New Uzbek Group Takes Pro-Government Line
New Uzbek Group Takes Pro-Government Line
A new community association for the Uzbeks of southern Kyrgyzstan may have been set up with covert backing from central government, with the aim of securing greater allegiance among this minority group.
The Davr (Epoch) association holds its first congress on September 9, in the southern town of Mailuusuu. Davr representatives have told NBCA that their primary aim is to promote government policies and work for greater harmony between ethnic groups.
According to political observers in the south, Davr has been conceived as a counterweight to an existing group, the Jalalabad-based National Cultural Centre of Uzbeks, whose views are not much to the government’s liking. NBCentralAsia’s analysts say the independent, opposition line taken by the Jalalabad centre has driven the government to look for other forms of leverage among the Uzbek community.
The centre, headed by parliamentarian Kadirjan Batirov, held a protest rally in Jalalabad in April demanding official status on a par with Russian for the Uzbek language. This drew strong criticism from Kyrgyzstan’s parliament and government.
Immediately after the rally, houses and lands owned by Batirov were seized by members of the public, with little or no intervention by police. Many saw this as an attempt by government to pressure Batirov.
The authorities are clearly unhappy that Batirov’s group had shifted from moderation to staging demonstrations. That may explain why at the August meeting of the Assembly of Kyrgyzstan’s People – an umbrella grouping of ethnic minority organisations – not one of the six delegates sent by the Jalalabad centre was allowed to speak.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
The Davr (Epoch) association holds its first congress on September 9, in the southern town of Mailuusuu. Davr representatives have told NBCA that their primary aim is to promote government policies and work for greater harmony between ethnic groups.
According to political observers in the south, Davr has been conceived as a counterweight to an existing group, the Jalalabad-based National Cultural Centre of Uzbeks, whose views are not much to the government’s liking. NBCentralAsia’s analysts say the independent, opposition line taken by the Jalalabad centre has driven the government to look for other forms of leverage among the Uzbek community.
The centre, headed by parliamentarian Kadirjan Batirov, held a protest rally in Jalalabad in April demanding official status on a par with Russian for the Uzbek language. This drew strong criticism from Kyrgyzstan’s parliament and government.
Immediately after the rally, houses and lands owned by Batirov were seized by members of the public, with little or no intervention by police. Many saw this as an attempt by government to pressure Batirov.
The authorities are clearly unhappy that Batirov’s group had shifted from moderation to staging demonstrations. That may explain why at the August meeting of the Assembly of Kyrgyzstan’s People – an umbrella grouping of ethnic minority organisations – not one of the six delegates sent by the Jalalabad centre was allowed to speak.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
