Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon is convinced that "Tajikistan’s and Uzbekistan’s enemies will not be able to destroy age-old friendship between the peoples of the neighbor countries." He stated this, inaugurating a two-storey school in a densely- populated agro-industrial district of the republic on the border with Uzbekistan. Tuition in the school will be in Uzbek.

The president said "profound concern" is caused by a number of anonymous publications in the Internet, having "a provocative character and aiming to sow seeds of enmity between the fraternal peoples." "I am convinced that certain forces from among our adversaries are behind these publications. God, however, will not permit them achieve their dirty aims," Emomali said, reaffirming his belief that "God-given goodneighbour relations will stay."

The opening of a well-equipped school for 650 pupils with the ten-year schooling, the president said, shows that all people residing in the republic have a right to receive education in their native language. Textbooks have already been delivered to the school. Classes have been equipped with computers and other equipment. Refresher courses for teachers of the Uzbek language function in the republic. Over 1,000 students among the 3,030 foreign students in Tajik higher educational establishments are from Uzbekistan.

There are over 500,000 Uzbek-speaking people in Tajikistan. They reside mostly on the rimlands of a number of cities, also Tursunzade, and in the republic’s industrial central district, Interfax reported.