By Oleg Vernyk, Ukrainian Socialist League
For several days now, the attention of the world community has been drawn to the events happening un the sovereign Republic of Karakalpakistan, which is part of Uzbekistan due to a 1993 interstate agreement. As part of the process to prepare a new constitution for Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan’s centralist sectors decided to cut off the powers of Karakalpakistan. In the draft amendments to the Constitution, they removed the mention of sovereignty and the possibility of withdrawal from Uzbekistan. And again, the great power’s centralist attempt to violate the rights of the people provoked a massive popular protest. Outraged workers and residents of the capital of the sovereign republic, the city of Nukus, took to the streets and were met with police repression and were shot to death. The number of casualties is still unclear, but video footage from the streets shows unprecedented cruelty in the repression against the protesting people. It’s assumed that 18 people were killed, 243 were arrested and 516 injured.
The Republic of Karakalpakistan is a republic within the Republic of Uzbekistan. It is the largest region in terms of extension and occupies up to 40% of the country’s territory. The population is approximately 2 million people. There are two official languages: Karakalpak and Uzbek. More than 80% of the territory is desert and the rural population prevails. However, these are mostly hired workers in the agricultural sector, education or the gas industry. Wages range from $180 to $300 per month. In Karakalpakistan, large oil and gas fields have been explored and, as a result, the central government of Uzbekistan is afraid of losing control over this region of the country.
In June 2022, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at a meeting with members of the constitutional commission, proposed to pass amendments to the Uzbek Constitution through a referendum. One of the important amendments indicated the change in the state of Karakalpakistan, which is listed in the Basic Law as a sovereign republic. In addition, it is stated that it has the right to secede from Uzbekistan on the basis of a general referendum of the people of Karakalpakstan. It was proposed to exclude these norms, which settle the national sovereignty of the people and their statehood.
It is interesting to note the cynicism of the centralizing authorities of Uzbekistan. They submitted these amendments to the draft constitutional law of the members of the Uzbek Parliament of Karakalpakistan. That is, they tried to pass it off as a proposal of Karakalpakistan’s own congressmen.
Well-known Internet bloggers played an important role in the development of the protests. On July 1, 2022, messages and videos began to circulate on Telegram channels with information that large-scale protests were taking place in the city of Nukus. The reason for this was the arrest of a well-known lawyer and blogger named Daulemmurat Tadzhimuratova who, the day before, called for a demonstration on July 5 near the parliament of Karakalpakistan against the adoption of the ongoing anti-democratic amendments. As more and more demonstrators gathered in the streets of Nukus, special police units began to gather, with additional forces arriving from different regions of the country to suppress the protests.
The authorities, trying to calm the situation, released Tadzhimuratov, but this did not save the situation from a bloody confrontation between the protesters and the security forces, where the latter used special means and firearms to disperse the protesters. The second day of protests was marked by the fact that workers from different regions began to gather in Nukus to support the demonstrators in the capital. Also, new protests began to break out in several regional centers.
When Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev saw that the situation was getting out from under the control of the authorities, he decided to return the situation to the moment when it started. He said that articles 70, 71, 72, 74 and 75 of the Uzbek Constitution, the planned amendments to which caused discontent among the residents of Karakalpakistan, should remain unchanged. Immediately after that, he introduced a state of emergency for a month. But all these measures did not help to calm people down.
Now it is difficult to judge the dynamics of the development of the situation. In Karakalpakistan, there are interruptions in communication and Internet connection is periodically down. Initially people were dissatisfied with the deprivation of sovereignty and managed to stop it, but now there are protesters who are raising independence. We will follow developments closely.
Again and again, in new parts of the globe, centralized attempts by the bourgeois authorities to infringe on the rights of small peoples lead to discontent and mass protests by working people. The unity of the workers is the basis of our struggle, whatever their nationality, it is also very important that we demand the decisive elimination of the causes of any inequality and infringement of democratic and social rights. Only in this way can we achieve genuine unity among workers of all nationalities in their class struggle for liberation against the capitalists.
Russian imperialist dictator Vladimir Putin calls Lenin’s principle of the “right of nations to self-determination” a “ticking time bomb.” And many lesser dictators, representatives of the bourgeois classes and bureaucracy, now have a desire to centralize their states as much as possible and minimize the scope of the rights of the “untitled peoples.” True socialists must resolutely oppose these anti-democratic and anti-working class tendencies. We strongly support the democratic rights of the people of Karakalpakistan and strongly condemn the unprecedented police violence in the streets of Nukus.