Carnegie Politika: Alleged coup plot in Tajikistan linked to pre-transition jitters

The report states that this Carnegie Politika analysis by Galiya Ibragimova, published on 20 August 2024, examines a spate of arrests in Tajikistan during summer 2024 in which prominent politicians and public figures were accused of conspiring to carry out a coup. According to the report, the criminal case is classified and available details are scarce, and the analysis argues that the alleged uprising is most plausibly connected to President Emomali Rahmon’s preparations to transfer power to his son Rustam Emomali, head of the upper house of parliament. The report lists the detainees as including the alleged ringleader Saidjafar Usmonzoda, former head of the in-system Democratic Party of Tajikistan; ex-foreign minister Hamrokhon Zarifi; journalist and DPT first deputy chairman Ahmadshoh Komilzoda; Akbarsho Iskandarov, a 73-year-old former acting president; civil-war-era field commanders Yaqub Salimov, Salamsho Muhabbatov and Nazrullo Naimov; and Social Democratic Party deputy leader Shakirjon Hakimov. The report says prosecutors allege Usmonzoda plotted with the exile-based National Alliance. It also surveys the Rahmon family’s grip on the state — including daughters Ozoda (presidential chief of staff), Rukhshona, Tahmina and Parvina, and their influential husbands — and recalls the 2022 Gorno-Badakhshan crackdown that killed or jailed former civil-war commanders. The report notes clan dynamics (Farkhor vs. Danghara), the influence of security chief Saimumin Yatimov, and a 2022 incident in which Rustam Emomali reportedly shot and wounded Yatimov.