{"id":580,"date":"2021-09-28T18:16:54","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T13:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/housing-uz.info\/ru\/?p=580"},"modified":"2021-09-28T18:18:37","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T13:18:37","slug":"how-uzbekistans-rampant-development-is-prompting-a-grassroots-rebellion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housing-uz.info\/ru\/en\/580\/","title":{"rendered":"How Uzbekistan\u2019s rampant development is prompting a grassroots rebellion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Uncontrolled urban development in Tashkent and elsewhere has led to the emergence of a vibrant, if perhaps fragile, civic mobilisation in Uzbekistan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Radmir Khajbakhteev<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
28 September 2021, 8.49am<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Inside House No. 45<\/div>\n

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Image: Radmir Khajbakhteev<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhen we found out that our building would be demolished, we were shocked. Nobody asked for our permission,\u201d Vlad Zamanov, a resident of House No. 45 in Tashkent, tells me.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For Zamanov and his neighbours, the decision in early 2018 to pull down their apartment block was nothing more than an outrage. Not only was House No. 45 a community unto itself, it is located near the remains of an ancient walled city, Ming Urik. In response, House No.45 transformed into an informal organisation, with residents turning their homes into its various campaign departments.<\/p>\n

The block\u2019s \u201clegal department\u201d attended\u00a0three court cases<\/a>\u00a0and submitted over 15 appeals to various state institutions. The \u201chuman resources office\u201d compiled lists of which residents wanted to stay and which wanted to leave. The \u201cpress office\u201d gave interviews to\u00a0local<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0international media<\/a>, while the \u201cresearch department\u201d, in cooperation with foreign\u00a0colleagues<\/a>, collected information on the cultural and architectural importance of their home, and the \u201cevents management\u201d office organised\u00a0cultural gatherings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the end, Uzbekistan\u2019s culture ministry awarded House No. 45 protected status. \u201cHouse No. 45 is not only about the building, it\u2019s about its residents,\u201d says Zamanov. \u201cWe have known each other for decades, but without solidarity we could not have won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, people in other Tashkent neighbourhoods are\u00a0organising to protect their homes from the onslaught of urban redevelopment<\/a>\u00a0that has gripped the Uzbek capital in recent years, pointing to the lack of protection from city institutions in the new Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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House No. 45 | Image: Radmir Khajbakhteev<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Urban transformation, urban grassroots organisation<\/b><\/h2>\n

Today\u2019s massive construction boom in Uzbekistan is the result of the economic transformation of the country since the death of president Islam Karimov 2016, which has resulted in the commodification of public space. Houses,\u00a0parks<\/a>, and\u00a0cultural heritage<\/a>\u00a0are all affected.<\/p>\n

The process is transforming the city\u2019s identity in ways that many residents find unwelcome. Late Soviet architecture is famous for its boxy residential buildings, but a more important detail is that public infrastructure of the period was usually built close by, designed to be accessible and affordable (or even free) for locals.<\/p>\n

The new brand of urban development prioritises consumption over other forms of behaviour. This is evident across the world, including many post-Soviet states, where luxury apartments, shopping malls, hotels, and business centres have replaced parks, more affordable homes, and even factories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Image: CC BY NC 2.0 Old Tashkent \/ Flickr. Some rights reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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In turn, cities become sites of contestation and resistance, as various groups organise and demand a fairer distribution of space and resources. Some of these groups focus on a particular neighbourhood or site in the city, while others concentrate on a specific topic, like demolitions and forced evictions.<\/p>\n

The Facebook group \u201cTashkent-DEMOLITION<\/a>\u201d is one of these communities. Much like House No.45, the group was initially set up to exchange information about demolitions and forced evictions in Tashkent, but it quickly morphed into an informal grassroots organisation with its own departments in charge of different issues. These include a legal office that provides online consultations, and attends court cases and\u00a0press briefings<\/a>\u00a0by state institutions.<\/p>\n

By way of example, group administrator Farida Charif tells me that activists\u00a0attended court hearings in a case concerning the demolition of a 1930s apartment building<\/a>\u00a0in northwest Tashkent. The demolition was eventually cancelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mobilisation of residents and activists, as well as the\u00a0local<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0international expert community<\/a>\u00a0saved the building,\u201d Charif says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t an easy case but the residents were able to win in court and defend the building\u2019s status as cultural heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen I heard that the Independence Stele would be placed in Cosmonaut Park, I thought that Tashkent would lose another iconic place\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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The popularity of these groups in Uzbekistan shows how people consider them reliable and independent organisations, contrary to formal institutions like the courts, the General Prosecutor\u2019s office, and the city administration. These groups\u2019 informal existence on social networks, like Facebook, Telegram and other e-platforms enables them to avoid bureaucracy, exchange information and mobilise faster, including to support one another. While some who fail to find support from formal bodies refer to these groups to increase awareness of their problems and search for support or advice, others use them as news platforms.<\/p>\n

This was the case when Tashkent\u2019s\u00a0Cosmonaut Park<\/a>, built in the centre of the city to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin\u2019s birth in 1970, came under threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard that\u00a0the Independence Stele<\/a>\u00a0would be placed in Cosmonaut Park, I thought that Tashkent would lose another iconic place,\u201d said Olga Rakhimova, who set up a Telegram channel to defend the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a post about it on Facebook, which Farida Charif shared in her group. In the next few days, people started to gather in the park to support us. We collected over 15,000 signatures for a petition to the president to save the park,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

