Muhammad Salih and Erk Democratic Party

Muhammad Salih was born in 1949 in Khorezm Region of Uzbekistan. After finishing high school in his home province in 1966, he moved to Tashkent and began preparations to enter university. Salih was accepted as a student at the Journalism Faculty of Tashkent State University. During his years as a student, Salih began writing poetry and doing translations of foreign literary works. He spent a great deal of time studying the existentialist writers Sartre, Camus, and Kafka, and selected "Modern French Poetry" as the topic of his graduation thesis. Salih translated some of these works into the Uzbek Turkic language. At the same time he translated the Turkic literary works of Dede Korkut and Yunus Emre into Uzbek and showed that they were a part of the Uzbek Turkic culture.

1977 was a turning point In Muhammad Salih's life. His first published book of poetry met with great public response, This volume marked the beginning of a new genre of Uzbek poetry known as "the metaphoric school." In a very short time the book was translated Into Russian, Ukranian, Latvian, Estonian, and various Turkic languages.

In 1977 Muhammad Salih went to Moscow, where he studied for two years at the High Literary Institute. By 1985 he had published five volumes of poetry and translated three books.

In 1985, Muhammad Salih and his associates wrote a letter to Gorbachev to protest practices of the Uzbekistan government that undermined national cultural values. The response to this letter was the banning of the works of the 53 young writers and poets who had signed the letter. So, as Muhammad Salih has often stated, during the glasnost period many creative workers who considered themselves apolitical were drawn Into politics against their own will. Salih describes this period In his own words:
"Politics demands fame and advertisement, It is selfish. In contrast, poetry requires reflection and love of humanity.... Nevertheless we entered politics, because In every people's history there are periods where it is necessary to abandon personal goals for the sake of the people's freedom. After 1985, we entered such a period. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union In 1 991 we struggled for Uzbekistan's independence, and after this we struggled for the establishment of democracy In Uzbekistan."

In May, 1988, Muhammad Salih was elected Secretary of the Uzbekistan Writers' Union. The Writers' Union thus became the center of the nonofficial opposition to the communist regime, Muhammad Salih and the Writers' Union worked to awaken the country to the Issues of making Uzbek the state language, the environmental catastrophes wrought by the communist regime, and the cotton monoculture under which the country suffered.

In October, 1988, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan offered membership to Muhammad Salih. He turned down this offer, and subsequently the regime began a campaign to discredit him In the press. However, this campaign resulted In the opposite of what the Communist Party had Intended. The Uzbek people and the intellectuals united around Muhammad Salih and gave him support. This gave Muhammad Salih and his associates the opportunity to form the "Birlik" (Unity) Peoples Movement in 1989. Birlik was the first movement of Its kind since the beginnings of communist rule In Uzbekistan, and the first nonofficial political organization of the Central Asian republics. In 1989-90, the Uzbekistan regime was forced to pass many liberal reforms due to the influence of the Birlik movement. In the parliamentary elections held during this time, Muhammad Salih ran as a candidate from the professors' district of Tashkent city, He received 89 per cent of the vote and became a People's Deputy.

The rapid growth of the Birlik Popular Movement into a mass organization gave rise to some serious problems. Birlik began to lose its appeal to the intellectuals, turning Instead more and more into an organization that sought street confrontations with the authorities. Muhammad Salih expressed his concerns about the danger of this trend at a general assembly in 1990, but radicals in the organization accused him of conservatism. As a result Muhammad Salih left the Birlik movement and founded the "Erk" (Freedom) Democratic Party. The principle aim of the Erk Democratic Party was for Uzbekistan to secede from the Soviet Union and establish a democratic regime. The party prepared a "Declaration of Independence" for Uzbekistan and Muhammad Salih presented this declaration in the parliament. After two days of debate in parliament, a version of the declaration was approved and on June 21, 1990, it was officially announced as the "Uzbekistan Declaration of Sovereignty." In spite of this success, the Uzbekistan regime refused to recognize the Erk Party as an official party. Erk was only registered on September 5, 1991, following the 19 August 1991 coup attempt in Moscow.

In the year and one-half following the Declaration of Sovereignty, the Erk Party grew rapidly and was widely accepted among the people. Members of Birlik and other political groups began to join Erk. In spite of attempts by the Uzbekistan regime to block It, In December, 1991 the party was able to officially nominate Muhammad Salih as its candidate for the presidential election.

