War between Uzbeks and Kirghiz. Internal conflicts and splits. Osh conflict
In Kyrgyzstan, there was a major inter-ethnic conflict between the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, called Osh.
The south of Kyrgyzstan (Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken regions) occupies the southwestern part of the Ferghana Valley. There has always been a tight knot of various problems, contradictions and conflicts, potential sources of which were the underdevelopment of economic infrastructure, limited land and water resources, mass unemployment, and religious extremism.
The national-territorial delimitation in the 20s of the XX century radically changed the political situation of the Ferghana Valley: it was divided between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; in each republic, a mixed, multinational population continued to live. Two Uzbek enclaves remained on the territory of Kyrgyzstan - Sokh and Shakhimardan, numbering approximately 40 to 50 thousand people, as well as the Tajik enclaves Chorku and Vorukh. In turn, in Uzbekistan there is a Kyrgyz enclave - the village of Barak, belonging to the Ak-Tash rural administration of the Kara-Suu district of the Osh region.
Since ancient times, the flat areas of the Fergana Valley were occupied by sedentary farmers (mainly Uzbeks), and in the mountains and foothills in the auls lived the Kirghiz - nomadic cattle breeders. Settled farmers are the founders of a number of cities, including Osh and Uzgen. Historically, there were very few Kyrgyz living in these cities.
Since the mid-1960s, the Kyrgyz began to move from the mountain villages to the plains and populate the cities and countryside around the cities, but in the late 1980s, in the cities of Osh and Uzgen, the Uzbeks significantly outnumbered the Kyrgyz.
The policy of perestroika and glasnost in the second half of the 1980s gave rise to the rise of national self-consciousness of both the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks. At the same time, socio-economic problems have become aggravated, and the shortage of land plots for housing construction has become especially sensitive. As a rule, land was demanded by people from the countryside - ethnic Kyrgyz who moved to Frunze (Bishkek) and Osh. The legislation of the USSR forbade the allocation of land for individual development in the capitals of the Union republics. The dissatisfaction of the Kyrgyz student and working youth living in Frunze grew. Throughout the spring of 1990, rallies of Kyrgyz youth were held in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, demanding land. In the suburbs of the capital, attempts to seize land plots did not stop.
In Osh, since the early spring of 1990, the informal Uzbek association "Adolat" ("Justice") and the Kyrgyz public organization "Osh aimagy" ("Osh region") became more active, which set the task of providing people with land plots for building houses.
In May, a group of Uzbek aksakals from the Jalal-Abad region appealed to the leadership of the USSR (Chairman of the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Rafik Nishanov, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan Absamat Masaliev, etc.) with a demand to grant autonomy to the Uzbek population of southern Kyrgyzstan. The appeal indicated that the indigenous population of the region is actually Uzbeks, whose number in the region is about 560 thousand people; in the Osh region, in the zone of compact residence, the Uzbek population is more than 50%.
Among the Uzbeks, dissatisfaction was compounded by the fact that the vast majority of the leading cadres were of Kyrgyz nationality.
At the rally of the Kyrgyz, which took place in Osh on May 27, its participants actually delivered an ultimatum to the authorities. They demanded that they be handed over 32 hectares of cotton fields of the Lenin collective farm, which mainly employed Uzbeks. This requirement was granted by the government officials.
In the Uzbek community, this decision was perceived as an insult. The Uzbeks gathered their own rally, at which they also put forward demands to the authorities: the creation of Uzbek autonomy and the granting of state status to the Uzbek language.
Those Uzbeks who rented housing to the Kyrgyz in Osh began to massively get rid of tenants. This only contributed to the incitement of the conflict, especially since the people evicted from their apartments (and, according to some reports, there were more than 1.5 thousand of them) also joined the demands to transfer land for construction.
On May 31, the authorities acknowledged that the decision to transfer 32 hectares of collective farm land was illegal. However, this could no longer affect the development of the situation: numerous rallies were held on both sides.
