Birlik and Erk parties had long…

Uznews.net – Uzbekistan’s exiled opposition Birlik party has supported the Uzbek government’s move to dismantle the Soviet-era Defender of the Motherland monument in Tashkent and accused Uznews.net that covered this topic of links with Russian nationalists.

Birlik’s website, harakat.net, whose editor-in-chief is the party’s chairman, Abdurahim Pulatov, today published an article entitled “Will Uznews.net take part in a picket by Russia’s Nashi?”

Pulatov thinks that Uznews.net and the Nashi youth nationalistic movement, which intends to hold a protest action in Moscow against the dismantling of the monument, are linked because they both have a pro-Russian, imperial attitude towards Uzbekistan and are imposing some Soviet heroes of WWII on Uzbeks, who were used cannon fodder during the war.

The monument, which used to be called the monument to the Defenders of Southern Boundaries in Soviet times, was erected in 1973 in front of the Museum of the Armed Forces, was dismantled and taken away in an unknown direction on 21 November.

Trees in a park which surrounds the monument and was opened in 1975 ahead of the 30th anniversary of the end of WWII have also been cut down.

Birlik welcomed the government’s decision to remove the monument and questioned

Abdurahim Pulatov

that no-one had not even thought of doing this during the past 18 years of independence.

The party also expressed its surprise that Uznews.net had spoken in defence of the monument erected to Soviet soldiers who had invaded Central Asian countries.

The article suggested that during the war Uzbeks had not been even allowed to carry weapons and had been used as cannon fodder, while after the war they had been drafted only to construction battalions, which explained as why there were only few Uzbek officers in the Soviet army.

“That is why it is wrong to think that the monument to Soviet soldiers in Tashkent has something to do with Uzbeks,” Pulatov said.

He said that Uznews.net always acted as the enemy of Uzbek democrats and aimed to discredit their names and deeds, which is why it would not be a surprise if its journalists attended the Russian rally.

In response to the Birlik article, the head of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, Abdujalil Boymatov, said that Uzbekistan’s opposition Birlik and Erk parties had long stopped to fight for freedom and democracy in Uzbekistan and turned into a mirror reflection of President Islam Karimov, whom they are supposed to fight.

The leaders of these parties, which have retained only their names but lost all their members, are not democratic-minded at all, Boymatov thinks.

“They are pseudo-democratic and do not tolerate criticism, and when they hear it from someone they regard these people as their enemies, exactly as President Karimov does,” he said.

The Birlik party started its political activities in the late 1980s, promoting nationalistic ideas and demanding independence from Moscow.

At the beginning these ideas were about its real desire to see Uzbekistan and Uzbeks free and equal people, but now Birlik’s position is all about petty nationalism and disrespect to history, however bad it is.