Once a Silk Road outpost, a new Uzbekistan takes shape
- After decades of Soviet rule followed by a 25-year dictatorship, the Central Asian nation is slowly breaking free from the shackles of the past
- Nowhere is it more apparent than in its capital, Tashkent
Until three years ago, Tashkent, Central Asia’s largest city, was the heart of one of the world’s most secretive states.
President Islam Karimov, a former Soviet apparatchik, was in power when Uzbekistan gained independence, in 1991, and remained so until his death, in 2016. Under his leadership, political opponents were tortured and religious figures jailed, citizens were not allowed to leave the country and hundreds of thousands, children included, were forced to work the cotton fields during harvest.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Karimov’s successor, has, in his first three years, scrapped some of his predecessor’s most odious policies, freeing dissidents and human-rights defenders. He has re-established cordial relations with neighbouring countries, security services are no longer omnipresent and a series of economic and legal reforms are boosting foreign investment.
Still, it is an improvement from the days when police “were breaking into Tashkent’s music clubs”, says Ashot Danielyan, a 35-year-old rock musician who was arrested throughout the years of gigging with his band, Origami Wings, after Karimov undertook a purge of “Western influence”. Christmas trees, Valentine’s Day and rock music were high on the hit list. “The police would question us until early morning,” recalls Danielyan. “They’d tell me, ‘We have a whole dossier on you […] We know the lyrics of your songs better than you do.’”
The latest flagship project in this town of 2.4 million is a Dubai-style indoor attraction, Ice City, spread over 15,000 square metres of prime real estate and featuring an ersatz Viking village, ski slopes and speed-skating tracks. It is a US$30 million investment in a country where winter sports have never been popular, but, if the Emirates can make it work, then …