At least for now, Rakhimova\u2019s group has prevailed and Cosmonaut Park has been\u00a0spared<\/a>. But Rakhimova and other volunteers continue to monitor the situation in other parks and green zones across the city. Her\u00a0Telegram<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page managed by one of her group\u2019s activists have more than 5,000 members combined.<\/p>\n

Weakness in strength?<\/b><\/h2>\n

The advantage of informality and the use of the digital space, however, can hardly shield these urban protection groups from the long arm of the state. A month after people gathered to protect Cosmonaut Park in early February this year, for example, new legal measures\u00a0punishing<\/a>\u00a0unauthorised public gatherings with hefty fines and long prison terms were introduced in Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

Likewise, this summer social networks like\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0were slowed down ostensibly for violating a\u00a0law<\/a>\u00a0that requires servers which process the personal data of Uzbekistani citizens should be located inside the country. In recent years, activists have also experienced problems in accessing Facebook, one of the online platforms most used to spread information and mobilise.<\/p>\n

In response, grassroots organisations have developed new forms of smart resistance, such as indirectly publicising their campaigns by setting up events at buildings under threat. For example, various departments at House No. 45 organised\u00a0fashion exhibitions<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0New Year\u2019s Eve Fair<\/a>, even having it included on a popular\u00a0list of iconic buildings to visit<\/a>\u00a0in Tashkent in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Demolition of a colonial-era house in Samarkand, 2018 | Image: Dmitry Kostiushkin \/ Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Tashkent is not alone, as urban transformation has also reached the city of Samarkand, where many of buildings with UNESCO status in the western part of the city \u2013 so-called \u201cRussian\u201d or colonial Samarkand \u2013 have come under threat. Dmitriy Kostyushkin, a city activist, told openDemocracy that some buildings, such as the\u00a0city\u2019s first hotel<\/a>\u00a0(built between 1900 and 1910), have already been lost to the demolition spree.<\/p>\n

Kostyushkin started posting about this on his Facebook account\u00a0SOS! Save Our Samarkand!<\/a>. His and other posts on\u00a0social networks<\/a>\u00a0brought the story to the attention of\u00a0national media<\/a>, building enough momentum to stop the demolitions.<\/p>\n

The story of Samarkand\u2019s University Boulevard is a case in point. Formerly named Abramov Boulevard after a Russian general who laid siege to the city during imperial Russia\u2019s conquest of Central Asia, the Boulevard divides Samarkand between the old 14th century Tamerlane centre and the new city to its West.<\/p>\n

Since nobody asked for the residents\u2019 opinion on the boulevard reconstruction, local people mobilised against it. In 2019, Evgeniy Romanenko, a resident, launched the hashtag\u00a0#ourBoulevard<\/a>\u00a0via his popular Facebook group\u00a0I\u2019m from Samarkand<\/a>, in order to save it from the local administration\u2019s\u00a0reconstruction plan<\/a>. People followed suit on social networks, posting about the historical and even ecological importance of the tree-lined boulevard for the city.<\/p>\n

In the end, people\u2019s mobilisation and the ensuing media attention, along with grassroots support from Tashkent, pushed the\u00a0Ministry of Culture<\/a>\u00a0to submit an appeal to the General Prosecutor\u2019s office. The reconstruction plan was\u00a0stopped<\/a>\u00a0in the nick of time.<\/p>\n

Other interventions came too late, however, as developers\u00a0continued<\/a>\u00a0to turn Samarkand\u2019s old city into a building site. For instance, the courtyard of a house of a famous painter, Pavel Benkov,\u00a0who documented 20th century Uzbekistan<\/a>, has disappeared. Before activists managed to stop the works, the courtyard had been turned into a\u00a0four-metre-deep pit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The latest official figures speak of over 80 illicit demolitions carried out across Uzbekistan in 2020 alone, while 55% of former owners weren\u2019t paid any compensation. This makes for fertile ground for protests<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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While solidarity between cities surfaced in some disputes, like the one over Abramov Boulevard, it is still a rare phenomenon. \u201cThere are groups in other cities, but their content is very broad, from social grievances to funny pictures,\u201d said Romanenko from the \u201cI\u2019m from Samarkand\u201d group. \u201cWe rarely cooperate,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Moreover, grassroots movements and organisations in cities other than Tashkent and Samarkand remain embryonic and largely disorganised, despite the fact that urban transformation continues apace across Uzbekistan, from\u00a0Fergana<\/a>\u00a0in the far east of the country to the city of\u00a0Nukus<\/a>\u00a0in its far west. In 2019, dozens of families were forced to leave their homes in\u00a0Fergana city centre<\/a>, when construction began on luxury apartments. One resident reportedly died due to the stress caused by the situation.<\/p>\n

The latest official figures speak of over\u00a080 illicit demolitions<\/a>\u00a0carried out across Uzbekistan in 2020 alone, while 55% of former owners weren\u2019t paid any compensation. This makes for fertile ground for protests. The Oxus Society\u00a0estimates<\/a>\u00a0that, in the first half of 2021, more than half of the 119 protests that took place in Uzbekistan were connected to \u201cillegal construction projects, land grabbing and destruction of property as part of urban regeneration\u201d.<\/p>\n

While grassroots activism can claim some victories, including the General Prosecutor\u2019s office new Telegram bot that enables people to report unlawful development and\u00a0increased penalties for land grabbing for building projects<\/a>, the fight against rampant urban development is an uphill battle. If anything, the successful case of Tashkent\u2019s House No. 45 shows that, for the future, collaboration and solidarity will be key.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: How Uzbekistan\u2019s rampant development is prompting a grassroots rebellion | openDemocracy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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