Кириш сўзи (инг.)
P R E F A C E
This issue of the journal is somewhat different than previous ones. There are reasons for this.
The world has known the real situation in Uzbekistan pretty well. You can’t surprise someone with news about existing dictatorship in our country.
But not many people know about the real state of the opposition, more precisely, about its current power and potential opportunities. Under existing circumstances Uzbek opposition needs support of the democratic world so the opposition should introduce itself to them.
Without doubt, we have to attract attention to at least three important point of the problem.
First: The real power of the opposition.
Second: The opportunities of opposition under ruling of the existing regime.
Third: Estimating our position in comparison with opposition in countries with historical-geographic proximities. Let us look through all three points.
1. Of course, the power of opposition should be measured by its activity. The opposition, in particular, its main organization, “Birlik” Party should be evaluated by the following facts. “Birlik” created and strengthened the structure of its organization throughout Uzbekistan. It has been leading the activity for registering the party in Justice Ministry. It had tried to participate in 2004 parliamentary elections and has already begun to prepare for the 2007 presidential elections. It has been publishing since 1995, the only independent political, economic and human rights journal “Harakat”. These are just a few of the activities of “Birlik”.
2. To evaluate the power of the opposition party, one also has to look at the kind of conditions it is working under. It is well known that the West considers Uzbekistan as either an autocratic or a dictatorship country. The existing authorities have no intention to listen, to make dialog and to be tolerant to the people with different views. The violation of human rights has reached mass scales. UN recognizes Uzbekistan as a country with systematic torture. Also, mass media is controlled entirely by the government. We have to underline that the Uzbek opposition is working under these conditions.
3. In order to evaluate the power of Uzbek opposition correctly, one has to compare it with analogous organizations in countries, which are close to us from historical-geographic point of view.
There is opposition in Azerbaijan that once even held power. The existing regime is not severe like in Uzbekistan. In spite of these facts, the current Azeri opposition doesn’t have considerable success.
There were Movement “Azat” in Kazakhstan, Popular Movement in Kyrgyzstan, “Rostahez” in Tajikistan and “Agzibirlik” in Turkmenistan at Gorbachev era. But all of them disappeared from the political scene without visible tracks.
The next statement should not hurt our neighbors: Kazakh and Kyrgyz oppositions are “nomenclatura” oppositions. Part of the nomenclature uses democratic rhetoric in the struggle for power against another part of nomenclatura. This is not all that bad, however. Unfortunately, even this kind of opposition does not exist in Uzbekistan. “Nomenclatura” opposition, which uses democratic slogans, would be forced to enforce at least some of them.
It should be appreciated that Uzbek opposition organisation “Birlik”, which is leading activity under worse situations than in neighbor countries, is still alive and continuing its struggle for democracy.
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It is possible to evaluate the power and position of Uzbek opposition correctly only taking into consideration the above counted facts.
These have been written about in Uzbek sites in Internet and in the only independent publication in Uzbek language “Harakat”. But we can bring them to world’s notice by writing them in English and Russian.
Recently Abdurahim Polat, the leader of “Birlik” Party wrote the double part article “The Uzbek Opposition is Not United in Principle, Nevertheless It is Strong (Part 1. Opposition is Not United and Part 2. The Power of the Opposition). Then he made the statement «The Uzbek Opposition is Not United, but Nevertheless Fighting and There is No Help From the West” at the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, on July 25, 2006. The Russian versions of that article and the statement were published in “Harakat” (№ 3 (60) and № 4 (61), 2006).
Though they were circulated in narrow cycles, the article and the statement of the Uzbek opposition leader attracted the attention of specialists. It became clear that the broader circulation of them would contribute for increasing the World’s interest to the problems of Uzbek opposition.
That is why we decided to publish in this issue of the journal mentioned article and statement of Abdurahim Polat. By the same reason, this issue of the journal will be widely circulated outside of Uzbekistan too.
