Emomali Rahmon went to meet with the children of the deceased

On August 17, Emomali Rahmon, during his working trip to the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, met with orphaned children.

The press service of the President of Tajikistan reports that on August 17 in Khorog, the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon “met with 100 orphaned children and teenagers, children with disabilities from cities and districts of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region and presented them with gifts.”

However, the press service of the president or other official bodies did not provide any information about the identities of these 100 orphans and children with disabilities.

However, sources from Azda TV in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region reported that among these orphans were also children of activists and participants in protests who were killed during the suppression of protests in 2021 and 2022.

According to the press service, Rahmon spoke with the children and teenagers and “directed them towards good and excellent education, acquiring modern knowledge, professions and crafts, and mastering foreign languages.”

However, Tajik political activist Salim Sultonzada commented on these actions, stating that this is not “direction,” but a kind of “brainwashing” that is widely used by authoritarian regimes.

“Stalin also killed people and then brainwashed children in orphanages,” he believes.

During the peaceful protests that took place in 2021 and 2022 in Khorog and Vamar, the administrative center of the Rushan district of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, more than 70 people were killed, over 100 were injured, and dozens were permanently disabled.