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A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

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304 A history of Inner Asia<br />

A significant aspect of this counterattack was the fact that it was led<br />

mainly by the indigenous intellectuals – journalists, academicians, professionals.The<br />

politicians – professional Communists and government<br />

bureaucrats – mostly adopted a wait-and-see attitude, unsure of what<br />

the new climate of glasnost and perestroika, which now had also spread to<br />

Central Asia, would ultimately mean for their situation.<br />

One of the novelties was that Central Asians were not only free to criticize<br />

Russia and Communist ideology, but also to demand democratic<br />

freedoms in their own republics.Political pluralism and a free press<br />

began to make their unprecedented appearance, just as they were doing<br />

in Russia and elsewhere in the expiring empire.An Uzbek movement<br />

called Birlik (Unity) was founded in November 1988.Led by Abdurahim<br />

Pulatov, a scientist, it was on the cutting edge of a campaign to make<br />

Uzbek the official language of the republic.The campaign was crowned<br />

with success when the Uzbek Supreme Soviet adopted a resolution to<br />

this effect on 21 October 1989.The movement demanded more,<br />

however: genuine democracy, and it did not hesitate to take on the<br />

Communist Party of Uzbekistan.Birlik stopped short of claiming the<br />

status of a political party, but that role was soon assumed by a group of<br />

intellectuals led by the poets Muhammad Salikh and Erkin Vahidov, who<br />

in April 1990 founded the Erk Democratic Party (“Erk” means<br />

“freedom” or “[people’s] will,” a favorite concept for naming political<br />

movements at the dawn of Central Asian independence).Erk gave every<br />

sign of offering the kind of constructive opposition to the ruling<br />

Democratic Party (as the Communist Party of Uzbekistan renamed itself<br />

after the collapse of the Soviet Union) that the country so desperately<br />

needed in order to become a healthy pluralistic democracy.Islam<br />

Karimov and the new political Democrats at first seemed to accept the<br />

new rules of the game, and Muhammad Salikh could even run for<br />

President in December 1991.He garnered 12 percent of the votes,<br />

against the 86 percent received by Karimov.How fair the election was<br />

is hard to say.What matters is the fact that Salikh could run without<br />

being excessively intimidated.Had that precious amount of freedom<br />

persisted, he might have done better next time, if the voters decided that<br />

new people should be given a chance to search for new solutions.Since<br />

1992, however, those holding power have made their position virtually<br />

impregnable by means of decrees, legislation, and intimidation, and the<br />

initially promising alternatives have been pushed to the margin of political<br />

and public life.Erk is now withering as a party that has been refused

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