Joint Solidarity statement against anti-Communist repression in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan
- The Left Chapter
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
In Uzbekistan, a court sentenced a local journalist with socialist views, Aziz Khakimov, to 4 years and 2 months in prison under the article “inciting hatred” for statements against the rehabilitation of figures from the Basmachi movement of 1918-1944, who fought against Soviet power with weapons in hand, trying to restore the power of the mullahs, the wealthy, and the feudal lords.
The basis for the accusation was his following statement: “If we look at the legal aspect, then currently in Uzbekistan they are preparing to immortalize the memory of cruel murderers and terrorists. The Basmachi detachments were a very primitive analogue of ISIS and other newly emerged terrorist organizations.”
Aziz Khakimov
In addition, Aziz Khakimov condemned the initiative of the parliamentary party “Milliy Tiklanish” to ban the symbols of the USSR and communist ideology in Uzbekistan, even though the Communist Party was dissolved by the authorities in 1994. He was also accused in court of publishing Soviet posters from the period of the Great Patriotic War, but he was acquitted in this regard.
At the same time, the trial itself was held in closed session, and the case materials were classified. It is clear that this verdict is the result of the process of rehabilitation and glorification in the republics of Central Asia and the South Caucasus of figures from bourgeois‑nationalist movements and collaborationist formations that fought as part of the Nazi Wehrmacht and the Muslim SS units, who are now presented as participants in the “struggle for national liberation”.
The same line of reasoning should be applied to the sentencing in Azerbaijan of four young people with communist views to imprisonment. In early August, in a Baku court, Ibrahim Asadli and Abdullah Ibrahimli were sentenced to two years in prison each, while Elchin Bayramli and Mehman Zeynalov were sentenced to one and a half years each solely for displaying the flags of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. The “guilt” was also proven by Marxist literature and discs containing videos of speeches by Soviet leaders, which were seized during searches. Previously, Saleh Samedov, the head of the Council of Elders of the Imishli District, was convicted for using the Soviet flag during the May 9 celebration. These repressions are not surprising given President Ilham Aliyev’s statement that Azerbaijan was a colony of the Soviet Union.
It is obvious that such trials and prison sentences for supporters of socialism are intended to intimidate all those who oppose antisocial reforms, privatization, and the commercialization of education and healthcare, as well as those who openly condemn the process of rehabilitating Basmachi fighters and Nazi collaborators in the member states of the Organization of Turkic States. This is also a logical result of the mass renaming campaigns carried out as part of the decommunization campaign and the ongoing initiatives by individual deputies and entire parties in the parliaments of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan to ban communist ideology.
We demand the immediate release of Aziz Khakimov, Azerbaijani supporters of communism, as well as all bloggers and journalists in the member states of the Organization of Turkic States who have been sentenced to prison terms for their views!
Solidnet Parties signing the Solidarity Statement
Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism
Party of Labour of Austria
Communist Party of Bangladesh
Communist Party of Greece
Workers Party Ireland
Communist Party of Ireland
Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
Communist Party of Mexico
Palestinian Communist Party
Philippines Communist Party (PKP 1930)
Communist Party of Poland
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Communists of Serbia
Communist Party of the Workers of Spain
Communists of Catalonia
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