Uzbekistan
Birdamlik activist Azamat Azimov. Photograph from Ferghana.ru.
Bakhodir Choriye, leader of the Birdamlik opposition movement in Uzbekistan, has informed neweurasia that their activist Azamat Azimov, who operated in their Shahrisabz branch in Kashkadarya, was found guilty of violating Article 273 (”illegal production, purchase, storage, and other activities related to narcotic and psychotropic substances with the purpose of sale as well as sale thereof “) and 275 (”violation of regulations on production or treatment of narcotic or psychotropic substances”), and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment on July 28. As part of his imprisonment, he will not be allowed to see any member of his family.
The last few weeks, the people of Tashkent have experienced the kind of weather that makes me think the old weather gods may be angry with Uzbekistan. We’ve been hit by sand-filled winds, tropical rains, and exhausting heat. The strong winds are ripping off rooftops and tearing down tree branches. The thermometer bulb goes off at 40 degrees Celsius — in the shade! Under the sun, it’s a grueling 50 degrees. It’s comparable to tropical rainfall areas of Amazonia in South America, or monsoons in Southeast Asia.
November 17th, 2013 - Live Press Conference from Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Lola Karimova addresses the Uzbek press
My fellow Uzbeks!
Allow me to introduce myself, your new president. I have the humble right to be Lola Islomovna Karimova-Tillyaeva. It is my solemn duty to welcome you to a new era for our glorious country, one in which we reach the goals set out by my dear father. Our country has always been the shining star of Central Asia, with the most promising history and greatest potential for success and human happiness. The sudden death of my father from high blood pressure allows us to reflect on his call, some five years ago, for more women in politics. Voila!
The great Russian empire of my youth is no more. During the years of oppression leading up to our inevitable and righteous moment of independence, my father struggled against the corrupt forces in Moscow. Following his heart and our own Uzbek traditions, with the help of glorious Allah, he was able to gain independence for our lands. I shall not squander what my father has worked so hard to give to me.
And I am certainly one of the most fortunate of successors. I have the honor to be both hand-picked by my father and unanimously supported in free elections across the country, where more than ninety-eight percent of our citizens expressed their willingness to follow me into our future. I have a freely elected parliament of able-bodied and intelligent law-makers and deal-brokers ready to protect our Constitution, our traditions, and our borders. I am also fortunate that those few misguided persons fooled into opposition to our future are all notorious drug addicts, whose habits will surely catch up with them sooner rather than later.
My biggest helper in our nation’s government will of course be my big sister, the Harvard Graduate, no matter what those enemies of truth at Wikipedia say about her PhD actually being domestically granted after returning to Tashkent in disgrace. To paraphrase our dearly departed friend and ally Medvedev, “I am the President, and she is the Prime Minister.”
We have already decided to fund the writing of 5000 additional articles for the website on our own .uz servers, in the glorious language of Amir Temur and Alisher Navoi, Uzbek. Make no mistake, fellow citizens of our glorious motherland, we are the presidents of Future Uzbekistan. With the help of our closest allies, South Korea and India, our place in the world economy is assured.
Allow me to address, in one breath, the assertions and accusations of our esteemed neighbor Otunbayeva. The Legitimacy of my presidency is the Legitimacy of the Will of the Uzbek Nation! Let Kyrgyzstan and our neighbors doubt that will at their own peril, for history, as always, is the best teacher. While others have fallen prey to the infectious aid packages of the West and the over-bearing alliances of the North, Uzbekistan remains, as ever, independent. And to those that question my fluency of our glorious mother tongue, those that would insult the blood of our ancestors, those that would question the sun’s right to cross the sky, I have only one thing to say.
Ты что, совсем что-ли? Я - президент!
Translation of Mashrab’s post (RUS)
A great art show is taking place in Tashkent. It is being held on the square in front of the Alisher Navoi Academic Theater, against the backdrop of one of the city’s oldest hotels, and consists of over 120 paintings – copies of great works by world-renowned masters next to the work of contemporary artists, whose work in the 20th and 21st century has not, so to speak, received its full acclaim.
As far as I know, the exhibition is a joint project of UNESCO and the city government. The choice of location is also very effective: next to what is probably the most famous theater in Central Asia, a large Soviet shopping mall, Tashkent Palace Hotel, Sayilgokh St. (local nickname: “Broadway”) and Mustakilik Square (“Independence” Square, formerly “Red Square”). In other words, it’s right in the center of town, which in the summer is full of people from near and far.
If my calculations are correct, visitors have the pleasure of enjoying 128 copies of paintings from various periods, schools and styles, gathered from world-famous museums or kindly lent to the exhibitors by private collectors.
