The National Alliance of Tajikistan urges the world community and all democratic countries, in particular the countries of the European Union, to refrain from inviting Emomali Rahmon to their countries and shaking hands with him, since such actions not only legitimize Rahmon’s authoritarian regime, but can also encourage further instances of gross violations of human rights and political repression in Tajikistan.

On 23-24 April 2024, the self-proclaimed president and usurper of Tajikistan since 1992 Emomali Rahmon and a high-ranking government delegation will visit Italy.

Taking into consideration Italy’s commitment to democratic principles, it is regrettable to see, that the country will be hosting Emomali Rahmon, who has consolidated power in Tajikistan for more than 30 years since 1992 and is considered the longest-living and most ruthless dictator in the entire post-Soviet region.

The EU countries have imposed personal sanctions against Russian President Putin and Belarusian President Lukashenko, also recently, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) declared Putin an illegitimate president amidst the murder of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Surprisingly however, the authorities of European countries not only refrain from imposing sanctions against Emomali Rahmon, who is much more authoritarian and ruthless compared to the presidents of Russia and Belarus, but also invite him to their countries and shake hands with him.

Emomali Rahmon’s government is implicated in the assassination of Umarali Quvvatov, the founder of the opposition political movement Group 24, who was killed in Istanbul in 2015.

Over the past ten years alone, Emomali Rahmon banned the main opposition party of the country — the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), jailed hundreds of high-ranking members of this party, adopted a number of laws and thereby consolidated all power in the hands of his family members, and also recently brutally suppressed peaceful protests by residents of Badakhshan, as a result of which dozens of Pamiri minority were killed and hundreds were sentenced to long prison terms.

For more than 30 years of his rule in Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon has brought nothing to the Tajik people except poverty, oppression, repression and gross violations of human rights.

The culmination of Emomali Rahmon’s systematic repression, incompetence and mismanagement of Emomali Rahmon over the past three decades has been the migration of millions of Tajik citizens to Russia and European countries, the concerning uptick in Tajik youth joining extremist groups and their participation in terrorist attacks.

As Emomali Rahmon himself admitted, over the past three years alone, Tajik youth have been involved in 24 cases of terrorist attacks around the world, including in European countries.

The National Alliance of Tajikistan urges the world community and all democratic countries, in particular the countries of the European Union, to refrain from inviting Emomali Rahmon to their countries and shaking hands with him, since such actions not only legitimize Rahmon’s authoritarian regime, but can also encourage further instances of gross violations of human rights and political repression in Tajikistan.

The National Alliance of Tajikistan

19.04.2024