Uzbek Opposition Attempts Merger
Monday, 22 June, 2009
Uzbek Opposition Attempts Merger
Monday, 22 June, 2009
On June, 9, the Fergana.ru website reported that a meeting took place between leaders of the Erk Democratic Party, founded in the early Nineties, and a new group called Andijan – Justice and Revival, at which a possible merger of opposition groups was discussed.
To facilitate this, the two groups formed 13 May Ittifoqi, the May 13 Alliance, and said others would be welcome to join.
Erk’s leadership has been based abroad since 1992, when its leader Muhammad Solih stood as a presidential candidate against the then (and current) head of state Islam Karimov.
After an Erk demonstration was broken up violently in February 1992, many party members went into hiding, and a large proportion subsequently fled abroad.
Andijan – Justice and Revival (Andijon, Adolat va Tiklanish) was established in May this year by people who fled to the West after the violence of May 13, 2005, when government troops shot into a crowd of demonstration in eastern Uzbekistan, killing hundreds.
Uzbekistan has four officially-sanctioned political parties, all of them unswerving in their loyalty to the powers that be. All four are represented in parliament.
Other opposition parties and movements – Birlik, Birdamlik, Birlik, Ozod Dekhkonlar (Free Farmers), and the Sunny Coalition – are not legal and their members are persecuted.
Commentators doubt that an opposition with so many of its leaders abroad is in a position to mount a significant challenge to Uzbekistan’s current rulers. Nor do they express much hope that the May 13 Alliance will make a great deal of headway inside the country.
Dilorom Ishakova, who heads the Birdamlik movement, based in Tashkent, says that over the past two decades, a series of opposition groupings and parties have been unable to challenge the regime.
In her view, “The opposition based abroad is lost to the country and is unable to influence the situation. It isn’t popular inside Uzbekistan.”
Ishakova explained that it is extremely difficult to engage in political activity because of unceasing persecution, and all the more so for leaders in exile.
“It isn’t clear how they will operate,” she added.
Tashpulat Yoldashev, an Uzbek political analyst based abroad, said the opposition abroad lacked two things – new blood and a clear plan of action.
“For several years now, there has been no change in membership among the opposition abroad, of the kind that would draw in intellectuals and technocrats,” said Yoldashev. “Nor do they identify and nurture promising young people. How can they talk about a merger, or about acquiring new supporters?”
Komron Aliev, a political scientist in Tashkent, says the opposition has had a hard time of it, and the new May 13 Alliance will struggle to establish itself.
In Aliev’s view, the only way the opposition in exile can influence things inside Uzbekistan is by lobbying international organisations.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
