Uzbekistan’s Ethnic Minorities: Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind

More than two months have passed since mass protests erupted in Uzbekistan’s northwestern region of Karakalpakstan over proposed constitutional amendments that aimed to strip the republic of its autonomy. The protests led to serious violence by security forces, including at least 21 killed, 243 injured, and 516 detained, according to official sources. By far the worst crisis of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s tenure, at the time of writing there are serious concerns that among the individuals detained for taking part in the protests, several have been subjected torture, denied access to independent counsel, or held incommunicado, such as two local journalists – Lalagul Kallykhanova and Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov – who publicly decried Tashkent’s attempts to downgrade the region’s autonomous status and whose peaceful exercise of their rights was well-documented.

Mirziyoyev has taken some appropriate measures such as withdrawing the proposed amendments, acknowledging possible abuses by law enforcement, and authorizing a parliamentary commission to investigate the events. But other moves have been reminiscent of the Uzbek government’s crackdown following the Andijan massacre of 2005, such as the decision to forge ahead with stifling restrictions on the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). A June 2022 decree mandates that NGOs partner with a government body in order to implement activities – a provision that contradicts Uzbekistan’s law on NGOs and defeats the notion of NGOs as non-governmental. Moreover, there has been persistent rhetoric, from Mirziyoyev on down, blaming what happened in Karakalpakstan on “forces from abroad” rather than endorsing a sober discussion about the multiple factors that drove thousands to take part in the largest protests in Uzbekistan’s recent history.

For many, mass protests in Karakalpakstan and discussions about its autonomy were the first they had ever heard of the Karakalpaks, a Turkic ethnic group numbering more than 400,000 who possess a distinct language (closer to Kazakh than to Uzbek), nomadic traditions, and their own national symbols. More broadly, it was also perhaps the first time many had truly considered Uzbekistan’s diverse and multiethnic character.

The violence and abuses that shook Karakalpakstan brought into sharp relief the reality that in Uzbekistan, as in almost every modern state, ethnic minority issues, actual or perceived ethnic discrimination, language rights, and the need for minority political representation not only drive protest, but are fundamental to overall governance and the protection of all Uzbekistanis’ human rights. Indeed, the question of how Uzbek authorities have, at key points in history, failed to protect minorities are rarely, if ever, discussed, and should be examined more closely. A closer look reveals that issues of ethnic identity have often been major flashpoints in Uzbekistan’s development, especially when they have intersected with socioeconomic and political concerns.

For better or for worse, the state’s “out of sight, out of mind” approach to ethnic minorities is largely thanks to the policies of Uzbekistan’s first and long-sitting authoritarian president, Islam Karimov, who kept a repressively tight lid on even the most moderate expressions of minority identity beyond the wholly bland and apolitical “friendship of peoples” rhetoric that he inherited from the Soviet Union. On the one hand, many Uzbeks today still credit Karimov’s approach for helping Uzbekistan avoid what he painted as the “chaos” and ethnic conflict in neighboring Kyrgyzstan (June 2010) or Tajikistan (1992-1997). On the other hand, however, Karimov’s approach also led to the erosion of language rights, stifling of cultural production for minorities, and of course, the curtailing of political activity.

Without purporting to look comprehensively at nationality policy or every ethnic minority in Uzbekistan, this article focuses more narrowly on three minorities whose experiences reveal deeper lessons about Uzbekistan’s human rights challenges: Meskhetian (Ahiska) Turks, Tajiks, and Karakalpaks. The experiences of these three groups, in particular, provide a roadmap authorities should consider to ensure the protection of minorities and as they prepare for Uzbekistan’s first census in over 30 years.

Like most modern states, Uzbekistan has struggled profoundly with the treatment of minorities. International human rights law, including a relatively recent review of Uzbekistan’s compliance with the key treaty on ethnic discrimination – the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which Uzbekistan acceded to in 1995 – provides concrete recommendations for how Tashkent should improve the protection of minorities, especially in light of the recent tragedy in Karakalpakstan.

Meskhetian (Ahiska) Turks Deported to Uzbekistan

Meskhetian Turks are a group of Turkish-speaking people originally from Meskhetia (now known as Samtskhe-Javakheti), a part of southern Georgia that borders Turkey. Meskhetian Turks often also refer to themselves as “Ahiska Turks,” which denotes the geographic connection to the city of Akhaltsikhe, Georgia.

By the 1930s, Stalin’s paranoid fear of potentially “disloyal” ethnic minorities populating the Soviet Union’s border areas led to a policy of collective deportations. In late 1944, his murderous right-hand man, Lavrenti Beria, issued an executive resolution declaring the Meskhetian Turks and other smaller groups an “untrustworthy population” that should be immediately deported from Soviet Georgia to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Between November 15 and 17, 1944, nearly 100,000 Meskhetian Turks were forcibly transported in cattle cars to the Central Asian Soviet republics.

Thousands died during the journey, while thousands more perished from the famine in the immediate aftermath. Deportation, the trauma of exile, and being confined to “special settlements” until 1956 encouraged Meskhetian Turks to band close together and identify as a distinct group. Meskhetian Turk activists lobbied the Soviet government continuously for the right to return to Georgia. Still, the vast majority integrated into Soviet Uzbekistan, with many becoming successful collective farmers.