DUSHANBE, April 1, 2015, Asia-Plus:

 

March 1                        - The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won parliamentary elections that were criticized by international monitors.  The PDP reportedly received 65.2 percent of the votes cast in the elections.  The Agrarian Party, the Party of Economic Reforms, and the Socialist Party also won seats in parliament.  The OSCE international observer mission said that the parliamentary polls took place in a “restricted political space.”

 

March 3                        - The Khujand city court sentenced the 45-year-old resident of the city of Istaravshan (Sughd province), R.Yu., to nine years in prison.  The man was charged with organizing a criminal group, organizing an extremist group, organizing an extremist activity, and membership in the outlawed religious extremist group, Jamaat Ansarullah.

 

March 4                        - Tajik President received Mr. Wencai Zhang, the Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).  Rahmon and Zhang reportedly discussed issues related to cooperation between Tajikistan and the Bank, ADB’s support for socioeconomic development of Tajikistan, including mitigation of adverse impact of external crisis factors;

- A court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district sentenced Umedjon Solehov to 17 1/2 years in jail for insulting the president, calling for extremist actions, and being a member of the banned opposition movement Group 24.  The court also ruled that Solehov cannot be involved in any business activities for five years after completing his jail term.  Solehov was arrested in October after he was seen in an online video of a gathering by Tajik migrant workers in Russia, calling on Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to resign.  Solehov insisted that he had never been a member of Group 24. 

 

March 5                        - Fugitive Tajik opposition politician and businessman Umarali Quvvatov, who was leader of the opposition organization Group 25, was shot dead on a street in Istanbul by an unidentified attacker.  A tycoon who once had close ties with President Emomali Rahmon but became an opponent, Quvvatov was wanted by Dushanbe on fraud charges that he said were politically motivated.

 

March 5-8                     Co-chaired by Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and Kyrgyz Vice-Premier Abdyrahman Mamataliyev, a meeting of the Tajik-Kyrgyz commission for demarcation and delimitation of disputable stretches of common border took place in Dushanbe.

 

March 8                        - Tajikistan celebrated the Day of the Mother.

 

March 9                        Tajik opposition politician and businessman Umarali Quvvatov was buried in Istanbul;

                                    - Three Tajik men were arrested in Istanbul on suspicion of involvement in Quvvatov’s killing.  

 

March 10                      - Tajik police said they have detained a 25-year-old woman in Istanbul who was allegedly planning to take a bus from Turkey to Syria to join Islamic State militants.  Shahnoza Bozorzoda, a medical student, was detained in Istanbul by Tajik authorities after she called a friend in Dushanbe to tell him about her intention to join the extremist group.  It is unclear when Bozorzoda was detained and returned home, but state television broadcast a report that showed her acknowledging that she had traveled to Turkey and had been in contact for months with a Tajik man alleged to be fighting in Syria.  Authorities say Bozorzoda was "radicalized" by the alleged fighter through social networking sites and Viber mobile-phone messages.  

 

March 10-14                  - The Ministry of Defense (MoD) conducted large-scale exercises in Khatlon province that involved more than 30,000 people, including soldiers, reservists, local police, and civilian support services.

 

March 11                      - A round of the High Level Security Dialogue between the European Union and the countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan) was held in Dushanbe.  The Dushanbe round of the High Level Security Dialogue reportedly discussed new Central Asian security challenges;

                                    - Four Tajik nationals were killed and at least six others were injured in the fire that took place at the Admiral shopping center in Kazan, capital of Russia’s Tatarstan Autonomous Republic;

                                    - Tajikistan celebrated the Tajik Press Day.

 

March 11-14                  - The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha was on a working visit to Tajikistan to discuss with high-ranking Tajik state officials agreements regarding strengthening of the Tajik-Afghan border that were reached within the framework of the CSTO and Tajikistan’s plan for the period of its rotating presidency of the Organization.  Speaking at a press conference in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, late on March 13, Bordyuzha said CSTO forces could repel any threat emanating from the Afghan side of the border.  According to him, the CSTO military forces could be at the Tajik-Afghan border within three days if a conflict broke out there.

 

March 12                      - Tajik opposition Group 24 movement elected its new leadership after its founding leader Umarali Quvvatov was shot dead in Istanbul on March 5.  Quvvatov''s cousin and business associate, 29-year-old Sharofiddin Gadoyev, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Spain since 2013, was elected the movement''s new leader and Tajik businessman, Sobir Valiyev, 26, was elected Gadoyev''s deputy.

 

March 13                      - A court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district sentenced Firdavs Muhiddinov and Farhod Karimov to 16 ½ years in prison each.  They will serve their terms in a high-security penal colony.  The sentence followed their conviction on charges of insulting the president, organizing an extremist group, organizing a criminal group, calling for extremist actions, and being members of the banned opposition movement Group 24.  Both men pleaded "partially guilty" and denied any association with Group 24.

 

March 16                      - President’s son, Rustam Emomali, who had previously served as Head of the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan, was appointed to head the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption under the President of Tajikistan, replacing Abdufattoh Ghoib.  Abdufattoh Ghoib, was named as the Customs Service''s new chief.

 

March 17                      - The first sitting of the newly elected Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower house of parliament) took place in Dushanbe;

- President Emomali Rahmon performed the foundation-stone ceremony for the National Theater of Tajikistan in Dushanbe, which is expected to be the largest theater in the Central Asian region.

 

March 19                      - President Emomaili Rahmon held an annual meeting with representatives of Tajik intelligentsia.  He called on them to outline a long-term “national development concept” that would establish a "democratic and secular country based on the rule of law.”  Rahmon said the development concept would guide the Central Asian country through the year 2050 and must be based firmly on its national interests;

                                    - Two senior officials at the Tajik counternarcotics agency were detained on suspicion of bribe taking.  The DCA investigative department chief Saymukhtor Bekov and the DCA operative-search department chief Ergash Malikov are suspected in accepting tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for re-qualifying charges brought against a suspect.

 

March 19-20                  - The 12th session of Tajik-Kazakh intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation took place in Dushanbe.  Co-chaired by Qosim Qodir, Chairman of the State Committee on Investments and State-owned Property Management of Tajikistan and Talgat Akhsambiyev, Deputy Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, the session discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral economic cooperation between Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.

 

 

March 21                      - Tajikistan celebrated Navrouz holiday.

 

March 21-24                  - President was on a visit to the northern Sughd province.  On March 24, he laid the cornerstone of a new modern city in the Somghor area of the Bobojonghafourov district.  This city for more than 40,000 families or some 250,000 people, named Saihun after a nearby river, will be built on a 14,000-hectare desert land.  The new city will have 19 residential areas, some 50 schools, 40 sports centers, and numerous shopping centers and bazaars, the president’s official website says, noting that a total of 1,000 hectares of the desert around the city will be turned into orchards. 

 

March 22                      - Three Tajik nationals who had children with them were stopped by Kyrgyz security officials at the Osh airport.  They reportedly planned to travel from Osh to Istanbul, Turkey and then to Syria to fight alongside Islamist militants against the government forces.   

 

March 27                      - Tajik nationals working in Yemen’s capital Sana appealed to the Tajik authorities to help them return to Tajikistan;

                                    - Tajik MFA said that its embassy in Qatar is trying to relocate Tajik citizens in Yemen to safer areas before returning them home with the help of Russian authorities and companies; 

                                    - Indirect elections of members of the upper house (Majlisi Milli) of the parliament (Majlisi Oli) took place in Tajikistan;

                                    - Imams at some mosques across Tajikistan urged Muslims to support the closure of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRP).