Karakalpakstan wants true autonomy
The demand fuelling protests violently suppressedby the Uzbek authorities. The region has the potential for economic independence. The Karakalpakstan case could repeat itself in Russia.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - After the Nukus riots in recent days against constitutional changes in Uzbekistan, which led to the death of 18 demonstrators and 243 wounded, President Šavkat Mirziyoyev has decided not to insist on revoking Karakalpakstan's right to independence. People's rights activists from the autonomous region, who have fled or been expelled to various other countries, appealed to him, supporting the presidential decision, but calling for a genuine political dialogue with representatives of the Karakalpakst community.
The signatories of the appeal want a real investigation into the repression of the protesters in Nukus, the release of those arrested and the disclosure of the list of victims. They believe that it is necessary to form a new government in the autonomous republic, opening up the registration of new political parties and social movements, allowing everyone to take part in the running of public affairs in the region.
The main author of the letter is Aman Sagidullaev, leader of the Democratic Progressive Party of Karakalpakstan, currently a political refugee in Norway. He told the Associated Press that he is convinced that Uzbek bureaucrats are hiding the real number of victims, injured and detained in the protests. Together with the other activists, 30 people have been identified so far, based on information received from relatives, friends and acquaintances of the deceased.
Sagidullaev says 'this bloodshed could have been avoided, we have always said we are open to dialogue, knowing the totalitarian legacy of Uzbekistan, which has turned our country into a prison over the past 20 years'. He claims all borders of Karakalpakstan are controlled by tanks and military forces deployed in large numbers, city streets are guarded by many Uzbek policemen, and activists are persecuted and arrested.
For 30 years, Uzbekistan has suspended drinking water to the region in the summer, and activists also accuse the authorities in Tashkent of sterilising Karakalpakstani women, preventing the use of the local language in schools and book publishing, and blocking local men from entering leadership positions. 'In the Karakalpakstan parliament there is not a single deputy from a local party,' Sagidullaev explains, 'the 1993 agreement was a trap, they never left us any autonomy'.
The activists believe that the country is ready for independence, including economic independence, and that the region's poverty is actually a fact spread by the propaganda of the Tashkent regime, which also controls the media. In the provinces of Mujnak, Karausak and at the bottom of the Aral Sea, there are more than 2,000 oil and gas wells, and the republic is full of extensive mines, but all the profits go to the Uzbeks.
The Uzbek political scientist Ališer Ilkhamov believes that the repression of the Nukus protests will lead to very serious consequences: 'They have run into a dead end, in an autocratic state like ours it is not the Constitution that makes the difference'. Historian Damir Iskhakov also observes that many issues have remained unresolved for too long, recalling that the Karakalpaktans immediately after the end of the USSR moved in labour migration, mainly to Russia, and then the exit routes were largely closed, reducing the income of families.
According to several commentators, the case of Karakalpakstan is reminiscent of many other situations of former Soviet regions aspiring to independence, especially Tatarstan, and the situation created by the war in Ukraine is likely to explode autonomist drives even within Russia itself.
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05/07/2022 09:58
