DUSHANBE, May 8, Asia-Plus -- Churches, prayer-houses and ritual sites of German people in Tajikistan are in a very poor state, an appeal by the Savob Public Foundation to Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said. 

The foundation asks for support in preserving these ritual sites. 

The Foundation head Alim Burhonov told Asia-Plus that after the collapse of the Soviet Union and mass departure of ethnic Germans from Tajikistan, churches and ritual sites had been left in places of their compact residency.  “At present these churches and ritual sites are in a very poor state,” Burhonov said, adding that acts of vandalism have become frequent.   

According to him, the Foundation has informed the German Embassy in Dushanbe of this situation.  

The Savob head further added that they had worked out a project aimed at promoting preservation of churches and ritual sites of the German Diaspora in Tajikistan. 

This project, designed for five years, is aimed at creating information database on ethnic Germans in Tajikistan, establishing museum complex of German culture on the basis of churches in Dushanbe and the complex’s branches in Qurghon Teppa and Khujand, as well as preserving and restoring cultural sites in the places of compact residency of ethnic Germans in Tajikistan.  

According to Burhonov, a large number of ethnic Germans was forcibly deported to Tajikistan in 199-1947.  In Tajikistan, ethnic Germans were living mainly in Dushanbe, Khuajnd, Qurghon Teppa, Isfara, Koniboom, Tursunzoda, Vahdat, Sarband, Panj, Qumsangir, Vakhsh, Kolkhozobod and Jilikul.