Boy oh boy! Tajikistan is crazy! This email is going to run a bit on the longer side but I think you’ll enjoy the read. First of all, I'll tell a little bit about Tajikistan’s recent history so you can get an idea about where my brother and I are. Basically, during the Soviet era, there was al-Qaeda and Taliban backed Islamic Fundamentalism simmering throughout the region. For the most part, Moscow kept a lid on the ethnic and clan-based tensions in the region. When independence came in 1991, the place disintegrated into full scale civil war, killing upwards of 60,000 and displacing over half a million refugees. To solve the problem, a Russian backed president was installed to fight the extremists. The President’s forces, led by Sanjak Safarov (who had previously spent 23 years in
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