Tajikistan celebrates National Unity Day
DUSHANBE. June 27 (Interfax) - Tajikistan is marking its National Unity Day, which is an official non-working day in the country, on Tuesday.
Twenty years ago, on June 27, 1997, in Moscow, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and United Tajik Opposition leader Said Abdullo Nuri signed the General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord in Tajikistan, thus ending the country's five-year bloody civil war, which began in the spring of 1992.
On Monday, President Rahmon congratulated Tajik citizens on the 20th anniversary of their national unity.
From the very early stages of its independence, Tajikistan found itself plunged into the vortex of political confrontation and was then engulfed in the flames of the civil war, which was imposed on the country "as a result of provocations and intrigues of internal and external evil-minded forces", the president said.
"This terrible event, which took place with the support of mercenary external circles using domestic forces which lost their way, claimed the lives of tens of thousands of the country's citizens and caused more than one million of our fellow citizens to flee and immigrate. Irreparable damage was inflicted on the economy of the country, and its economic and social infrastructure was destroyed. At that time, we found ourselves at risk of the young Tajik state's disappearance from the world's political map and a break-up of the Tajik nation," Rahmon said.
The process of achieving peace and national accord in Tajikistan was one-of-a-kind in conflict settlement practice and was recognized across the world as a unique phenomenon, the president said.
The idea of the nation's unification is closely linked with efforts to promote spirituality in society, maintain lasting peace and stability in society and the state and also steps to safeguard their social values, he said.