Longtime Uzbek President Islam Karimov Passes Away

Funeral Procession for President Karimov. Source: AFP

Officials of the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan officially announced the deathof long-time President Islam Karimov on September 2. The statement came after several days of speculation about the president’s deteriorating health and numerous unconfirmed reports of his death.

Islam Karimov’s early life is shrouded in mystery and Uzbek state censorship. It is known that he was born in Samarkand in 1938. From then until 1960 there is no officially sanctioned story for Karimov’s life. According to one article, Karimov’s paternal father was of Jewish or Tajik origin, since his legal father was sent to prison two years before his birth. At the age of 3 Karimov was placed into an orphanage, despite his parents being still alive. The authorities later ordered living parents to take back children purposely placed in orphanages, as a result of the overcrowding of World War II. Karimov’s return home was short-lived and he became an ‘orphan’ again at 7, supposedly due to his bad temper. The remainder of his life until adulthood was either led as “an outstanding student” or as “a well-known watermelon thief at Samarkand bazaars.”

Karimov led Uzbekistan since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. People were celebrating the 25th anniversary of Uzbek independence the day before Karimov’s official death. However, Karimov’s involvement with Uzbek politics dates back long before independence. He joined the Soviet State Planning Committee in 1966 and advanced his political ambitions further after his marriage to his second wife, Tatyana Akbarovna, the following year.

Tatyana’s family connections helped bring Karimov’s work to the attention of two of the most powerful men in Soviet Uzbekistan, First Party Secretary Sharaf Rashidov and head of the Samarkand clan Ismail Jurabekov. Karimov became the Minister of Finance for Soviet Uzbekistan in 1983; however, Rashidov committed suicide in 1983, possibly under pressure from the Soviet Authorities due to his increasing popularity among ethnic Uzbeks. Rashidov’s suicide cleared the way for Karimov to lead Soviet Uzbekistan.

Karimov was known for his strongman reputation while in power. His most infamous incident of repression was the massacre at Andijon. In May 2005, security forces fired on civilians from armored vehicles. In 2008, a defector from the Uzbek security service reported up to 1,500 dead. The murdered civilians had gathered in the town to call for a fair trial of a businessman, arrested in 2004, only to be met with automatic fire.

The former Uzbek president was no more lenient towards his own family members. His eldest daughter, Gulnara Karimova, was placed under house arrest in 2014 following claims that she had paid bribes to secure contracts inside Uzbekistan. Her rants against important Uzbek officials, and later her own family members, only added to her title of “most hated woman in Uzbekistan.” The chances of her succeeding her father are very low, since she was not at her father’s funeral in Samarkand.

Karimov’s death has large implications for Central Asia as a whole. Uzbekistan’s large population of 30 million allowed Karimov to play off both Russia and the United States in the region. Both Russia and the US had military bases in the Uzbekistan until 2005, when Karimov evicted the Americans following condemnation of the aforementioned incident at Andijon. On September 1, 2015, Karimov made a statement ruling out the establishment of any foreign bases in the country and Uzbek military involvement abroad.

Karimov’s temporary successor, former Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev, will have to balance new attempts for influence from the US, Russia, and even China; that is, focusing on creating a new “Silk Road.” Additionally, the absence of long-term authority could allow the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, long time partners of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, to gain influence by helping moderate Islamic opposition gain control after Karimov. Mirziyaev may have to cede some of Uzbekistan’s long held sovereignty, and Karimov’s legacy, to keep power in the hands of the current regime, or face the possibility of a radical Islamic movement gaining pace in the Central Asia.