By Seyfeddin Kara
When Israel’s then President Ezer Weizman, a former air force chief, visited Turkey in 1997 he violated diplomatic protocol by making statements about the host country’s internal affairs. Commenting on the Welfare Party’s victory in the elections he said “the Turkish army will not stay idle following [Necmettin] Erbakan’s inauguration as Prime Minister.” Contrary to what would have been expected from any sovereign country faced with such gross interference in its internal affairs, Weizman received a very mild reaction. The Turkish Foreign Ministry played down the Israeli President’s remarks, calling them Weizman’s personal opinion.
May 2010
Options for the Islamic movement in Tajikistan
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By Maksud Djavadov
At first glance there appears nothing unusual about the ruling party’s “landslide victory” in the March 1 parliamentary elections in Tajikistan. All authoritarian regimes, in Central Asia as elsewhere, use “elections” as an administrative tool to formalize their grip on power. On closer examination, it becomes clear that no matter how authoritarian and power hungry the regime in Tajikistan may be, it still had to accept the popularity of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). Even though the regime allocated only 7.7% of the vote to the IRPT in the “new” parliament which was formed as a result of electoral fraud, as attested to by many international observers, the fact that IRPT is still legally present on the Tajik political scene is a great achievement based on Central Asian standards.
At first glance there appears nothing unusual about the ruling party’s “landslide victory” in the March 1 parliamentary elections in Tajikistan. All authoritarian regimes, in Central Asia as elsewhere, use “elections” as an administrative tool to formalize their grip on power. On closer examination, it becomes clear that no matter how authoritarian and power hungry the regime in Tajikistan may be, it still had to accept the popularity of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). Even though the regime allocated only 7.7% of the vote to the IRPT in the “new” parliament which was formed as a result of electoral fraud, as attested to by many international observers, the fact that IRPT is still legally present on the Tajik political scene is a great achievement based on Central Asian standards.
