Youth, this is our country!

Translated from Russian by Tanlov members in refuge in Turkey and the United States
The address of the Uzbek [youth] movement “Tanlov
00:25 03.05.2003 [12:25 am (Moscow time) on May 3, 2003]

Uzbekistan found itself in the hardest situation. The economy is in deplorable condition, the political system is managed by one person-tyrant, while the predominant majority of the population is impoverished. These facts are known almost to everyone. The development of the internet in Uzbekistan lately opened a way of distributing truthful information about the situation in the country. Although every resident of Uzbekistan can know this from one's own situation, situation of one's neighbors, friends or relatives. But it is too little to know ...

There is a proverb: Every nation is worthy of its governor. The Uzbek people bore their oppressor and dictator with their tolerance and compliance. But we are confident, that the people of Uzbekistan did not deserve such a destiny. Our people are known for their hard work, respect to other persons and absence of aggressiveness. The moment has arrived in the life of the country, when the people themselves have to decide if they want to live in this [Karimov's] regime or if they want to live in a democratic, civilized country [Uzbekistan].

The particular role in the awakening of the popular masses and in the active participation in political life belongs to the youth. Namely, the youth has to understand how it wants to live: In freedom or in slavery, being proud of its country or being an exile in a strange country, studying and working or burning its years in vain. We have to understand that it is our country [Uzbekistan]. Our children, grandchildren will live here [in Uzbekistan]! But what will we leave for them? We, ordinary guys and girls, what are we doing for our country [Uzbekistan]? Whomever you now address, all you hear about is slump, poverty and police disorder. What is the benefit of this knowledge, of this information, if the fear mastered all of us? Do not wait for thirty years to pass to estimate the lost opportunities. Imagine in what shape you will leave your country to your children and grandchildren, if now you do not say yes to reforms. All valuables for which you are now laboring, are a mirage in the desert! A trinket will break and disappear, but you put your entire life in that trinket. Everything is mortal, hollow in this world. What will remain of you? Besides the good memory of the people - nothing!

Namely, in that moment, decisive moment in the life of our people, when it is time to say “Away! to ungifted governor [Karimov], the youth movement “Tanlov was created. We [Tanlov] are for democratic, free and economically prosperous Uzbekistan! We [Tanlov] are just picking up speed, but we know that we will be a Force. [We know] that we [Tanlov] can help our people.

[We know] that the future is dependent on us. In this moment, when the free expression of thought is impossible in our state [Uzbekistan], our main task is the delivery of truthful information to the residents of our country and their arousal to peaceful demonstrations of protest.

Do visit the site www.tanlov-e.narod.ru (under development) and write to our e-mail: kenken@mail.ru
Also write to that e-mail if you would like to join us. And remember, that You are a small piece of this country and that it [Uzbekistan] belongs to You and it is for You to decide which road it [Uzbekistan] will take!

Youth Movement Tanlov (Choice)

D. Usamov: Will the youth organization “Tanlov become the next victim of repressions in Uzbekistan?

Tanlov: What did Independence give to Uzbekistan?