23 July 2019, Tuesday, 19:27
We are in the same boat

Political Crisis in Uzbekistan Has Belarusian Origin


Uzbek dictator's daughter Lola Karimova has ties with Belarus.

For the first time in 25 years the celebration of the Independence Day of Uzbekistan was held under cut scenario with no fireworks and President Islam Karimov. Congratulations on his behalf were read out on the national television, and no one dared show him in a hospital. This means that the issue of power succession is open, Belarusian Partisan writes.

For the first time Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyayev replaced President Islam Karimov at the festive ceremony dedicated to the Independence Day; any person of the Karimov clan did not appear there, and the situation told volumes. The thing is that according to the Uzbek Constitution, in the absence of the president Chairman of the Senate of the Republic becomes "the number one". The Chairman of the Senate is "put on the back burner". Does it mean that Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyayev take the presidency?

Analysts are not as convinced in it as they were a few days earlier. "Who is he, this Shavkat? Uzbek opposition member Yadgor Norbutayev wonders. - Is it possible to imagine that Islam Karimov could accept a person in his inner circle who more or less complies with the image of a true politician?"

Well, it is really impossible to assume that there can be a self-sufficient politician, not a lion's provider. In this regard, after cooling down analysts began to draw parallels with Turkmenistan, when there was much fuss about the throne after a sudden death of Turkmenbashi, and the President's post was taken by dentist Gurbunguly Berdimukhamedov not known to a wide audience. According to persistent rumors, he is the illegitimate son of Turkmenbashi (he had only girls within marriage), and in the end Berdymukhamedov became the President.

This story is also popular now because of the situation in Uzbekistan. First, it is simply impossible to believe in that an experienced Islam Karimov forgot about his birthday, and had no scenario for the "zero hour". And second, Karimov like Turkmenbashi has found a son. Moreover, an absolutely legitimate one.


Everyone knows well the current family of Islam Karimov - daughters Gulnara and Lola and his wife Tatyana. But this is his second family. Within the first marriage he had a son - Petr Islamovich Karimov. Initially, the son was named Rustam, but after the divorce his ex-wife Natalia changed his name to make things lively for her ex-husband.

We are not here to judge the reasons for the divorce, moreover, the reasons why Karimov did not introduce his son as successor. Current wife of the president has Belarusian roots: it is told that true oriental women welcome their husband, others do not respect traditions.

This issue turned to be so urgent for Uzbekistan that the youngest daughter Lola decided to answer it in public. "I often hear that people are interested in my nationality, the nationality of my children and my husband, and try to assess the level of Uzbekistan in our veins, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva wrote on Instagram. - In addition to curiosity, to which I am quite used to, there is an ugly feature, nationalism, and it sounds, in my opinion, stupid and ignorant in the XXI century. I've decided to give you an answer. I am proud to be an Uzbek who was born and raised by this nation. What?

- The nation which gave the shelter to tens of nations during and after the Second World War;

- the nation which has never been racial and was open to other nations, concluded marriages based on love, like in the case with my Belarusian grandmother and Uzbek grandfather from Ferghana. They lived very difficult, but interesting life. They went through hardships, but they had love and respect to each other all their lives. A few years after the war, he (my grandfather) brought her (my grandmother) with a small daughter (my mother) to his native Quvasoy. My grandmother took her mother (my great-grandmother) and her sister, who spent in the Valley (referring to the Ferghana Valley, - Ed.) all their lives and were buried there in a Christian cemetery, which is located next to the Muslim, where my grandfather Akbar Sultanovich is buried. These two cemeteries are separated by a small distance, located on a hill with picturesque views of my home-town Quvasoy.


Belarusian grandmother is the mother of her mother. Now Tatyana Karimava is blamed for a mess in the current situation: they say, the woman was so afraid of losing influence and then puzzled the whole country and the world, having come between father and son.

So far as known, Lova had closer ties with her mother in the last 10 years, Gulnara, on the contrary, had better relations with her father. According to an interview of sisters, they did not communicate with each other those ten years. As far as we can judge, the reason is the push for power. There was a scandal when Karimov's wife Tatyana was suspected of preparing her nephew - her sister's son - for the presidency after her husband. As a result, both Tamara and her son barely escaped from Uzbekistan and relations between Tatyana and her husband, to put it mildly, strongly deteriorated.

There was a fight back against Gulnara, who was considered a heir of her father. As a result, Gulnara was under house arrest, and her inner circle was arrested.


What about Pert Karimov? What is his story?

It turns out that the second wife opposed vigorously any contacts between her husband and his son, and a harsh Uzbek dictator failed to resist the wife. Petr was injured by such behavior and lived with his mother near Moscow and did not appear anywhere, and all of a sudden Islam Karimov granted him the post of the deputy chairman of Asia-Invest Bank. Later, his son and first wife moved to Tashkent. In 2008 Natalya passed away, and Pert, according to some information, still lives and works in some public structure in Uzbekistan.

Why did father bring him back to Uzbekistan? Why hasn't he given him a "promotion" openly? Was he afraid of the situation with sisters?

There are no answers to these questions.


May Petr Karimov be a successor? Well, on the one hand, it does not look like this. On the other, the situation is not clear. After all, the story, at least, is very similar to one that happened with the legacy of Turkmenbashi. We can't but agree that the situation with handover of power in Uzbekistan would have had fewer problems, if there had been the son next to his father. But the situation with "Belarusian origin" of Tatyany Karimova can hardly be the one to put the blame on. All the more so as she once ambitious and powerful found herself locked in a royal mansion after the story with her nephew. And she still keeps silence...