[ Euasianet ] Tajikistan: President demands Tajik role in running Afghanistan

The president of Tajikistan has said that his government will not recognize the Taliban’s rule over Afghanistan unless the country’s ethnic Tajik minority is accorded a “worthy role” in the running of the country.

Rahmon said his confidence in the Taliban has been undermined by the group’s abandonment of pledges to consider power-sharing with all political forces in Afghanistan.

In the interests of avoiding political and security crises, an inclusive government involving all ethnic minorities should be formed, Rahmon said. The president estimated the Tajik segment of the population as constituting 46 percent of the whole. International estimates tend to put the proportion closer to around one-quarter of the population.

The Tajik government’s position is that the government should be formed through elections and that a form of rule based on “cruelty and persecution” cannot be tolerated.

It had been alleged in some corners, although with nothing like any serious substantiation, that Tajikistan has even supplied weaponry to anti-Taliban forces in the Panjshir Valley.

The Foreign Ministry has forcefully denied this claim, however.