Aga Khan
visits Tajikistan BBC September 22, 1998
Aga
Khan welcomed in Tajikistan BBC September 24, 1998
Aga
Khan gets a warm welcome in Tajikistan BBC September 22, 1998
Tajik Leader
Awards Aga Khan IV with Order Itar Tass September 22, 1998
Spiritual
Leader Pays Working Visit to Tajikistan Itar Tass September 24, 1998
Mountain
studies in the remote Pamirs BBC May 1998
Aga
Khan visits Tajikistan
Tuesday, September 22, 1998 Published at 17:04 GMT 18:04 UK
The spiritual leader of the world's Ismaili community, the Aga Khan, is visiting Tajikistan, home to a small but influential Ismaili community living mainly in the south of the country.
More than two-thousand Ismailis turned out to welcome him on his arrival on Monday.
The Aga Khan told reporters he would discuss economic projects in the remote mountainous regions of the country.
Since independence, the Aga Khan has poured millions of dollars into the country in aid and also played a part in brokering the peace in Tajikistan's civil war.
The Aga Khan last came to Tajikistan three years ago to meet his followers from whom he had been separated by Soviet rule.
- From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Aga
Khan welcomed in Tajikistan
Thursday, September 24, 1998 Published at 17:36 GMT 18:36 UK
World: Asia-Pacific
The leader of the world's Ismaili community, the Aga Khan, has been welcomed by thousands of his followers at the start of a visit to the Pamir mountains of eastern Tajikistan.
On his arrival at the region's only airport, the Aga Khan was given the traditional welcome -- he was offered salt and bread.
Later in the region's capital, Khorog, schoolchildren waved flowers and chanted songs in his honour.
The Ismaili community like other groups in Tajikistan has been severely affected by the civil war which followed independence.
But the Aga Khan has provided large amounts of food aid to the remote region, which the BBC Central Asia correspondent says saved many from virtual starvation.
- From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Aga
Khan gets a warm welcome in Tajikistan
Tuesday, September 22, 1998 Published at 01:30 GMT 02:30 UK
World: Asia-Pacific
The spiritual leader of the world's Ismaili community, the Aga Khan, has arrived in the Central Asian State of Tajikistan to a tumultuous welcome.
More than two-thousand Ismailis, most of whom live in the south of the country, turned out to see the man they worship as a living god.
The Aga Khan last came to Tajikistan three years ago to meet his followers from whom he had been separated by Soviet rule.
Since independence, the Aga Khan has poured millions of dollars into the country in aid and also played a part in brokering the peace in Tajikistan's civil war.
- From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Tajik
Leader Awards Aga Khan IV with Order
DUSHANBE, September 22 (Itar-Tass) - Spiritual leader of world's Ismailis Aga Khan IV said on Tuesday after his meeting with Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmonov that "now Tajikistan is going through a very important time when the foundation is being laid for its development in future."
Aga Khan IV is staying in Dushanbe for a visit at the invitation of the head of state.
"During the visit we want to consider projects to make our contribution in the support of the peace process and the economic development of Tajikistan," Aga Khan IV said.
According to him, at the meeting with the Tajik president, both sides discussed programmes for the development of the republic, Tajikistan's position in the region as a whole and new spheres of cooperation.
President Emomali Rakhmonov awarded the high guest with the Order of Friendship.
Spiritual
Leader Pays Working Visit to Tajikistan.
DUSHANBE,
September 24 (Itar-Tass) -- The spiritual leader of
the world
Ishmaelites, Prince Aga Khan IV, who is paying a week-
long visit
to Tajikistan at the invitation of President Emomali
Rakhmonov,
on Thursday left for the Gorno-Badakhshan
autonomous
region where the most populous diaspora of
Ishmaelites
resides.
The spiritual
leader of the murids, the followers of the "living
God,"
or crown prince Aga Khan IV, is accompanied on the
Badakhshan
journey, just as during his visit to Tajikistan in May
1995,
by President Emomali Rakhmonov.
During
his stay in Khorog, the administrative centre of the
autonomous
region, Aga Khan IV and the Tajik head of state will
meet the
region's leaders and public, and visit a number of
educational
establishments. they are also expected to hold informal
meetings
with the residents of the city and neighbouring villages.
The visitors
will also attend a festive opening ceremony at a school
built
with assistance from the Aga Khan fund.
The republic
as a whole and Badakhshan in particular value highly
Aga Khan's
appreciable humanitarian aid to the population of this
highland
area. His aid was of special importance during the armed
confrontation
in the country from 1992 and a number of
subsequent
years.
During
the current visit, further cooperation and Aga Khan's
participation
in a number of major humanitarian projects is being
considered.
The Prince has already held conversations with
Tajikistan
President Emomali Rakhmonov, Prime Minister Yakhye
Azimov
and other leaders of the republic, as well as the chairman
of the
National Reconciliation commission, Tajik opposition leader
Sayed
Abdullo Nouri.
vfp/ MZ
Mountain
studies in the remote Pamirs
Sunday, May 17, 1998 Published at 21:10 GMT 22:10 UK
An international commission has been set up to look into plans for an institute specialising in mountain studies in the high Pamir range, which is one of the poorest and most remote regions in Central Asia. It is hoped that the centre, planned for southeastern Tajikistan, will help open the region up to the world. The BBC Central Asia correspondent Louise Hidalgo has just been to the Pamir Mountains and sent this report:
The Great Pamir are one of the highest mountain ranges in the world, linking into the Hindu Kush and the Karakoram to the south and to the Tien Shan Mountains to the east. They are also one of the most remote regions on earth.
For months on end, the only certain access that the people of the Pamir have to the outside world is a long mountainous highway north to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. It's an isolation that the Pamiris are desperate to break.
Unlike other Tajiks, most are Ismailis and it was their revered spiritual leader, the Aga Khan, who first suggested an institute that would attract experts in mountain studies to this remote region from around the world.
An international commission has been set up to work out how this can be done; it's due to report to the Tajik government and the Aga Khan soon and, if approved, officials say, the first undergraduate courses could begin in the next few years, drawing students from around Central Asia.
There they will learn how to manage economies, agriculture and the environment in high mountain areas and to deal with the aftermath of earthquakes. It is an ambitious plan that will require millions of dollars of funding, and it's far from clear how the resources needed can be brought to this lonely corner of the earth.
But for the Pamiris, the project offers a chance at last to find a place on the world map.
BBC News Online: Despatches
Mountain studies in the remote Pamirs
Mowlana
Hazar Imam's Speech at the Seerat Conference
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