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Asia and Oceania
Uzbekistan |
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Last reviewed: 22 November 2007 |
Country information
HISTORY
Recent History
The Republic of Uzbekistan is the heir to the Uzbek SSR, created in 1924 as part of the Soviet Union. The Uzbek Supreme Soviet declared the republic's independence on 1 September 1991. This was endorsed in a popular referendum on 29 December 1991, in which the former First Secretary of the Communist Party, Islam Karimov, was also confirmed as President with 86% of the vote.
Placing stability above all else, and fearing an Islamic revival, Karimov has limited real democratic development. Genuine opposition parties are not tolerated. The main dissident movements are Birlik ('Unity') which has not been allowed to register and Erk ('Will') which lost its official registration in 1993. The Islamic Renaissance Party of Uzbekistan was banned in 1990.
The region’s main terrorist organisation, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), made armed raids into Uzbekistan in 1999 and 2000 from bases in neighbouring Tajikistan. IMU fighters have received training in Afghanistan (to where many were deported in 2001) and have received support from Usama Bin Laden's (UBL) terrorist networks. IMU forces were significantly affected by coalition attacks on Afghanistan in late 2001. The IMU do not command political support in Uzbekistan. The radical Islamist organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir is active throughout Central Asia, including Uzbekistan. It has a radical and utopian agenda and its published materials often employ inflammatory language.
On 16 February 1999 a series of bombs exploded in Tashkent, killing 13 people and wounding some 128 others. The government blamed Islamic extremists and arrested people they claim were trained in neighbouring countries. In 2004, Uzbekistan faced two separate terrorist incidents. In late March, a series of shootings, explosions, and apparent suicide bombings in Tashkent and Bukhara regions left dozens dead, and co-ordinated suicide bombings in late July near the US and Israeli Embassies and in the Prosecutor General’s Office in Tashkent killed four and injured at least 7. Islamic extremists were blamed.
Uzbekistan’s Muslim population has a secular and moderate tradition - but there is a danger that growing poverty, unemployment, combined with restrictions on political and religious freedom, could drive elements of the population towards extremism and terrorism.
On the night of 12 May 2005, a group of armed men stormed a prison in Andizhan killing guards, taking hostages and releasing prisoners. They took more hostages in the administrative building in the main square and called civilians to support them. Civilians gathered and waited, expecting the President to appear. But according to credible eyewitness reports, Uzbek soldiers eventually fired on the demonstrators, killing hundreds, including women and children. The Uzbek authorities stated that this was a terrorist operation in which 187 had died, mostly terrorists, who were responsible for all civilian deaths. The international media including the BBC reported the events based on eyewitness accounts in the immediate aftermath of Andizhan. The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) produced a report on events in June 2005 available at: OSCE ODIHR Report, Uzbekistan
The OSCE’s Representative on the Freedom of the Media issued a report on the media situation in the immediate aftermath of Andizhan, available at: OSCE Freedom of the Media Report, Uzbekistan
Longer Historical Perspective
The first people known to have lived in Uzbekistan were nomads, who spoke a Persian dialect. At this time, cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand began to appear as centres of government and culture. By the fifth century B.C, the Bactrian, Soghdian, and Tokharian states dominated the region. As China began to develop its silk trade with the West, Persian traders took advantage of this commerce. They used an extensive network of cities and settlements in the province of Mawarannahr (or 'beyond the river' - a name given to the region after the Arab conquest) in Uzbekistan and farther east in what is today China's Xinjiang Region. The Soghdian intermediaries became the wealthiest of these merchants. Because of this trade, the cities on what became known as the Silk Route, eventually became extremely wealthy. Mawarannahr was one of the most influential and powerful Persian provinces. The region also was an important centre of intellectual life and religion. Until the first centuries, the dominant religions in the region were Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism.
In the early fourteenth century, tribal groups competed for influence. One tribal chieftain, Timur (Tamerlane), emerged from these struggles in the 1380s and proceeded to conquer all of western Central Asia, Iran, Asia Minor, and the southern steppe region north of the Aral Sea. He also invaded Russia before dying during an invasion of China in 1405. Timur initiated a flowering of Uzbek culture by gathering in his capital, Samarkand, artisans and scholars. During Timur's reign and the reigns of his descendants, a range of religious and palatial construction projects were undertaken. Timur also patronised scientists and artists; his grandson Ulugh Beg was one of the world's first great astronomers. It was during the Timurid dynasty that Turkish, in the form of the Chaghatai dialect, became a literary language in its own right --although the Timurids also wrote in Persian. Until then only Persian had been used in the region. The greatest Chaghataid writer, Ali Shir Nava'i, was active in the city of Herat, now in Afghanistan, in the second half of the fifteenth century. The Timurid state quickly broke into two halves after the death of Timur. The chronic internal fighting of the Timurids attracted the attention of the Uzbek nomadic tribes living to the north of the Aral Sea. In 1501 the Uzbeks began a wholesale invasion.
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Address:
Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan
41 Holland Park
London W11 3RP
Telephone:
(020) 7229 7679
Fax:
(020) 7229 7029
Email: info@uzbekembassy.org
Office hours:
Mon–Fri: 0900-1230 and 1430-1730
Mon, Wed, Fri: 1000–1300 (Consular)
Website: http://www.uzbekembassy.org/