Tajik people living in other parts of the country. Ismaili Muslims have different views of life which are not in the West parts of the Republic where the native Tajik people live. Also very interesting to tell about the population of 8.5 million is that despite all problems that Tajikistan has in all parts of country life, economy, poverty because of what many residents are forced to go to other countries, civil war for five years, the population grows every year. It was a hard time for nation during the civil war that took place in Gorno Badakhshan because large portion of population went to other countries, mostly to Afghanistan as immigrants in the beginning of nineties, so in 1992. The war ended only in 1997. Tajikistan was the poorest country in former Soviet Union. The impact of this war is not so important now because the country changes and life along with it and problems that seemed to be very difficult to overcome in the past is not so now because the viewpoint has changed. You know it is very hard to concentrate thinking so maybe now little bit about the capital – Dushanbe city. The capital is situated in the central part of Tajikistan on the West. The city is not so modern, not so comfortable without modern buildings but often it is like this in large cities that are situated near mountains. Also streets and roads are not so modern comparing to other capitals of Central Asia’s republics for instance in Astana (Kazakhstan) and Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) whose capitals are very modern and have amazing views of countries landscapes. But Tajikistan can be more interesting because of its unique way of living.

Gorno Badakhshan autonomous district was today’s main theme. Long and hard years of war that took place in this area brought a lot of suffering and problems which this district already had before the conflict began. The conflict started soon after the collapse of Soviet Union. When Tajikistan declared its independence from Soviet Union this autonomous district declared it s for Tajikistan. But Tajik government was not comfortable with this decision and so started the five year long conflict between the official Tajikistan’s government and government forces of Gorno Badakhshan. Probably the reason for this war was based on differences between two cultures – native Tajik people and nations that populated in Gorno Badakhshan. Also religious differences between two branches of Islam – Sunni and Ismaili. These were probably the hardest years in the history of the Republic of Tajikistan.