On June 4, about 1.5 thousand Kyrgyz and more than 10 thousand Uzbeks converged on the field of the disputed collective farm. The opposing rallies were separated only by a rare chain of police officers armed with machine guns. From the crowd, they began to throw stones and bottles at them, there were attempts to break through the cordon. As a result, the police officers opened fire to kill.
Angry crowds moved in different directions into the city, setting fire to cars and beating up representatives of the "hostile" nationality who got in the way. A group of several dozen people attacked the building of the Osh GOVD. The police, again using weapons, beat off the attack.
After that, mass pogroms, arsons and killings of Uzbeks began in Osh. Unrest swept the city of Uzgen and rural areas, the majority of whose population was Kyrgyz. The clashes in Uzgen, the district center, which was also a place of compact residence of Uzbeks, took on the most violent character. On the morning of June 5, mass fights began there between the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, and the advantage was on the side of the latter. In a few hours, hundreds of Kyrgyz were beaten, representatives of the Kyrgyz community began to leave the city. However, by noon, organized armed groups of Kyrgyz from nearby villages began to arrive in the city. They became organizers and participants in numerous pogroms, arsons, robberies and murders.
Support groups from the neighboring Namangan, Fergana and Andijan regions of the Uzbek SSR arrived to help the Uzbek side.
On June 6, 1990, units of the Soviet army were introduced into the settlements engulfed by unrest, which managed to master the situation. The march of armed Uzbeks from the cities of Namangan and Andijan to Osh was stopped a few dozen kilometers from the city.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz SSR and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the former USSR, during the riots of 1990, 305 people were killed, 1371 people were injured, including 1071 people were hospitalized, 573 houses were burned, including 74 state institutions, 89 cars, 426 robberies and robberies were committed .
The Decree of the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 26, 1990 "On the events in the Osh region of the Kyrgyz SSR", adopted on the basis of the work of the deputy group, stated that "the events in the Osh region of the Kyrgyz SSR were the result of major miscalculations in the national and personnel policy; neglect educational work among the population; unresolved acute economic and social problems; numerous facts of violation of social justice. The first leaders of the Kirghiz SSR, as well as the region, did not learn lessons from the interethnic clashes that had previously taken place in the republic, showed carelessness and short-sightedness in assessing the situation about the activation of nationalist elements and imminent conflict, did not take measures to prevent it.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
Exactly 5 years ago, on June 10-11, 2010, inter-ethnic clashes broke out in the south of Kyrgyzstan between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz who had lived here for many years in the neighborhood. In Osh and Jalalabad regions, the riots did not stop for four days, the rioters used automatic weapons. The Uzbeks left their homes and fled for their lives. Uzbekistan in those days received about 75 thousand refugees. Only according to official figures, 447 people died. Unofficially - four or five times more. Lenta.ru found eyewitnesses of the events and asked on condition of anonymity to tell what they witnessed.
There are two of my interlocutors. Both are residents of border towns between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The difficulty is that, having formally separated, both states cannot do this in practice. Yes, most of the border is already properly designed, but it often has a very whimsical pattern. Akram Khodzhaev (not his real name) is an ethnic Uzbek who lives in the city of Kara-Suu in the Osh region of Kyrgyzstan. The city is located close to the border and the Uzbek city of Karasu, Andijan region.
Akram-aka does not hide the fact that relations between the Uzbeks and the Kyrgyz, despite the apparent friendliness, have always been tense: however, as often happens, the conflict almost always manifested itself only at the everyday level. Everything changed the coup d'état in Kyrgyzstan. On April 7, 2010, opposition forces launched a lengthy process of redistribution of power in the country, effectively expelling first President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from Bishkek and then from the republic. The unrest in Talas and Bishkek, according to my interlocutor, set in motion a hidden mechanism of mutual hostility.
“Between April 7 and June 10, there were several skirmishes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks,” he says. - We knew that on both sides there are provocateurs who increase inter-ethnic tensions. But up to a certain point, we managed to resolve all disputes amicably.” In Osh, Akram was engaged in the production of metal tiles, kept a small workshop. On June 10, 2010, he left work at 6 o'clock and returned to Kara-Suu.
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov / Kommersant
The pogroms began around 10 pm. In Kara-Suu, they learned about this late at night, but were not particularly alarmed. It was said that a group of Kyrgyz had gathered somewhere and attacked the Uzbeks, but the information was contradictory - other messengers came and claimed that, on the contrary, a group of Uzbeks attacked the Kyrgyz.
“We thought that this was another skirmish and everything would calm down by morning. On the morning of June 11, I even got ready to go to work in my shop, but my friends stopped me and warned me that now everything is serious in Osh and it’s better not to take risks,” recalls Akram. In Kara-Suu itself, pogroms were avoided, as the inhabitants barricaded the city. All the roads leading to Kara-Suu were filled with containers, large cars, so that no one could get in and out. At that moment, the city was defended by the Uzbeks together with the Kirghiz. “Everyone understood that the pogromists in Osh and Jalal-Abad were provocateurs from the nearby villages of southern Kyrgyzstan, and therefore it was important to unite and prevent clashes and looting,” Akram emphasizes. And he adds: “We defended Kara-Suu then.”
Akram was able to return to his workshop in Osh only two weeks later. “I went inside and could not believe my eyes: everything was destroyed, burned and plundered. There was nothing left but one machine,” he notes. It was possible to more or less restore the workshop only at the beginning of July. He worked only three or four hours a day: the danger of collisions remained.
Akram still lives in his hometown but commutes to work in Osh. He says that relations between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz are now good, but some tension is felt.
“Many of my acquaintances and Uzbek friends left Kyrgyzstan after the June 2010 events,” he sums up. - Someone moved to Uzbekistan, someone - to Russia and Europe. Everyone is afraid of a repeat of what happened. We are trying our best to prevent this from happening again.”
My other interlocutor, Nasretdin Dilbarov, a large middle-aged man, for a long time refused to talk about this topic. As is customary in the East, at first he tried to laugh it off loudly, however, when I persisted, Nasretdin became sharply stern, suddenly revealing gray hair in his hair. “We will talk only if you do not name my native village, from where I had to flee,” he puts forward a condition. There is nothing unexpected in his request - in small settlements along the border, every local resident is in full view. Neighbors, no worse than journalists, notice iconic details and easily figure out the hero of the publication. And grievances here are remembered for a long time.
Nasretdin is one of those who had to flee during the days of confrontation. We talk with him in his son's house.
“When they remember the clashes between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the summer of 2010, they talk mostly about Osh and Jalal-Abad and almost nothing about what happened in our village,” he begins the story bitterly. His village is located very close to the border. Uzbeks and Kyrgyz have always got along well there, and there were no reasons for conflicts. But when, on the evening of June 10, there was talk in the village that in Osh, detachments of Kyrgyz were burning down houses and killing Uzbeks, the residents poured out into the street. The panic began.
Anticipating the attack, late at night on June 10, women, children, and the elderly decided to flee to the border of Uzbekistan. “There are two or three villages in our region where most of the Kyrgyz live,” Nasretdin continues. - If you go through these villages, you can get there faster, there is an asphalt road. But we were afraid that their inhabitants - the Kyrgyz - would attack us, so we moved around.
There were about 10,000 people in the crowd. Nasretdin-aka went on the road with his daughter and granddaughter. “I remember how I jumped out into the street in summer slippers, so I ran in them. Slippers flew off my feet, I had to stop to find them in the dark. It was scary! But everyone went without stopping,” he says.
Late at night, the refugees came to the Uzbek border. Usually it is always closed and strictly controlled by Uzbekistan, but at night it was opened for women, children and the elderly. Some of the men were also missed. “In the Andijan region, we were placed in specially prepared tents, fed and watered. All those in need were provided with medical assistance, provided with medicines,” Nasretdin recalls.
After staying in Uzbekistan for about two weeks, the Uzbek refugees were going home. It was scary to return, and it is not known whether their dwellings were preserved. The house of Nasretdin-aki was located inside the mahala (in the Islamic world - a quarter with local self-government - approx. "Tapes.ru"), so the pogromists did not burn it, but the daughter's house burned down.
The Kyrgyz authorities organized humanitarian aid for the returnees: they gave out food, clothes, blankets: “My daughter was provided with building materials, and before the winter frosts, her relatives helped her build a two-room temporary house instead of a burned-out house,” explains Nasretdin. His neighbors, who stayed in the village during the days of the pogroms, said that the day after the escape, shooting began. Uzbeks fired back from carbines. Several people were killed. In total, about 200 Uzbek houses were robbed and burned in the village.
“But human life is arranged in such a way that everything bad is forgotten,” Nasretdin notes. Now in his village, the Uzbeks again live next door to the Kyrgyz and get along well. The main thing for everyone today is peace. No one wants a repeat of those events.
In May 2011, the International Independent Commission for the Study of Events in the South of Kyrgyzstan presented a report in which the main cause of the conflict was the political vacuum that reigned in the country after the coup d'état in April. According to the report, 74 percent of the dead were Uzbeks, 25 percent were Kyrgyz.
No one was held responsible for what happened.
Osh-aimagy, "Osh region"). The main task of "Adolat" was to preserve and develop the culture, language, traditions of the Uzbek people. The goals and objectives of "Osh-aimagy" - the implementation of constitutional human rights and the provision of land plots for housing construction - mainly united the Kyrgyz youth.In May 1990, poor young Kyrgyz demanded that they be given plots for housing construction on the land of the Kolkhoz im. Lenin near the city of Osh. The authorities agreed to comply with this demand. Starting from May 30, on the received field of the collective farm, the Kyrgyz held rallies demanding to remove from the post the first deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet Kyrgyz SSR, the former first secretary of the regional party committee, who, in their opinion, did not solve the problems of registration, employment and housing for the Kyrgyz youth and contributed to that in the field of trade and services in Osh, mostly Uzbeks worked.
The Uzbeks, on the other hand, perceived the allocation of land to the Kyrgyz extremely negatively. They also held rallies and adopted an appeal to the leadership of Kyrgyzstan and the region with demands to create Uzbek autonomy in the Osh region, to give the Uzbek language the status of one of the state languages, to create an Uzbek cultural center, to open an Uzbek faculty at the Osh Pedagogical Institute and to remove the first secretary of the regional committee, who allegedly protects the interests of only the Kyrgyz population. They demanded a response by June 4th.
From June 1, Uzbeks who rented housing to the Kyrgyz began to evict them, as a result of which more than 1,500 Kyrgyz tenants also began to demand land plots for development. The Kyrgyz also demanded that the authorities give them a final answer on the provision of land before June 4.
However, the republican commission, headed by the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kirghiz SSR A. Dzhumagulov, recognized the allocation of land for the development of the collective farm named after. Lenin illegal and for the construction of housing it was decided to allocate other land. Most of the Kyrgyz, in need of building land, and the Uzbeks agreed with this decision, but about 200 representatives of Osh-Aimaga continued to insist on providing them with the land of the Kolkhoz im. Lenin.
Conflict
On June 4, the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks converged on the field of the collective farm. Lenin. About 1.5 thousand Kyrgyz came, Uzbeks - more than 10 thousand. They were separated by police armed with machine guns.
As reported [ ], the Uzbek youth tried to break through the police cordon and attack the Kyrgyz, the police began to throw stones and bottles, two policemen were captured. The police opened fire and, according to some information, 6 Uzbeks were killed (according to other information, wounded). After that, the Uzbek crowd, led by leaders, shouted "Blood for blood!" went to Osh, destroying Kyrgyz houses. From June 4 to June 6, the number of Uzbek rioters increased to 20 thousand due to arrivals from districts, villages and Andijan (Uzbek SSR). About 30-40 Uzbeks tried to seize the buildings of the Osh GOVD, SIZO-5, the Department of Internal Affairs of the Osh Oblast Executive Committee, but they failed and the police detained about 35 active rioters.
On the night of June 6-7, the building of the Internal Affairs Directorate and a police squad were shelled in Osh, two police officers were wounded. A crowd of thousands of Uzbeks appeared on the border with the Andijan region of the Uzbek SSR, who came to help the Osh Uzbeks.
On the morning of June 7, there were attacks on the pumping station and the city motor depot, interruptions began in the supply of food and drinking water to the population.
Kyrgyz-Uzbek clashes also took place in other settlements of the Osh region. In the Ferghana, Andijan and Namangan regions of the Uzbek SSR, beatings of the Kirghiz and arson of their houses began, which caused the flight of the Kirghiz from the territory of Uzbekistan.
The massacre was stopped only by the evening of June 6, when army units were brought into the region. At the cost of enormous efforts by the army and the police, it was possible to avoid the involvement of the population of Uzbekistan in the conflict on the territory of the Kyrgyz SSR. The march of armed Uzbeks from the cities of Namangan and Andijan to Osh was stopped a few dozen kilometers from the city. The crowd overturned police cordons and burned cars; clashes with army units were recorded. Then the main political and religious figures of the Uzbek SSR spoke to the Uzbeks rushing to Kyrgyzstan, which helped to avoid further victims.
Victims
According to the investigation group of the Prosecutor's Office of the USSR, about 1,200 people died in the conflict from the Kyrgyz side in the cities of Uzgen and Osh, as well as in the villages of the Osh region, and investigators found about 10 thousand episodes of crimes from the Uzbek side. 1,500 criminal cases were sent to the courts. About 30-35 thousand people took part in the conflict, about 300 people were brought to justice. After gaining independence by Kyrgyzstan, all of them were released.
In popular culture
The Osh events of 1990 are mentioned in the TV series “National Security Agent” (Season 2, film “The Man Without a Face”). According to the plot, the hero of Konstantin Khabensky, KGB USSR officer Hussein Sabbah, was introduced into a nationalist group that carried out a bloody massacre in Osh. To confirm the legend, Sabbah was forced to take an active part in the riots and prove his loyalty to the group with the blood of civilians.
see also
Notes
Links
- Kommersant : Osh massacre in 1990
- Evolution in Europe; SOVIETS INTERVENE IN ETHNIC VIOLENCE - NYTimes.com
- Soviets Report New Clashes In Central Asian City of Osh - NYTimes.com
- Charles Recknagel. Ferghana Valley: A Tinderbox For Violence(English) . Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (June 17, 2010). Retrieved 6 February 2017.
- Kaplan, Robert D. The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia – a Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy. - Vintage Books, 1997. - ISBN 978-0-679-75123-6.
- Luong, Pauline Jones. The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence. - Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004. - P. 154–46. - ISBN 978-0-8014-4151-6.
- Alexander Shustov. Interethnic conflicts in Central Asia (I) (indefinite) (February 2, 2008). Retrieved October 25, 2008. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008.
- Aksana Ismailbekova. Glimmer hope in bloody Kyrgyzstan (indefinite) . Fergana.news (08/10/2010). Retrieved 6 February 2017.
- Lubin, Nancy. Calming the Ferghana Valley: Development and Dialogue in the Heart of Central Asia / Nancy Lubin, Martin, Rubin. - New York, NY: The Century Foundation Press, 1999. - ISBN 978-0-87078-414-9.
- Tishkov, Valery (May 1995). “"Don"t Kill Me, I"m a Kyrgyz!": An Anthropological Analysis of Violence in the Osh Ethnic Conflict". Journal of Peace Research. 32 (2): 133-149. DOI:10.1177/0022343395032002002.
- Talent Razakov. Osh events: Based on the materials of the KGB. - Bishkek: Renaissance, 1993. - ISBN 5-85580-001-6.
- A. A. Asankanov, Kyrgyz Taryhy: Encyclopedia, Bishkek, 2003. ISBN 5-89750-150-5 .
| background | ||
|---|---|---|
| Parade of Sovereignties |
| |
Two weeks ago, news reports began to fill up with news from the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border, on which, due to the deployment of soldiers and armored vehicles of the two countries, the situation has sharply escalated. Both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan dispute some disputed areas, which they still cannot divide. Naturally, the interweaving of political and ethnic motives here creates a very explosive situation that threatens to set fire to Central Asia, which will be a disaster not only for the region itself, but also for Russia, for which a war in its “underbelly” is unacceptable.
It all started with the deployment on March 18 of additional Uzbek forces, supported by armored vehicles, on a disputed section of the border. In response, Kyrgyzstan also strengthened its grouping in the region. The Kyrgyz President made a statement Almazbek Atambaev, who said that Bishkek, in the event of a further escalation of the conflict, "will give Uzbekistan a worthy rebuff." “We have more than 50 disputed areas on the border, and therefore, alas, there will be conflicts on the border. We are not supporters of wars, but, nevertheless, we are ready to give a worthy answer. Previously, we were afraid of turning off electricity and gas, but over the past five years we have reduced all these threats to nothing. And that is why the neighbors are taking such steps,” the head of state said. A week later, however, the conflict was resolved - the parties agreed to withdraw their forces from the disputed area.
It should be noted that border conflicts in Central Asia are not a new phenomenon. The roots of this should be sought in the Soviet past, when during the administrative delimitation in the Union republics, Moscow often ignored all ethnic, socio-economic and cultural aspects and nuances that existed in a particular territory. But in fairness, it should be noted that the then Soviet leaders could not have dreamed everything that happened in 1991 even in a nightmare. None of them could have thought that the internal borders they created would soon become external borders. However, it happened.
In general, about 20 percent of the section of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border remains uncoordinated at the moment. Disputes between the two countries are over 58 sites, 28 of which are located in the Ala-Buka and Aksy regions. The situation is complicated by the fact that most of these areas are mountainous, so it is quite difficult to demarcate there. And the stubbornness of the parties also plays a role - Bishkek and Tashkent do not want to compromise with each other on the issue of disputed areas. All this causes periodic incidents. This is especially true for the enclaves that the region inherited from the USSR. The most acute situation here is in the Ferghana Valley, divided between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. There are several enclaves in the valley near the border between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. So, in Kyrgyzstan there are Uzbek enclaves Sokh and Shakhirdaman. The Kyrgyz village of Barak and some other settlements are located on the territory of Uzbekistan.
Periodically, tensions are provoked by measures taken by both sides to close sections of the border with the enclaves. Thus, a rather serious incident took place in the Uzbek village of Khushyar, which is surrounded on all sides by Kyrgyz territory. It all started with the installation of power lines by the Kyrgyz border guards, which ran right through the territory of the enclave. The Uzbeks called Bishkek's actions an invasion of their territory, attacking the neighboring Kyrgyz village of Chabrak in response. The Uzbeks took hostages with them, who were taken to the territory of their enclave, after which the Kyrgyz border guards blocked all entries and exits for the Uzbeks. The situation was resolved only through difficult negotiations. Tashkent is also closing sections of its border with the Kyrgyz enclaves under various pretexts, forcing Bishkek to look for new transport routes to keep in touch with them.
Thus, the accumulated problems require a speedy solution, however, given the local specifics, this is unlikely to be done quickly.
The question here, in fact, is not only in ethnic enclaves, but also in the sources of water resources. One of them is the Orto-Tokoi reservoir, located in the disputed border areas. Tashkent claims that this strategic facility, on whose work the lives of tens of thousands of citizens of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan depend, belongs to it, as it was built in the 1940s at the expense of the Uzbek SSR. Bishkek does not agree with this, saying that the land on which the reservoir is located rightfully belongs to Kyrgyzstan. The dispute between the parties is quite understandable, since water in the arid region of Central Asia is the most valuable resource. And no one wants to lose him.
The current situation for the "Bell of Russia" commented on the first vice-president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Chairman of the Union of Geopoliticians Konstantin Sivkov. According to the expert, a serious conflict due to the Kyrgyz-Uzbek contradictions should not be expected, but third forces may try to benefit from it.
