Forced labor.
Tag: uzbekistan
Uzbekistan Releases Journalist After 19 Years in Prison
You may never have heard of him, but by our count, Ruzimuradov, 64, was one of the world’s longest imprisoned journalists. His crime? Working for an independent newspaper, Erk, or Freedom.
Uzbekistan Restoring Closer Military Ties with Russia
Uzbekistan: Imam Proposes Death Penalty for Radical Muslims
Uzbekistan: Without Forced Labor, Who’ll Pick the Cotton?
Once Deadly Foes, Now BFF? Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
Central Asia (GV) – It wasn’t just about the first ladies and their matching shoes, although that didn’t go unnoticed; Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s visit to Kyrgyzstan last week marked a sea change in relations between two Central Asian countries that…
Preserving Life Amid an Environmental Disaster
Uzbekistan (EAN) – Rafat Aimuratov is on a crusade to save Muynak. The former bustling fisheries hub in western Uzbekistan is ground zero in what is widely acknowledged to be among the worst environmental disasters of the past century. Decades of…
China: One Belt, One Road, Lots of Obligations
China (EAN) – It’s not often that the leaders of democracies like Switzerland and Spain gather with the heads of repressive regimes like North Korea and Uzbekistan, but it seems no one wants to miss China’s coming-out party for its “One…
Russian Beyond Russia
Kazakhstan (EAN) – Language is harmfully intertwined with politics these days in Eurasia. The swirling debates are raising questions about the boundaries of Russianness. President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s March 12 statement that the Kazakh language would move from the Cyrillic to the…
U.S. Boosts Special Forces Training in Central Asia
Central Asia (EAN) – The United States has stepped up its trainings of elite military units in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan over the last two years, U.S. government records show. At the same time, the U.S. has suspended training of…
Uzbekistan: Is Hike in Mecca Pilgrimage Quota Another Sign of Thaw?
Uzbekistan (EAN) – Later this month, groups of Muslim pilgrims from Uzbekistan will begin making their way to Mecca, undertaking a religious obligation that most believers in the country can only dream about. In recognition of overwhelming popular demand, authorities in…
Uzbekistan: Emboldened Media Shedding Self-Censorship
Uzbekistan (EAN) – As headlines go, this one might not look especially exciting; “What Can We Expect from the Liberalization of the Foreign Currency Market?” But the article, by respected economist Yuliy Yusupov, became an instant sensation when it was published…
In Uzbekistan, a YouTube Video Sparks a Debate about Homophobia
Uzbekistan (EAN) – Social media in Uzbekistan was set abuzz this week after a video appeared online showing a young man in make-up and a wedding dress being jeered and assaulted as he walked through the Ferghana Valley city of Andijan.…
Central Asia in 2016: The More Things Change…?
Despite occasional whiffs of volatility, Central Asia has remained remarkably resistant to real change, either the type that could see it deteriorate into a hotbed of violence and chaos as some have predicted, or the kind that might inch it in the direction of democratic rule and socio-economic wellbeing, which almost no-one suspects will happen.
Consequently, while a lot of things happened in the region this year, none of it will necessarily look meaningful when (or if) historians look back on Central Asia’s 2016 in 50 years time.
Turkey Pursues a Reset with Uzbekistan
The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arrived for a two-day visit to Uzbekistan on November 17 in a diplomatic overture that aims to undo more than a decade of frostiness.
Erdogan was due to open his trip with a visit to Samarkand, where he planned to visit the grave of the late Uzbek leader, Islam Karimov. But observers’ attention will be fixed mainly on his meeting with Acting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev for what Uzbek media have said will be an exchange of views on regional and international issues.