According to my observations, the oldest painting on display Read the full story »
Translation of Mashrab’s post (RUS)
I was walking on Mustakillik Square (formerly Independence Square, formerly Red Square) and, to my luck, caught a cool evening sunset in the Uzbek capital.
I’m posting some pictures I took with my mobile phone.
Image by neweurasia's Schwartz (CC-usage).
Editor’s note: neweurasia’s Dushanbe offers his brother an interesting birthday gift, only to find himself thrust in the middle of the Roghun dam controversy. It seems that the government’s enormous fundraising campaign has worked too well, and may not only be monetarily crippling Tajikistan, but even slowly undermining its very raison d’être, as well.
It’s always hard to find a good birthday gift, but it’s all the more difficult for my spoiled brother. After two days of searching, I was about to exclaim, “OMG!”, when suddenly I saw a Roghun t-shirt in one of the city boutiques. The seller informed me that the newly designed shirt had arrived on the market just the previous day.
My brother happens to be a fan of the Roghun hydropower project; he even bought 3,500 somoni worth of shares. I thought this would be the perfect gift for him — so I was very surprised when he responded in a very subdued way. It turned out that he had dug into the family budget to make his donation to the Roghun project, and his wife was bitter about it because she’d rather save money for her children’s education. Suddenly the political and macroeconomic had become very personal and microeconomic.
Translation of Yodgor Norbutaev’s post (RUS)
It has long been noted that among the prophets and messiahs that periodically emerge, the overwhelming majority are either idiots or charlatans. In ancient times, they were almost always stoned, and rightly so. No point wasting time on them. They come out of nowhere and start teaching everyone, “Do everything as I command.”
It has also been noted that the number of false prophets rises sharply in countries whose foundations are about to be shaken: e.g. Grigory Rasputin under Nicholas II, Erich Jan Hanussen under Hitler…
Uzbek academician Rustamzhon Abdullaev recently came out with a personal initiative of global proportions.
His previous project was more modest – to make Gulnara Karimova the Queen of Uzbekistan, with an eye on eventually making her Empress of all of Central Asia and thus ensuring the welfare of the region.
Better judgment would dictate that I save my ammunition for a better cause; however, a little corollary to the great academic’s insight caught my attention. Abdullaev’s latest fruitful idea sounds roughly like this: Read the full story »
Video from Ferghana.ru. Viewer discretion is advised. You can see more videos on the right hand column of the link.
Ravshan Irmatov in action. Photo courtesy Uzbek Football Federation.
As FIFA’s official web-site announced yesterday, its Referee Committee had assigned Ravshan Irmatov from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) as referee for the Opening Match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa held in Johannesburg.
Ravshan’s international referee career dates back to 2003 when he appeared three times at the FIFA U-17 World Cup (2003, 2007 and 2009), once at the FIFA U-20 World Cup and also at the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2008, where he not only handled the quarter-final meeting of Al Ahly and Pachuca, but also took charge of the Liga de Quito-Manchester United Final, says FIFA’s web-site.
He is currently rated as AFC Referee of the Year and he received this award for the two prior years, 2009 and 2008. The web-site says that Ravshan Irmatov is the only Uzbek referee to have officiated in the finals of a FIFA tournament. After I checked the list of referees out I can say that Ravshan is not just the only Uzbek but also the only Central Asian and representative from the post-Soviet countries to be a [main] referee! He’ll be assisted by Rafael Ilyasov (UZB) and Bakhadyr Kochkarov (KGZ). What a pleasure to know this :) Read the full story »
Presidents of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov: Leaders of the two worst of the worst. Collage by neweurasia.
On June 3 2010 Freedom House, an international human rights watchdog, released a new report, “Worst of the Worst 2010: The World’s Most Repressive Societies.” Report identifies “the world’s most flagrant human rights abusers” and is a companion to Freedom House’s annual survey on the state of global political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World.
No surprises that this year two Central Asian states — Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – remained in the list of the wost repressive societies. They joined seven other countries — Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, and one territory, Tibet.
“We are publishing this report to assist policymakers, human rights organizations, democracy advocates, and others who are working to advance freedom around the world. We also hope that the report will be useful to the work of the United Nations Human Rights Council.”
Freedom House, “Worst of the Worst 2010: The World’s Most Repressive Societies.”
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Washington-based blogger Ken Silverstein explains to their Western audience says:
“To give you an idea of how bad the situation in is those bottom-dweller nations, wonderful countries like Belarus, Laos, and Saudi Arabia didn’t make the list.”
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