Uzbekistan
Country in central Asia, bounded N by Kazakhstan and the Aral Sea,
E by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, S by Afghanistan, and W by Turkmenistan.
Government
The 1992 constitution provides for a directly elected president, serving
not more than two consecutive five-year terms, and a 250-member
supreme assembly, the Oli Majlis, to which deputies are elected
by a majority system, with a second ballot `run-off´ race in contests
in which there is no clear first-round majority. A prime minister
and cabinet are drawn from the legislature but are subordinate
to the president, who may, with the approval of the Constitutional
Court, dissolve the Oli Majlis. For administrative purposes, the
country is divided into 12 regions.
History
The Turkmen are Turkic-speaking descendants of the Mongol invaders
who swept across Asia from the 13th century. Part of Turkestan,
Turkmenistan was conquered by Tsarist Russia 1865-76, with the
emir of Bukhara becoming a vassal. The Tashkent soviet gradually
extended its power 1917-24, with the emir of Bukhara deposed 1920.
Uzbekistan became part of the Turkestan Soviet Socialist Republic
1921 and a constituent republic of the USSR 1925, although guerrilla
resistance continued for a number of years.
Some 160,000 Meskhetian Turks were forcibly transported from
their native Georgia to Uzbekistan by Stalin 1944. After World
War II Uzbekistan became a major cotton- growing region, producing
two-thirds of Soviet output. The Uzbek Communist Party (UCP) leadership,
who controlled the republic like a feudal fief, were both notorious
for the extent of their corruption and for their obedience to
Moscow. In return, Uzbekistan received large subsidies.
Growth of Nationalism
From the late 1980s there was an upsurge in Islamic consciousness provoking
violent clashes with Meskhetian, Armenian, and Kyrgyz minority
communities, particularly in the Ferghana Valley, which had become
a hotbed for Wahabi Islamic militancy. In Sept 1989 an Uzbek nationalist
organization, the Birlik (` Unity´ People's Movement), was formed.
The UCP, under the leadership of Islam Karimov, responded by declaring
the republic's `sovereignty´ June 1990 and replacing Russian administrators
with Uzbeks.
Independence Recognized
President Karimov did not immediately condemn the Aug 1991 anti-Gorbachev
attempted coup in Moscow. However, once the coup was defeated,
the UCP broke its links with the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union and on 31 Aug 1991 the republic declared its independence.
Uzbekistan joined the new Commonwealth of Independent States Dec
1991. On 29 Dec Karimov was directly elected president, capturing
86% of the vote. In Feb 1992 the republic joined the Economic
Cooperation Organization, founded by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey
1975, and admission to the United Nations was granted in March
; US diplomatic recognition was also achieved at this point.
Authoritarian Secular Rule
President Karimov embarked on a strategy of gradualist market-centred
economic reform, although foreign investment was also encouraged.
He adopted an authoritarian, secular style of rule, and was determined
to prevent the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. Inter-ethnic
conflict within the republic was suppressed through a firm approach,
with the nationalist Birlik party suspended and the Erk Party
hounded. Communist Party cells were banned from the armed forces,
the police, and the civil service, and the UCP changed its designation,
becoming the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (PDP). Nevertheless,
the former UCP apparatus and personnel remained very much in control,
with opposition groups either harassed or, in the case of the
Islamic Renaissance Party, banned.
A coalition of clergymen, led by the mufti of Tashkent, called
for fresh multiparty elections and an end to communist domination.
Ethnic Russians, formerly preponderant in the industrial workforce
and bureaucracy, began to leave the republic, with adverse economic
consequences. In Jan 1992 several people died in student-led food
riots in Tashkent after prices had been liberalized. Aided by
an inflow of funds from Saudi Arabia and despite the secularist
stance of President Karimov, a revival of Islamic teaching and
studies commenced. A government crackdown on Islamic fundamentalists
was announced 1993.
In 1994 Uzbekistan agreed to form a single economic zone with
neighbouring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and a treaty on economic
integration and policy coordination was signed with Russia. Links
with Turkey were also strengthened, with Turkish being taught
in schools alongside Uzbek and English and in place of Russian.
In the Jan 1995 assembly elections, from which opposition parties
were banned from participating, the ruling PDP emerged with a
clear majority. Karimov's term was extended for a further five-year
term by plebiscite March 1995, and in May he called for the five
former republics of Soviet Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) to form a unified Turkic
republic of ` Turkestan´. In Dec 1995 Otkir Sultonov was appointed
prime minister.
In Aug 1996 an agreement was signed with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
to create a Central Asian single market economy by 1998.
In Jan 1997 a new law prohibited political parties based on
ethnic or religious lines and required prospective parties to
have at least 5,000 members, spread over eight provinces.
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