The Palace of the Nation (; ) is the official residence of the

President of Tajikistan The president of Tajikistan is the head of state of the Republic of Tajikistan. The president heads the executive branch of the country's government and is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Tajikistan. History of the presidency ...

. It is located on Shirinshoh Shohtemur Street in central

Dushanbe Dushanbe is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 1,564,700, with this population being largely Tajiks, Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as St ...

. The Presidential Palace is surrounded by the Dushanbe Flagpole to the north,

Rudaki Rudaki (also spelled Rodaki; ; – 940/41) was a poet, singer, and musician who is regarded as the first major poet to write in New Persian. A court poet under the Samanids, he reportedly composed more than 180,000 verses, yet only a small p ...

Park to the east, Dousti Square to the south and Varzob River to the west. The palace was built by Rizzani de Eccher, an Italian construction company.

History

The construction of the Palace began in 2000. In early 2006, the Dushanbe Synagogue, the local

mikveh A mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvot'', or (Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazic) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion, ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve Tumah and taharah, ...

(ritual bath), a

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...

butcher shop, and several Jewish schools were demolished by the government without compensation to make room for the new palace. After an international outcry, the government announced a reversal and said that would allow the synagogue to be rebuilt at its current site. However, in the final stages of the palace's construction, the government destroyed the entire synagogue, leaving Tajikistan without a synagogue as it was the only one in the country. This resulted in the majority of Tajik

Bukharan Jews Bukharan Jews, also known as Bukharian Jews, are the Mizrahi Jewish sub-group of Central Asia that dwelt predominantly in what is today Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. The group's name is derived from the Emirate of Bukh ...

having negative views of the Tajik government.Dushanbe synagogue demolished
26 June 2008
, 29 June 2008 On the eve of the

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a Eurasian politics, political, economy, economic, international security and Defence (military), defence organization of ten member states. It was established in 2001 by the China, People's Republic ...

summit in

in August 2008, the palace was completed, with the summit events being partially held under the golden dome with 20-meter columns. An image of the palace is imprinted on the back of a 500 Somoni banknote, which is the national currency of Tajikistan. In September 2018, Belarusian President

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

became the first foreign leader to visit the new wooden halls and rooms in the palace. The Old Presidential Palace, the former seat of the Council of Ministers of the

Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, also commonly known as Soviet Tajikistan, the Tajik SSR, TaSSR, or simply Tajikistan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union which existed from 1929 to 1991 in Central Asia. The Tajik Rep ...

), which was located on Rudaki Avenue, was demolished in 2023. In its stead,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

helped build a new building for the republic's government and parliament.

Gallery

File:Secretary Kerry Shakes Hands With Tajikistan President Rahmon at the Palace of Nations in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (22744838565).jpg, U.S. Secretary of State

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...

shaking hands at the Palace in 2015 Narendra Modi inspecting the Guard of Honour, during the Ceremonial Reception, at the Qasr-e-Millat, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on July 13, 2015. The President of Tajikistan, Mr. Emomali Rahmon is also seen.jpg, Indian Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

being welcomed at the Palace in 2015 File:Palace of Nations and the Flagpole, Dushanbe, Tajikistan.JPG, Dushanbe Flagpole to the north Palace of Nations, Dushanbe, Tajikistan (1).jpg, Independence Monument to the south Дворец наций. г. Душанбе, Таджикистан.jpg, The Palace of the Nation as seen from Rudaki Park File:TJS 500 2010 reverse.jpg, 500 somoni banknote of 2010, with an image of the Palace File:Dushanbe, Tajikistan - panoramio (19).jpg, Old Presidential Palace on Rudaki Avenue, demolished in 2021

References

External links

{{commonscat, Presidential Palace in Dushanbe Buildings and structures in Dushanbe Presidential residences Palaces in Tajikistan