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In 2016, Uzbekistan’s longtime chief, President Islam Karimov, died and his former prime minister, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, quickly ascended to the presidency. Within the seven years since, Mirziyoyev has consolidated himself in energy and reshaped Uzbekistan on each the regional and worldwide stage. Underneath the tag-line “New Uzbekistan,” Mirziyoyev’s administration pursued a spread of reforms; and but a lot about “previous” Uzbekistan continued.
In a brand new guide — “Nowy Uzbekistan” — accessible solely in Polish for now, journalist Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska charts the course of Uzbekistan’s latest historical past, analyzing how the Uzbek political, social, and financial system has developed, modified, and resisted change. Pikulicka-Wilczewska lived in Uzbekistan for 3 years and has reported for quite a lot of shops, together with The Diplomat and Reuters, from throughout Central Asia and Jap Europe.
Within the following interview with The Diplomat’s Managing Editor Catherine Putz, Pikulicka-Wilczewska outlines what’s new and what’s not so new in Uzbekistan, how the web has formed the nation and discourse in it. She additionally discusses her personal experiences in Uzbekistan at a time of change.
“New Uzbekistan” is a slogan adopted by the federal government of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who got here into energy in 2016 following the demise of Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s first president. What is definitely new about “New Uzbekistan”?
After coming to energy, Shavkat Mirziyovev launched a variety of adjustments, which included bettering relations with all Uzbekistan’s neighbors, Turkey, Russia, and the West, opening as much as international funding, and liberalizing the economic system. Within the following years, he additionally started to form the brand new picture of the nation by changing – generally forcefully, with out regard to human rights and historic worth – Soviet and pre-Soviet structure with Dubai- or generally Italy- or Disneyland-inspired buildings, parks, and enterprise facilities, which now represent the tangible symbols of Mirziyoyev’s rule.
He additionally allowed extra freedom to training Muslims, at the least in some respects, and even introduced that the nation was coming into the section of its Third Renaissance (following the Islamic Golden Age and the so-called Timurid Renaissance), which implies that it might join Islam with scientific and academic improvement.
However after we look past the floor, what’s new about “New Uzbekistan,” for my part, are the societal adjustments introduced by a freer web. In the course of the Karimov occasions, entry to the web and particularly social media in Uzbekistan was restricted. Mirziyoyev unlocked entry to quite a few web sites, which abruptly gave rise to dozens of latest information websites and unbiased bloggers, which began shaping public opinion. Since elevated entry to the web coincided with permitting more room for Islam within the public area, Islamic profiles mushroomed on social media and plenty of of them popularized concepts seen as radical from the angle of a secular state.
On the similar time, liberal voices, together with feminist ones, have additionally grown in prominence, which led to a critical polarization inside society, largely hidden within the Karimov period. Social media additionally helped to radicalize views on each side of the spectrum. This polarization is seen relating to just about all points affecting Uzbekistan, whether or not it involves relations with Russia and the West, the warfare in Ukraine, nationalism and so forth.
What vestiges of “previous” Uzbekistan stay? Do you see parallels between the administrations of Karimov and Mirziyoyev?
The core of the system remained the identical. Each administrations closely relied on the buildings created again within the Soviet occasions and that features centralized energy, central financial planning (although to a lesser extent right this moment), politicization of all public establishments, together with the judiciary and legislation enforcement companies, large powers within the arms of the safety companies.
Reforms launched firstly by each Karimov and Mirziyoyev have been beauty and didn’t have an effect on the oppressive nature of the state system. Whereas it’s plain that Mirziyoyev’s Uzbekistan is much less paranoid, a lot freer and tolerant than Karimov’s, there may be nonetheless no opposition; it’s nearly not possible to register a non-governmental group or count on a free trial. So the very nature of the system stays unchanged.
Mirziyoyev isn’t the primary Uzbek president to toss round a slogan or two. What was the that means of “maʼnaviyat” within the early days of independence?
Ma’naviyat, that’s spirituality or morality, was the central tenet of Karimov’s new order, the ideology of nationwide independence. The idea has developed over time however ultimately got here to outline the supposedly pure, unique options of Uzbeks, due to which the nation has survived centuries of oppression, and a roadmap for the longer term.
Maʼnaviyat means life in peace and concord, cooperation between individuals, attachment to the homeland, household, and mahalla – the local people. It means respect for the elders, improvement of younger generations, and love for the Uzbek language. It entailed a brand new – though everlasting – Uzbek spirituality, which was supposed to assist residents obtain the next stage of morality. Islam Karimov, because the nation’s father, and the state had the duty to uphold morality and launched mechanisms to right any deviations from the principles. In essence, due to this fact, ma’naviyat was a corrective mechanism, an ideology imposed on society to ensure it’s simply managed.
Your three years dwelling in and reporting from Uzbekistan ended abruptly in 2021. What did that have illustrate for you about trendy Uzbekistan?
It confirmed me that Uzbekistan shouldn’t be prepared for journalism as we perceive it within the West. It’s nonetheless paranoid and afraid of critique, particularly well-founded critiques. Whereas on the one hand in his speeches the president encourages journalists and bloggers to be courageous, write about issues, and criticize the authorities, it’s all a present for audiences each Western and home, as a result of journalists and bloggers in Uzbekistan know the purple strains completely properly. And these have gotten more and more strict.
Whereas within the first few years of Mirziyoyev’s rule there was nonetheless hope that journalism in Uzbekistan would observe Kyrgyzstan’s instance, we have been quickly reminded that the boundaries of free speech will probably be outlined by the authorities and the safety companies and never the boldness and abilities of native and worldwide journalists.
But it surely has additionally confirmed me that in his second presidential time period, Mirziyoyev didn’t even faux to be a democrat anymore. His model of Uzbekistan had already been accepted by the worldwide neighborhood and the West, together with his authoritarianism, which is softer than that of his predecessor and due to this fact extra acceptable.
In your lately revealed guide, which is at the moment solely accessible in Polish, how do you go about telling the story of Uzbekistan? Give our readers a way of the guide’s group and what themes you search to spotlight in it.
The guide begins with a narrative of a rave within the faraway desert of Karakalpakstan, the place the long-gone Aral Sea was – the primary open air techno celebration in Uzbekistan’s historical past, which passed off in 2018. It was a prelude to adjustments which got here within the following years, and on the similar time an occasion that introduced me to Uzbekistan and ultimately made me keep there for the subsequent three years.
Within the subsequent chapters, I analyze how the Uzbek political, social, and financial system has developed, by specializing in the Karimov period, his philosophy, writings, politics, which I inform by specializing in human tales. Then I take a look at the Mirziyoyev period, the adjustments that passed off and the shortage of change, all the time making an attempt to present voice to native individuals.
Within the guide I additionally inform my story, which begins with an enormous fascination and hope for change and ends abruptly with an entry ban. I’m engaged on translating my guide into English and I actually hope it can ultimately be accessible for a global viewers.
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