Rustam Haidarov: Destructive actions of TEO IRP Carried Out Using Websites Pose an Open and Direct Threat to Tajikistan’s Security

According to a decision of the Supreme Court of Tajikistan dated August 15, 2019, the National Alliance of Tajikistan (NAT) was recognized as a terrorist and extremist union (TEU) and its activities in Tajikistan were banned. Also, according to this decision, 39 websites that serve for terrorist and extremist organizations (TEO) such as the NAT, the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) and other extremist organizations associated with terrorist and extremist activities were blocked.

According to the conclusion of state examinations proposed by the Committee on Religion, Regulation of Tradition, Celebration and Ceremony under the government of Tajikistan, these websites were created to discredit the government of Tajikistan, propaganda extremist and terrorist ideas, carry out extremist activities and excite religious and national intolerance, reported the Supreme Court of Tajikistan.

Also, the Institute of Philosophy, Political Science and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan concluded that the videos posted on the networks of the NAT, YouTube and Facebook from the point of view of political science reflect the propaganda of extremist and anti-constitutional activities of the organization banned by the court.

There are on blocked websites relating to the terrorist and extremist organizations signs of incitement to national hatred, localism, a massive call for the violent seizure of state power, a public call for extremist activities and destabilization of the situation in the country, added the Supreme Court of Tajikistan.

In this regard, Khovar’s correspondent Mavjuda Anvari interviewed with the Deputy Director of the Institute of Philosophy, Political Science and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Doctor of Philosophy Rustam Haidarov.

Khovar: In your opinion, what is the peculiarity of the video materials and information distributed on the websites of the NAT and other terrorist and extremist organizations associated with it? For what purposes do some interested foreign countries use these organizations and their relations?

Haidarov: I think that the materials published on these websites are provocative and aimed at spreading socio-political intolerance, and a split in modern Tajik society. The information distributed on these websites is full of slander in relation to the Tajik people and the government of Tajikistan.

Today these websites are banned by the Supreme Court of Tajikistan. These websites are located on foreign countries and it can be said with full confidence that their subversive activities against Tajikistan are supported by special services of foreign circles.

The TEU NAT, to which some Tajik citizens have joined today, has become a toy in the hands of some interested foreign states that use them to achieve geopolitical goals in the region.

Khovar: What are the goals of the NAT and what threatens the activities of the NAT’s websites to the country's security?

Haidarov: The activities of the NAT’s websites, in accordance with the laws of Tajikistan, consist of propaganda of terrorist-extremist ideology. We must protect the country's information space from such information threats to state security. Today, in virtual space, such NAT’s websites are only engaged in the dissemination of the destructive and provocative ideology of this union.

NAT has the following goals:

a) forcibly changing the foundations of the constitutional order and undermining the territorial integrity of Tajikistan;

b) violating the security of Tajikistan;

c) forcible acquisition of state powers;

d) creation of illegal armed groups and organizations in Tajikistan;

e) carrying out terrorist activities in Tajikistan;

f) arousing in society racial, national and religious hostility, as well as social contradictions relating to violence or incitement to violence in Tajikistan;

g) humiliation of the honor and dignity of Tajiks;

h) implementing mass riots, criminal acts on the basis of intellectual, political, racial, national or religious hostility or on the basis of hatred or enmity against any social group in Tajikistan.

It should be emphasized that all these actions pose a serious threat to the national security of our state.

Khovar: How do you assess the political culture of the NAT’s leaders?

Haidarov: Despite the fact that the NAT’s leaders are in the very ‘heart’ of the civilization of world democracy, that is, in the European Union (EU), their political culture has not changed. The military rhetoric of the leaders of these criminal groups expanding, they, like in previous years, did not abandon their goals to destabilize the situation in Tajikistan, on the contrary, they purposefully call for the overthrow of the constitutional order of Tajikistan.

Most NAT’s representatives, who left Tajikistan many years ago, are not informed about the real situation in our country. Unreliable information distributed by them on their websites does not contain any facts and evidence. It is obtained from unverified sources.

Today we observe that a lot of profanity is used in the political rhetoric of Tajik terrorist and extremist groups. This is evidence of the lack of reliable facts, documents and information that they could use against the Tajik nation, Tajikistan and the government. The consistent e successes of the Tajik people in all spheres of the national economy make the slander and provocation of terrorist and extremist groups futile.

In virtual space and social networks, they continue illegal activities based on hatred and propaganda of the ideas of terrorism, the ideology of extremist violence, and religious radicalism. They use the fact of obtaining refugee status in the EU countries in order to continue to incite social, political and religious hatred in the Tajik segment on social networks of the Internet.

Somewhat earlier, the warlike rhetoric of Tajik terrorist and extremist groups led some of their supporters to openly speak on the Internet and called for the overthrow of the constitutional order in Tajikistan and the establishment of Sharia order. In our opinion, such destructive actions of Tajik terrorist groups, including the TEO IRP, should be regarded as an open and direct threat to the security of the population of Tajikistan. In the period of information wars, which are one of the modern means of overthrowing the constitutional order in many countries, we must give a serious rebuff to such threats.

In this regard, the relevant bodies should stand in the way of such challenges and threats in accordance with their authority and provide serious counteraction to these negative trends.

It should be noted that NAT was created abroad in 2018 by uniting the so-called organizations of the Association of Free -Thinking Tajiks, the Tajik Reform and Development Movement, the Central Asian Migrants Association and the terrorist-extremist organization Islamic Renaissance Party (TEO IRP), which is banned in Tajikistan.

Most experts on political and security issues believe that the TEO IRP with the creation of a new alliance, using the tricks utilized in the 1990s, intends to implement terrorist and extremist plans in the guise of an alliance. However, it is obvious that the NAT is the same TEO IRP under a different name.

The country’s Supreme Court in September 2015 banned the activity of the IRP in Tajikistan and declared it a terrorist and extremist organization.