“There was no serious clash as such, it is of no fundamental importance. Nevertheless, the dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan from abroad has more than 20 years of history, the conflict can be called sluggish with a full degree of certainty. But third forces, for example, the United States, may try to take advantage of it: increase the degree of tension and take the dispute between the two countries to a fundamentally new level, where the parties could already use weapons against each other,” the political scientist believes.
Sivkov noted that Washington, in its desire to weaken the increased geopolitical influence of Russia, is trying to create a so-called southern zone of instability on its borders, which would stretch from the Balkans to the border of the Central Asian republics with China. Naturally, due to its geopolitical position, Central Asia is given the main role in this belt. There are quite a lot of problems in the region now, including the spread of radical Islamism. A new conflict point in the region would be beneficial to the United States, which will try with all its might to blow up this "underbelly of Russia".
And here, according to the geopolitical expert, Uzbekistan is of key importance. "President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov trying, as they say, to sit "on two chairs", situationally speaking either on the side of Russia or on the side of the United States. But in general, Uzbekistan is now pursuing a pro-Western policy. Therefore, under pressure from Washington and its allies, primarily Ankara, the head of Uzbekistan may decide to escalate the conflict,” the expert said.
As for Russia, Sivkov says it must immediately try to resolve the contradictions between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan through the tools that can be used within the CIS. “You can also connect the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), including China, whose influence in the region has recently increased dramatically. Beijing is also disadvantageous to instability in Central Asia, since the region borders on the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, known for its separatist sentiments,” the political scientist concluded.
A similar point of view is shared by a political scientist, an expert on Central Asia Rafik Saifulin: “The problem exists not only between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, but also between Tajiks and Uzbeks. Any dispute in the border area can become the beginning of a conflict.” At the same time, he noted that often Uzbekistan sends an additional border detachment to the border in order to counter extremists, who sometimes enter Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan. “Tashkent believes that Bishkek is not fully taking adequate measures to counter Islamists, as well as IS (an extremist organization banned in Russia - approx. ed.) . It is well known that negative trends are growing in Kyrgyzstan, a lot of young people are leaving for IS, and Bishkek knows this and does not hide it,” Saifulin concluded.
In general, the presence of a powder keg in the Central Asian region is obvious. And, based on the complexity of local contradictions, as well as the ambitions of the political elites of the former post-Soviet republics, they can negotiate more successfully among themselves only through the mediation of Moscow, which often acts as a kind of arbiter in solving many local problems. So it was when determining the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, when the parties were finally able to come to a mutual agreement. It looks like Russia once again has to solve small-town problems. Otherwise, those forces that are interested in weakening our country will not miss the chance to take advantage of Moscow's inaction.
Ivan Proshkin
In which a significant number of Uzbeks lived, from the early spring of 1990, the informal associations "Adolat" and a little later "Osh-aimagy" (Kirg. Osh-aimagy, Rus. Osh region). The main task of "Adolat" was to preserve and develop the culture, language, traditions of the Uzbek people. The goals and objectives of "Osh-aimagy" - the implementation of constitutional human rights and the provision of land plots for housing construction - mainly united young people of Kyrgyz nationality.
In May 1990, poor young Kyrgyz demanded that they be given the land of the Kolkhoz im. Lenin near the city of Osh. The authorities agreed to comply with this demand. Starting from May 30, on the received field of the collective farm, the Kyrgyz held rallies demanding the removal of the first deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Kyrgyz SSR, the former first secretary of the regional party committee, who, in their opinion, did not solve the problem of registration, employment and housing for Kyrgyz youth and contributed to that in the field of trade and services in Osh, mainly people of Uzbek nationality worked.
The Uzbeks, on the other hand, perceived the allocation of land to the Kyrgyz extremely negatively. They also held rallies and adopted an appeal to the leadership of Kyrgyzstan and the region with demands to create Uzbek autonomy in the Osh region, give the Uzbek language the status of one of the state languages, create an Uzbek cultural center, open an Uzbek faculty at the Osh Pedagogical Institute and remove the first secretary of the regional committee, who allegedly protects the interests of only the Kyrgyz population. They demanded a response by June 4th.
