Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan’s Pres. Mirziyoyev reaches out to Muslims

TASHKENT, JUNE 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev hosted an iftar, a religious dinner eaten after sunset during the Islamic festival of Ramadan, for the first time in Uzbekistan, possibly a sign that he is trying to woo pious Muslims.

The dinner featured 1,200 people and was televised, a medium widely used by the Uzbek authorities when they want to get a message out to the population.

One Uzbek man in his 20s said that this was a clear signal that Mr Mirziyoyev was trying to make a clean break with the policies of former president Islam Karimov who distrusted and marginalised Islam.

“It seems that our president began taming imams with soft power,” he said.

Another young Uzbek was more direct and said that Mirziyoyev may have other priorities.

“Putin was also a Communist and a KGB agent and now he manipulates the masses via the Russian Orthodox Church,” he said of Russian President Vladimir Putin who promoted the Orthodox church and rebuilt cathedrals once he took power, in direct contrast to the Soviet Union’s treatment of religion.

“So does Mirziyoyev, I think.”

Although there has been a gradual increase in some civil liberties in the past nine months or so, people in Uzbekistan are still wary of discussing politics and both men declined to be named.

Uzbekistan is officially a secular republic, although its population is predominantly Muslim. After independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Karimov argued with leaders of a popular Islamist movement. He ended up banning them, leading to the creation of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) which launched a series of bomb attacks in the 1990s.

Karimov also blacklisted hundreds of pious ordinary Muslims and tried to ban some practices, such as the iftar.

On a trip to Bukhara in the south of the country earlier on June 15, before his iftar, Mr Mirziyoyev also suggested that he was going to roll back some of the Karimov-era restrictions on Muslims.

He said that he wanted to rebuild the 15th century madrasah Mir Arab and also that it might be time to move some people off an official blacklist of Muslims.

“All the blacklisted can’t be radicals. You should speak to them, recheck their views and learn if there are any innocent who were blacklisted inequitably,” he told an audience of thousands on a conference call that lasted several hours with religious and secular leaders across the country.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kazakh and Uzbek ties improving

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — On the sidelines of the Astana Economic Forum, Kazakh deputy foreign minister Roman Vassilenko said that there had been positive developments in bilateral relations with Uzbekistan since Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over as president in 2016. “Since September last year there have been positive developments with Kazakhstan and its relations with Uzbekistan,” he told journalists at a briefing. Mr Mirziyoyev has made improving relations with neighbours, tense under his predecessor Islam Karimov, a cornerstone of his presidency.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Uzbekistan to build fruit farm

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JUNE 13 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev officially kicked off construction of a fruit farm in the Andijan region of the Ferghana Valley, highlighting a drive by the authorities to increase exports to neighbours. Media reported that the 615-hectare project will cost $24m and be operational by the end of the year.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Uzbek interior minister plans first visit in 19 yrs

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan interior minister Major- General Abdusalom Azizov will visit Tajikistan for the first time in 19 years next month, media reported, another sign that Uzbek-Tajik relations are improving under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Major-Gen. Azizov is due to attend a meeting of regional interior ministers in Dushanbe on June 27-29.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

400 people protest in Uzbekistan’s largest demonstration for 12 years

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TASHKENT, JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — An estimated 400 people protested in Tashkent against police inaction over the murder of a 17-year-old student, the largest demonstration in Uzbekistan against the authorities for 12 years.

Under former leader Islam Karimov the authorities in Uzbekistan cracked down hard on public gatherings, essentially banning them. A Bulletin correspondent in Tashkent said this was the largest demonstration in Uzbekistan since the army shot dead several hundred people in the town of Andijan in 2005.

Activists said that the protest in Dostyk Square had been planned after 19,000 people signed an online petition calling on the authorities to investigate the death of Jasurbek Ibraghimov. He was beaten at his university in Tashkent at the start of May and died in hospital on June 1. The police had declined to investigate but after the public outcry changed their mind.

“We came to the park at 10am (0400GMT). There were 15 to 20 of us. The police tried to disperse us but after more and more people started coming they stopped interrupting the protest,” one activist said.

Another explained that the protest represented not just the need to investigate the death of Ibraghimov properly but also the pent up frustration felt by young Uzbeks. Many of the protesters were young, in their 20s, and savvy users of Facebook and other forms of social media.

“The protest was not spontaneous, it had deep roots. The unrest against corruption and injustice had been roaring like an enraged lion in people’s hearts until Jasur’s death,” said Anvar, a civil activist who agreed to be named. “The death of Jasur broke the silence. People took the park both to mourn the teen’s death and to say enough to social injustice and corrupt systems.”

Since taking over as leader in September 2017, Shavkat Mirziyoyev has talked of opening the country to investors and generating more personal freedoms, but commentators were taken by surprise by the spontaneous demonstration and the authorities’, relatively, relaxed attitude towards it. The protest also highlights just how powerful social media is becoming. The security forces monitor the internet but the sheer number of apps and internet variants and their increased user numbers makes it difficult to cover.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Uzbek President outmaneuvers Karimov’s heir

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JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s vicious political scene has just spat out another top dog. Rustam Azimov, the former collective farm engineer has been a fixture at the top of the Uzbek political spectrum since 1998, when he was handpicked by former president Islam Karimov, Uzbek leader from 1991 until his death in September, to head the economy ministry. Considered one of Karimov’s favourites, Azimov had been thought by many as the most likely person to succeed his patron.

