The United Tajik Opposition (UTO) was an alliance of democratic, nationalist and Islamist forces that officially banded together in 1993, after the most violent phase of the Tajik Civil War. The UTO fought against the pro-communist and Khujandi/Kulyabi government forces led by Emomali Rakhmon, formerly Emomali Rakhmonov.
The UTO opposition consisted of the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), Rastokhez (Rebirth), the Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT), and Lali Badakshan (Ruby of Badakshan). The UTO made successful advances against the Rakhmon government, pushing the leader to begin negotiations. In 1997 a peace treaty was concluded between the Rakhmon government and the UTO.
Famous quotes containing the words united and/or opposition:
“An alliance is like a chain. It is not made stronger by adding weak links to it. A great power like the United States gains no advantage and it loses prestige by offering, indeed peddling, its alliances to all and sundry. An alliance should be hard diplomatic currency, valuable and hard to get, and not inflationary paper from the mimeograph machine in the State Department.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“A man with your experience in affairs must have seen cause to appreciate the futility of opposition to the moral sentiment. However feeble the sufferer and however great the oppressor, it is in the nature of things that the blow should recoil upon the aggressor. For God is in the sentiment, and it cannot be withstood.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)