From June 1, Uzbeks who rented housing to the Kyrgyz began to evict them, as a result of which more than 1,500 Kyrgyz tenants also began to demand land plots for development. The Kyrgyz also demanded that the authorities give them a final answer on the provision of land before June 4.
However, the republican commission, headed by the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kirghiz SSR A. Dzhumagulov, recognized the allocation of land for the development of the collective farm named after. Lenin illegal and for the construction of housing it was decided to allocate other land. Most of the Kyrgyz, in need of building land, and the Uzbeks agreed with this decision, but about 200 representatives of Osh-Aimaga continued to insist on providing them with the land of the Kolkhoz im. Lenin.
Conflict
On June 4, the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks converged on the field of the collective farm. Lenin. About 1.5 thousand Kyrgyz came, Uzbeks - more than 10 thousand. They were separated by police armed with machine guns.
Reportedly, Uzbek youth tried to break through the police cordon and attack the Kyrgyz, the police began to throw stones and bottles, two policemen were captured. The police opened fire and, according to some information, 6 Uzbeks were killed (according to other information, wounded). After that, the Uzbek crowd, led by leaders, shouted "Blood for blood!" went to Osh, destroying Kyrgyz houses. From June 4 to June 6, the number of Uzbek rioters increased to 20 thousand due to arrivals from districts and villages and Andijan (Uzbekistan). About 30-40 Uzbeks tried to seize the buildings of the Osh GOVD, SIZO-5, the Department of Internal Affairs of the Osh Oblast Executive Committee, but they failed and the police detained about 35 active rioters.
On the night of June 6-7, the building of the Internal Affairs Directorate and a police squad were shelled in Osh, two police officers were wounded. A crowd of thousands of Uzbeks appeared on the border with the Andijan region of the Uzbek SSR, who came to help the Osh Uzbeks.
On the morning of June 7, there were attacks on the pumping station and the city motor depot, interruptions began in the supply of food and drinking water to the population.
Kyrgyz-Uzbek clashes also took place in other settlements of the Osh region. In the Fergana, Andijan and Namangan regions of the Uzbek SSR, the beatings of the Kirghiz and the burning of their houses began, which caused the flight of the Kirghiz from the territory of Uzbekistan.
The massacre was stopped only by the evening of June 6, when army units were brought into the region. At the cost of enormous efforts by the army and the police, it was possible to avoid the involvement of the population of Uzbekistan in the conflict on the territory of the Kyrgyz SSR. The march of armed Uzbeks from the cities of Namangan and Andijan to Osh was stopped a few dozen kilometers from the city. The crowd overturned police cordons and burned cars; clashes with army units were recorded. Then the main political and religious figures of the Uzbek SSR spoke to the Uzbeks rushing to Kyrgyzstan, which helped to avoid further victims.
Victims
According to the investigative group of the USSR Prosecutor's Office, about 1200 people died in the conflict from the Kyrgyz side in the cities of Uzgen and Osh, as well as in the villages of the Osh region, and from the Uzbek side, according to unofficial data, 10 thousand. Investigators found about 10 thousand episodes of crimes. 1,500 criminal cases were sent to the courts. About 30-35 thousand people took part in the conflict, about 300 people were brought to justice.
Categories:
- Kirghiz SSR
- Interethnic conflicts in Kyrgyzstan
- June 4 events
- June 1990
- 1990 conflicts
- Osh (Kyrgyzstan)
- 1990 in the USSR
- Public order violations
- perestroika
- History of Kyrgyzstan
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
See what "Osh massacre (1990)" is in other dictionaries:
Wikipedia
The collapse of the USSR is the process of systemic disintegration that took place in the economy (national economy), social structure, public and political sphere of the Soviet Union, which led to the demise of the USSR on December 26, 1991. Basic ... ... Wikipedia
Unrecognized autonomy [source not specified 381 days] the general name of the regions that unilaterally proclaimed autonomous status as part of the state, but did not receive recognition from the central authorities as ... ... Wikipedia