Tajikistani Civil War: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:56, 20 August 2006

Revision as of 21:57, 20 August 2006

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Once ethnic Tajik [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] members asserted themselves as the head of the Tajik SSR, they began to perceive Tajik nationalist sentiments to have a widespread following. This attitude was reflected in policy shifts in 1989 and mainifested itself in many forms. These included the establishment of a Tajik cultural foundation to preserve Tajik heritage, the changing of the name of Tajikistan's second largest city Leninabad back to [[Khujand]], the local media printing editorials that expressed explicit nationalist concerns (most of which were authored by members of the future opposition), and the enactment of the 1989 language law which gave the [[Tajik language]] primacy over [[Russian language|Russian]]. <ref name="NewStates-NewPolitics02">Bremmer and Taras. p. 606.</ref>

The Tajik ruling elite did not have a monopoly on Tajik nationalist expression. Public support among Tajiks in the Tajikrepublic's capital of [[Dushanbe]], for example, for improving the status of the Tajik language began months before the passage of the 1989 language law. Growing Tajik nationalism in the late 1980s also took form in alternative Tajik nationalist political organizations, which articulated nationalist concerns. Among other things, these groups also pushed for full economic and political sovereignty from the Soviet Union. <ref name="NewStates-NewPolitics02" /> It was, however, harder to articulate the attitudes of the rural Tajiks who the ruling elite and non-Tajiks in Dushanbe considered "backward," "primitive," and "lacking a full-fleged ideology but capable of xenophobia and Islamic fundamentalism." Even Tajik nationalist opposition groups considered riral Tajiks ignorant of their historical heritage. Ironically, members of the Dushanbe ruling elite would soon begin to play an active role to ally themselves with local rural groups in hopes of achieving victory. <ref name="NewStates-NewPolitics03">Bremmer and Taras. p. 607.</ref>

==The first year of fighting==