Friday’s announcement follows days of unofficial reports that Karimov was close to death or even dead. US President Barack Obama also reaffirmed his country’s support to Uzbekistan “at this challenging time”.
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Uzbek President Islam Karimov died on Friday, the Uzbekistan government and parliament said in a joint statement. Uzbekistan now faces the greatest moment of uncertainty in its post-Soviet history.
The Samarkand airport issued a notice saying it would be closed to all flights on September 3 “except operations officially confirmed for this date” and all previous permissions for this date were canceled, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Karimov’s death leaves the future of the resource-rich country in question, said Andrey Kortunov, president of the New Eurasia Foundation.
An Afghan official said president Ashraf Ghani will attend Karimov’s funeral on Saturday, and a senior Kyrgyzstan diplomat said the country’s prime minister had been invited.
Under the Uzbek constitution, if the president dies his duties pass temporarily to the head of the senate until an election can be held within three months.
Karimov’s younger daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, 38, who lives with her businessman husband in Paris, is not believed to be seeking power. “If necessary, I’ll shoot them myself!”
Uzbek state television switched to footage of folk musicians playing traditional instruments against a black background after announcing his death.
All the former Soviet states of Central Asia remained under authoritarian rule after the Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991; Karimov’s regime in Uzbekistan was one of the region’s most repressive.
Karimov, 78, has not been seen in public since mid-August, but his government admitted only last weekend that he was ill. Karimov extended the presidential term to seven from five years in a 2002 referendum, then ran again in 2007, flouting a constitutional ban on a third term.
In this photo taken on Friday, Sept. 2, 2016, A police officer guards an area at the ancient city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
“Karimov ruled through fear to erect a system synonymous with the worst human rights abuses: torture, disappearances, forced labour, and the systematic crushing of dissent”.
Mr Karimov has no clear successor and there is no legal political opposition. In 2005, hundreds of peaceful protesters were killed by government forces in the city of Andijan, leading to a crumbling of relations with many Western nations including the US.
Once known for a globe-trotting lifestyle at NY and Paris fashion shows, Gulnara Karimova has not been seen in public for two years after she was ensnared in a wide-ranging bribery probe involving foreign telecommunications firms seeking access to the Uzbek market.
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The Kremlin quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying his death was a “heavy loss for Uzbekistan”.
