• Home
• Speakers
  • Call for papers
  • Presentation skills
  • Paper submission
  • Publication
  • Audio/visual facilities
  • Funding
• Conference
  • Conference feedback
  • Keynote speakers
  • Programme
    • Session summary
    • Thursday summary
    • Thursday Session A
    • Thursday Session B
    • Thursday Session C
    • Friday summary
    • Friday Session D
    • Friday Session E
    • Friday Session F
    • Friday Session G
    • Saturday summary
    • Saturday Session H
    • Saturday Session J
    • Saturday Session K
  • Registration
  • Social events
  • History
• Information
  • Travel to UK
  • Travel to London
  • Travel in London
  • Accommodation
  • Food and Drink
  • London Information
  • FAQ
• Organisation
  • Photos
  • Committee
  • Academic panel
  • Sponsors links
  • Links
• Contact Us

UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference

Inclusion Exclusion

---

12:00 – 1:30: Panel A3: Borders

Prajakti Kalra (University of Chicago and Centre for the Study of Developing Societies): ‘The (unchanging) border between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan’

The puzzle that is the focal point of this paper is one that relates to the borders in Central Asia especially between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan which were imposed by the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. The question that I am going to tackle in this paper is why doesn’t Tajikistan enter the rhetoric of President Karimov of Uzbekistan? Considering the historical and cultural ties shared by the two countries especially before 1929, and more importantly taking into account the considerable Uzbek minority population (23% or 1/4th of Tajikistan’s population) that inhabits Northern Tajikistan along the border between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, why doesn’t President Karimov want to change the borders between the two countries? Why does President Karimov want to maintain the status quo of the borders that Uzbekistan and Tajikistan share after the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 in the face of military, economic superiority and comparative political stability? The incorporation of Tajikistan’s Uzbek minority would be an important move in asserting Uzbekistan’s desire to be a leader in the region. The answer to my question(s) revolves around two essential issues, Islam or ‘fundamentalist Islam’ as President Karimov has labeled it, and the civil war in Tajikistan which carried on from 1992 to 1997. The paper suggests a compelling explanation for what is going on in Uzbekistan with relation to Tajikistan. Taking President Karimov as the major player in Uzbekistan and the region, the explanation offered is speculative and Karimov-centric. It is an argument that is driven by the interests of the leadership and elites in Uzbekistan. The leadership of Uzbekistan that is embodied in the figure of President Karimov is the answer to the puzzle as presented in this paper. I have used newspaper articles, speeches by Tajik leaders and exiled Uzbek opposition leaders found in the Central Asian Monitor Bulletins. In light of the subject being a fairly original question the answer to the puzzle is partly a literature review of the available texts on the subject, and part my own analysis of how I read the goings-on in the region.