Some Tajiks would like to see their own man, Mohammed Fahim, make a bid for power.
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The United Nations reckons that about eight out of ten Tajiks live in poverty.
It is an ethnic hodge-podge of Uzbeks and Tajiks, Aimaq and Hazaras, Turkmen, Mongols and Baluch.
For example, Sokh, an enclave administered by Uzbekistan, is in Kirgizstan but its people are Tajiks.
The blunder of inducting 80, 000 troops of Tajiks into the Afghan national army further alienated the Pashtuns.
The Taliban have tried to broaden their appeal by appointing ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks as governors of northern provinces.
He tells me about the frequent fights between different ethnics groups -- Tajiks beaten by Hazaras, Pashtuns clashing with Bangladeshis.
The Tajiks, for example, including many leaders of the Northern Alliance, which helped topple the Taliban, will still need pleasing.
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Both these measures will, by the same token, damage Mr Karzai's relations with the Northern Alliance's warlords, who are mainly Tajiks and Uzbeks.
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Nine Tajiks, said to have been living in a caravan, died in a fire in the Moscow region last week.
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Even the powerful Tajiks are not safe: in April, Mohammed Fahim, the defence minister, escaped an assassination attempt in Jalalabad.
Tajiks speak Persian, whereas Azeris, Turkmen, Uzbeks and Kazakhs speak Turkic languages.
Northerners - Tajiks, or Uzbeks for example - often regard the Pashtuns in the south as trouble makers who get what they deserve.
Three senior jobs will be taken by prominent Tajiks associated with the legendary Tajik commander, Ahmad Shah Masood, who was killed in September.
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One country the Tajiks would like to see become more involved is Russia, still Tajikistan's principal strategic partner despite America's increased presence in Central Asia.
Jamiat is composed mostly of ethnic Tajiks, a minority in Afghanistan, and the group that held out longest against the Taliban, until the American invasion.
Tajiks form the second largest group, followed by Uzbeks and Hazaras.
After all, argue the Tajiks, Uzbekistan charges for the gas it supplies to them and it cuts off the supply for long periods if payments are not made.
In recent weeks he irked the government by denouncing the June 27th peace accord it signed in Moscow with the United Tajiks as a deal among thieves.
Karzai, in his efforts to mollify his restive fellow-Pashtuns, has made conciliatory gestures to the Taliban which have alienated Tajiks and Uzbeks who helped him come to power.
The current interim administration is headed by a Pushtun, Hamid Karzai, but dominated by Tajiks, including the defence minister, Mohammed Fahim, a powerful figure in his own right.
Tajiks, however, retained their influence, keeping the ministries of defence and foreign affairs, while the former king, a Pushtun, came under pressure to withdraw from the presidential race.
In Afghanistan, what we called the Northern Alliance was an alliance of Sunni Tajiks, Sunni Uzbeks and Shiite Hazaras, and so they jointly took over Kabul together in 2001.
Mr Fahim has staffed the NSD with fellow Tajiks, a tribe from the north, to the displeasure of the southern Pushtuns, the majority in Afghanistan and its traditional rulers.
When they are, the opposition is likely to insist that at least half the government posts should be given to the Tajiks, Hazaras and the other minorities it represents.
But he emerged again as a powerful figure - some say nominal leader - of the powerful Northern Alliance, formed mainly from minority Tajiks and Uzbeks, that opposed Taliban rule.
Pakistan prefers to make common cause with ethnic Pushtuns, who straddle the border, to guard against Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, whom the generals regard as close to India, their arch-enemy.
Tajiks and other ethnic minorities would find this intolerable.
It says it can no longer supply gas to the Tajiks as it has to meet growing demand from its main partner, China, but the amount Tajikistan needs is small by comparison.
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