In January 2008, in a diplomatic note later leaked by Wikileaks, the US ambassador to Uzbekistan at the time Richard Norland wrote that Azimov was being groomed as a successor.

“Azimov’s star is rising. Being appointed first among deputy ministers will only fuel additional speculation that Azimov may eventually succeed Karimov,” he wrote.

Media reports from 2012, cited sources within the Uzbek government as saying that Karimov was now openly talking up Azimov as his successor.

Instead, his rival Shavkat Mirziyoyev has outmanoeuvred him and Azimov now finds himself in the lowly position of heading the Export- Import Insurance company. His political ambitions, like that of Karimov’s daughter Gulnara, who has been under house arrest since 2014, are surely over.

It has been a long-running rivalry between Azimov and Mirziyoyev. In May 2008, Norland wrote that the rivalry had become so bad that the Uzbek security services had invented information to present a more united front.

“Due to rumours that rivalries persist between Prime Minister Mirziyayev (sic) and First Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov, the NSS (the Uzbek security service) also had fabricated information that both individuals had reached a rapprochement prompted by the burgeoning friendship between their wives,” he wrote.

Considered a smooth operator with a calmer temperament than the sometimes abrasive Mirziyoyev, Azimov also had plenty of experience dealing with foreign companies, often negotiating their entry into Uzbekistan on behalf of Karimov.

Prior to taking over as economy minister in 1998, Azimov was head of the National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity. Now, aged only 56, as head of the nonentity that is the Export- Import Insurance company, he will have plenty of time to rue opportunities missed in the battle to succeed Karimov.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Comment: Authority figures and democracy

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EDINBURGH, JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — This past week, politics in Britain have been overshadowed by the election meltdown and loss of authority of the British PM, Theresa May. She went from having a 20 point lead in opinion polls only two months ago to a single digit lead over Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, on election day. She won, but was returned a much diminished figure.

This is a stark contrast to the strongmen that rule Central Asia, where the democratic touch is so light. That doesn’t mean, though, that there isn’t plenty of political intrigue to enjoy and saviour in the region.

And this week has given us the story of how Shavkat Mirziyoyev has undone one of his key rivals for power, former economy minister Rustam Azimov. Once a potential Second President of Uzbekistan, he now finds himself heading up an entity called the Export-Import Bank. A story of power-plays and, possibly, betrayal.

There has been an apparent growth in grassroots movements in Uzbekistan. Our new correspondent reports from Tashkent on what has been described as the biggest protest in the country for 12 years. It’s great reporting on a very important story.

In Georgia and Azerbaijan the case of the abducted journalist continues to cause the authorities discomfort, as does the reminder that Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge is still an IS recruitment area.

On the business front, we report on China’s first foray into Kazakhstan’s banking sector and on olive oil production in Georgia.

Investment boosts for Uzbek car making

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TASHKENT, JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Looking to give the Uzbek car-making sector a boost, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev unveiled a series of investments and tax cuts specifically aimed at boosting production and job numbers.

The uzdaily.uz website reported that on June 1, Mr Mirziyoyev had signed into law an investment scheme worth $800m for Uzavtosanoat. It reported that it was hoped that production would jump by 300% and the number of people employ would also surge accordingly.

The Uzbek auto sector has been heavily hit by a collapse in the Russian car market. Data released in April showed that the number of cars produced in Uzbekistan had halved in 2016 to around 92,000. This year, though, there are signs that the the Uzbek car making sector is beginning to rebound.

French carmaker PSA, which owns the Peugeot and Citron brands, has signed a deal to assemble 16,000 cars in Uzbekistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Currencies: Kyrgyzstan’s som

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JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz som dropped another 0.3% over the week, adding to a general downward trend since the end of April when it briefly threatened to break through the lower 67/$1 barrier.

On April 27, the Kyrgyz som hit 67.13/$1, a level not seen since the currency devaluation of 2015/16. Since then the som has fallen back to a level that analysts have said is a more natural range of between 68 and 69 per $1. It is now trading at 1.25% higher than at the start of the year.

Elsewhere, the Uzbek soum continued its slow downward trajectory and the Kazakh tenge moved closer to falling through the 316/$1 barrier, a level not seen since the beginning of May. It has generally tracked down with oil.

Uzbekistan’s President Mirziyoyev sacks rival Azimov as deputy PM

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TASHKENT, JUNE 6 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev sacked deputy PM Rustam Azimov from his government, showing his ruthlessness in undermining potential rivals .

Mr Azimov had at one time been talked of as a potential successor for Islam Karimov, who ruled Uzbekistan since independence from the Soviet Union until his death in September 2016. His ambitions were undone, however, by the rise of Mr Mirziyoyev who had been PM under Karimov. Mr Azimov had been economy minister but was downgraded to foreign investment minister in December.

Local media reported, quoting government sources, that Azimov would now head the Export-Import Insurance company, a major demotion. He was to be replaced by as deputy PM by the relatively unknown deputy finance minister Jamshid Kuchkarov.

Immediately after the death of Karimov, Azimov had been considered one of the three most powerful people in Uzbekistan, alongside Mr Mirziyoyev and security chief Rustam Inoyatov. His demotion marks a victory for Mr Mirziyoyev who was always wary of his rival.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)