SEPT. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s parliament named PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president, another step towards confirming him as Islam Karimov’s successor.

Two days earlier, Mr Mirziyoyev had appeared to win the endorsement of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the region’s real kingmaker, when he visited Karimov’s grave in Samarkand.

Mr Mirziyoyev fills a power vacuum left by the death of Islam Karimov, independent Uzbekistan’s only president, last week.

According to Uzbekistan’s Constitution, the next-in-line for the top job, at least on a temporary basis, was the speaker of the Senate, Nigmatilla Yuldashev.

During a parliament session to name the acting president, though, Mr Yuldashev declined to take the job, saying that wasn’t experienced enough. Instead he endorsed Mr Mirziyoyev.

PM since 2003, the 59-year-old Mirziyoyev was born in Samarkand, also Karimov’s birthplace.

He was considered Karimov’s righthand-man and a like-for-like successor. Mr Mirziyoyev had already acted presidential during the mourning ceremonies after Karimov’s death, meeting with the world leaders who visited Samarkand for the funeral.

The last to visit was Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who said that stability and good relations were the chief objectives of his country’s relations with Uzbekistan (Sept. 6).

In Samarkand, Mr Putin appeared to endorse Mr Mirziyoyev, making all-but-certain that he would take over the top job.

“Of course, we hope that everything Islam Abduganiyevich (Karimov) had started will be continued,” he was quoted by Russian media as saying. “For our part, we will do everything to support this path of mutual development and the people and leadership of Uzbekistan. You can fully count on us as your most reliable friends.”

And Mr Mirziyoyev is likely to continue many of his predecessor’s policies which will worry human rights groups who have criticised the Uzbek leadership for presiding over one of the most repressive regimes in the world.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

SEPT. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan declared that President Islam Karimov, its first and only leader since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, had died.

Throughout Friday speculation had been mounting that Karimov, who was 78, had died after a stroke six days earlier but it took until around 10pm local time for Uzbekistan’s government to confirmed it.

“On September 2 2016 after a long illness, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, an outstanding statesman and politician, died,” the Interfax news agency quoted from an official statement.

A news reader on an Uzbek government station later said that the funeral would be held on Saturday Sept. 3 and that there would be three days of official mourning.

Karimov was reviled by human rights activists for his abuses and cruelty but Western governments, and many Uzbeks, appreciated the stability that he imposed, although often through repressive police operations, on Central Asia’s most populous country.

After independence in 1991, Karimov steadily increased the state’s control over the country, forfeiting its natural place as Central Asia’s economic and cultural hub to neighbouring Almaty in Kazakhstan by closing off its people and its economy.

Karimov brooked no dissent. Dissidents and opposition were imprisoned and beaten. In 2005 Uzbek soldiers shot dead an estimated 300 people protesting against the government in the eastern town of Andijan.

The question now for Uzbekistan is who takes over. Karimov didn’t, publicly at least, lay out a succession plan and his eldest daughter, Gulnara Karimova, who had been considered his natural successor has been under house arrest since 2014.

Media reported that PM Shavkat Mirziyoev had been appointed to head Karimov’s funeral committee. Some analysts said that this indicated that he was headed for the top job.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

AUG. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek President Islam Karimov suffered a stroke on Saturday which left him with a brain haemorrhage, his daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva said, setting up a succession battle over Central Asia’s most populous country.

Uzbekistan is, effectively, a lynchpin for stability in Central Asia. Its population of 31.5m is nearly as much as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan combined, it borders every other country in the region and had been the Soviet Union’s Central Asian administrative and logistical centre.

Under Mr Karimov’s rule, Tashkent lost out to Almaty as the commercial centre of Central Asia for Western multi-nationals but it still holds great sway at a more local level.

Mr Karimov has never publicly named a successor. His eldest daughter Gulnara Karimova, who had looked destined to succeed him fell from grace in 2014 over bribery allegations, leaving Uzbekistan set for a potentially messy succession battle.

Ms Karimova-Tillyaeva said her 78-year-old father had been hospitalised on Saturday after the stroke.

“At the moment it is too early to make any predictions about his future status,” she wrote on Instagram.

Uzbekistan is famed for its central role along the Silk Road, the fabled trade route several centuries ago that connected Europe and China.

Recently, though, Uzbekistan has earned a reputation for repression and for having a closed economy. Western companies have complained of state interference; accusations of slave labour have undermined Uzbekistan’s important cotton sector.

But the US, Russia and China — the major influences on Central Asia — will be hoping for a peaceful handover of power. The radical IS group has been growing in influence and the worry is that it may try to take advantage of any power vacuum.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 293, published on Aug. 29 2016)