ABSTRACT
The civil war in Tajikistan, which lasted from May to December 1992, was Central Asia’s most violent conflict since the war against the Basmacbi (‘Muslim rebels’) in the 1920s. What is at stake in Tajikistan today is nothing less than its continuance as a unified nation-state. Even before the civil war, which profoundly traumatised the country, Tajikistan had been approaching independence with some serious handicaps:
- it was the ex-Soviet republic with the lowest per capita GDP; it was also the one with the highest demographic growth (3.3% per year in 1988).
