Topic summary
Civil war in Tajikistan
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Tajikistani Civil War.
Background
There were numerous causes of the civil war in Tajikistan, such as economic hardship, communal way of life of Tajiki people and their high religiosity. Under Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika policies, an Islamic-democratic movement began to emerge in the Tajik SSR. The backbone of opposition were the Party of Tajikistan Muslim Resurrection, the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, and some other movements. The fight between the former communist elite and opposition shifted from the political sphere to an ethnic and clan-based one.