Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 29 – The foreign
policy course of new Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, one that stresses
the brotherhood of all Central Asian peoples, has left the residents of the
three Uzbek enclaves inside Kyrgyzstan – Sokh, Shakhimardan and Chongar -- wondering
what will be their fate given that they see Kyrgyz officials systematically
working against them.
In a comment for the CentrAsia portal,
one local resident, Sukhrob Mamadaliyev, says that Tashkent in its efforts to
reach agreement with Bishkek is ignoring the interests of ethnic Uzbeks in
Kyrgyzstan and especially those who live in the three relatively small Uzbek
enclaves there (centrasia.ru/news.php?st=1503960060).
And that in turn, Mamadaliyev
continues, is leading Bishkek to assume that it can get away with anything and
to encourage young Kyrgyz to seize land and inflict other damages on Uzbeks in
the name of Kyrgyz “hurrah patriotism.”
Not surprisingly, this is infuriating local Uzbeks who now feel defenseless
because they are cut off from their own country.
This problem didn’t arise yesterday
or even the day before yesterday, he suggests; but it has gotten worse in
recent months, largely because of Tashkent’s unwillingness to oppose what
Bishkek is doing. If nothing changes, he
implies, the local residents will have to take things into their own hands, a
step that would likely trigger the kind of conflict Tashkent couldn’t ignore.
No comments:
Post a Comment