Abstract

Watching Rights

The article presents information on the political and social history of Tajikistan. Probably the poorest of the fifteen republics that made up the Soviet Union, and one with little or no historical claim to nationhood, Tajikistan lacked a significant movement for self-determination before it suddenly became a country following the failed coup in Moscow of August 1991. Of its 5.5 million people, the majority are Tajiks, an ethnically Iranic people. In this, Tajikistan differs from the other former Soviet central Asian republics, which are mainly Turkic, as is the largest minority in Tajikistan, the Uzbeks, who make up nearly a quarter of the population. Although there are many subfactions in Tajikistan, currently three main factions vie for advantage: the Uzbekistan-linked communist government, a small but growing Islamic fundamentalist movement and a coalition of moderate Islamic and secular groups committed to pluralism and democracy.