Russia and Russian Media and Russian authorities shpould better abd firt think of changing the very racist public opinion in Russia where xenophobia is taking ground day by day, worse and worse.

If Russian or any other country is concerned or rather worried about Rahman’s name-change, it definitely means that they have psychological problem. Because Rahmon changed his own name and has a right for it. He did not change Putin’s name. He did not impose his will on others.

It is good to get rid of Russian name endings because they are IMPOSED on us forcibly, we have the right to self determination, self identification and we are proud of it. In fact foreign imposition of names or any other cultural norms should be condemned.

As regards “Islamic credentials”, I dont believe it either, it is a foreign media generalization, because most of european journalists have no idea of Central Asia and they even mix up Rahmon and Niyazov and Karimov, they have free enough space to generalise and expand their lie markets without knowing anything in teh ground. I believed that Rahmon simply came to know that he likes to be called in Tajik tradition, because ordinary people never used Russian ending in their speaking language, unless they spoke about an official. They always used names without Russian endings despite Soviet propaganda and control.

As regards foreign diplomacy, a country wich follows likes and dislikes of other countries, makes just a mistake, every country despite economir or political dependence etc, should be self-confident and should decide for itself, irrespective of whether others like it or not.

We are no inferior to others and even better in some respects, at least we have no racist or fascist movement in our country, while fascists and racists are harboured by officials in Russia, in Uzbekistan state itself forcefully assimilates other ethnics into the major fold, depriving minorities of their basic human rights, violating the rights of millions to education in their own language.

As for anti-russian sentiments in Tajikistan, there have never been and never are such sentiments, Whoever lived in Tajikistan knows better, its is just a Russian media propaganda to inflame anti-Tajik feelinngs inside Russia which already exists.

In fact Russian have better position in Tajik society than any other country, most of them who left country before, returned after years of wandering and finding no good place in Russia. Russians’ migration during Civil War is not motivated by racist problems, during war iots usual that everybody who has a home of hope elsewhere, migrates from any country where there is a war. During the war thousands of Tajiks also migrated to Russia, even the number of Tajik migrants surpasses that of Russians. It is natural.

Best wishes,
Faramarz

Granted. That he made it mandatory for other Tajiks to drop Russian name endings is not agreeable to me either. I want to stick to my Russianized last name, not so much because I like it (it sucks to be honest), but becuase I do not want the corrupt law-enforcement to charge me for the new passport and in general I don’t like it when people shove things down my throat, be they presidents or whoever. On the other hand, however, the measure does not apply to the ethnic Russians, therefore does not have foreign policy implications for Tajikistan vis-a-vis Russia, but is rather intended by Rahmonov to boost his Muslim credentials at home and abroad, if you know what I mean. IRPT has a sizable voting bloc and Rahmonov wants to tap into it and believe you me many of IRPT adherents have sympathised with the measure. Needless to say, Rahmonov have raised his profile among his neighbors as well.
I hope the above sheds some light on the issue.

Why would President Rakhmon mandate that Others change their name just because he preferred this choice for himself? I hope you check back and tell me what you think about this part of the new developments.

Thank you very much for writing, and I hope you and Faramarz and Sam write back. I also welcome comments from others who may have some light to shed upon this subject.

Ms. Bonnie Boyd,

With all due respect, but the above is speculative. Rahmonov is not as stupid as to shoot himself in the foot, by whipping up anti-Russian sentiments, becasue these will backfire on Tajkistan in the form of diaspora persecutions in Russia (in the style of recent Georgian diaspora persecutions at the hands of Putin). The situation is already abysmal for Tajiks in St. Petersburg and Moscow especially, why would Rakhmonov want to put fuel to the flame.

If you look at my post again, I think you will see that I advocated Tajikistan follow a multilateral diplomacy. I used Kazakhstan’s foreign relations as an example. I don’t believe Tajikistan should be a client state of Russia, but if Tajikistan isolates from Russia, they face the prospect of becoming a client state of China instead. It is not in Tajikistan’s best interest to become or remain the client of any state. One example that you did not use was that of Belarus. Now that Beltantransgaz is a part of Gazprom, President Lukashenka’s cold shoulder to the rest of the world looks exceedingly counterproductive.

I have no quibble with President Rakhmon’s desire to change his name. Instead, I have a problem with his desire to make that choice for others. By changing his name, he has already offerred the opportunity for other Tajikistani citizens to do so. The ruling that others must have their names changed or amended for official documents makes mandatory what should be a private choice.

As for Mr. Milosevic, he was the instigator of most of the conflict and war atrocities in the Former Yugoslavia; Mr. Najibullah was installed as President during the ill-fated Soviet war in Afghanistan. Mr. Shevardnadze was displaced in a peaceful Rose Revolution after unsustainably throwing a democratic election. Even the situation between Russia and Iran in regard to the nuclear impasse is not about betrayal.  As Sam notes, Russia and Iran have a relationship based upon numerous issues and transactions.  Russia and Iran have and should have economic ties; Russia does have nuclear energy expertise to export. The problem for the world community is that nuclear weapons proliferation must and should be a primary security issue.

In each of these cases, Russia acted eventually as a member of the international community, under considerations of multilateral diplomacy and obligation. This is the course I am recommending to President Rakhmon.

Please accept my best regards and thanks for your comments,
Bonnie