As the opposition had expected, the presidential election was marred by the regime's abuse, oppression and fraud. The entire press and television media carried out President Karimov's propaganda. In a forty-day campaign, only 15 minutes of television time was given to Muhammad Salih, and of this portions were censored. President Karimov used all the financial means of the state to spread propaganda, while his rival Muhammad Salih was given no opportunities whatsoever. Rallies organized by the Erk Party were sabotaged by the state. The election commissions were totally controlled by the state. During the supervised voting process, falsified ballots were stuffed Into ballot boxes and some ballots were counted repeatedly. Despite all this deception, the first election result announcement by Uzbekistan Radio stated that Muhammad Salih had received 31 % of the votes. Only an hour later the radio announced, "the Initial broadcast was a mistake, Muhammad Salih received only 12.6% of the vote." The result of this falsification-riddled election campaign was that Karimov had himself reelected president, The actual results of the election, which were not made public, showed that a powerful opposition existed to the Karimov regime. The communist president Karimov became determined to destroy this opposition.

18 days after the presidential election, on January 1 6, 1992, the regime showed Its true face at a demonstration organized by the opposition and the students of Tashkent State University. Security forces fired on the protesters and killed two students. Immediately after this incident, the government carried out repressive actions against provincial organizations of the Erk Party and had many party activists fired from their jobs and Imprisoned. By May, 1992, five regional newspapers of the Erk Party had been shut down.

On March 23, 1992, under the leadership of the Erk Party, a meeting of opposition representatives under the name "Uzbekistan Democratic Forum" was held in an attic. 15 independent parliament members took part In this forum. Fearing these developments, Karimov In April Invited Muhammad Salih to the presidential palace to personally tell him to give up the Idea of participating In this organization. In May, Karimov again called Muhammad Salih to the presidential palace and offered him the position of Deputy Prime Minister. Karimov said that he would also give governmental positions to eight other Erk leaders. The president did all this because he wanted to prevent the development of the Democratic Forum movement. When Muhammad Salih and the Erk Party leadership rejected these offers, the regime's attacks on Erk became even more severe. On July 2, 1992, Muhammad Salih resigned from the parliament in protest of these repressive actions.

In August, 1 992, Erk Party General Secretary Prof. Dr. Atanazar Arifov was arrested on the ridiculous charge of "attempting to organize a coup against the government." In December, publication of the Erk Party newspaper was banned. All of these actions steadily forced the Erk Party to go underground. In 1993 the government's repressive actions reached a new height. On April 6, 1993, Muhammad Salih, chairman of the Erk Party, was arrested and charged with being the "leader of a revolutionary committee." However, because of strong international reaction he was released on April 9. By this time It was no longer possible for Salih to remain in Uzbekistan as the leader of Its opposition party, and he left the country in mid-April. The Karimov regime was resolute In Its decision to eliminate the opposition which the Erk Party symbolized. Erk Party parliament members Inamjan Tursunov, Jahangir Muhammad, Imam Fayzlyev, Samandar Qoqanov, Nasrulta Saidov, and Murad Jorayev were thrown out of the parliament and their parliamentary powers revoked. Court proceedings based on fantastic accusations were Initiated against Erk Party Secretary Atanazar Aripov, Erk Party Executive Committee member Salavat Umrzaqov, Erk Newspaper Chief Editor Ibrahim Haqqul, and writer Nazar Eshanqul. Each was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Karimov wanted to take advantage of Muhammad Salih's being out of the country, and he put together a plan to remove Salih from the Erk party leadership, He collaborated with academclan Shadi Karimov, a member of the Erk Party executive council, who announced his candidacy for Erk Party chairman at the September 25, 1993 Erk Party General Congress. However, the delegates to the congress foiled this plot by chasing the puppet candidate from the room and reelecting Muhammad Salih unanimously as party chairman. Considering Karimov's dictatorial repression and Muhammad Salih's absence from the country, It is evident that the Erk Party is made up of strong and reliable cadres.

The Erk Party newspaper began republishing in Moscow at the beginning of 1994. This caused the regime to renew Its attacks. This time Karimov had Muhammad Salih's home in Tashkent confiscated, and had Salih's two sons and one daughter taken to the border with Turkmenistan and confined there. Salih's younger brother, poet Maqsud Bekjan, was arrested. 6 Erk leaders and 3 Erk Party secretaries were arrested and accused of planning the publication and distribution of the Erk newspaper.

Despite all of this repression arid terror, the Erk Party today Is alive and well. Under such conditions, it will not be possible for the Karimov regime to remain In power much longer. Until the self-serving Karimov regime falls, Muhammad Salih and his colleagues will continue their work with determination.