The country’s constitution calls for the chairman of the Uzbek senate to seize the reins of power.
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Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Lola Karimova-Tillyayeva, a daughter of the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, made a statement about the health of her father “to avoid misunderstandings”.
In an Instagram message, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva – the long-standing leader’s younger daughter – thanked well-wishers for their support, saying this was helping her father’s recovery.
Uzbekistan’s government has issued, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016, an unusual statement announcing the hospitalization of President Islam Karimov, who has ruled the former Soviet republic in Central Asia for more than 25 years. He said most people are too afraid to talk about Karimov’s hospitalisation, such is the level of repression in the country. “This will be an attempt of collective rule”. Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev is also seen as a leading candidate.
Uzbek security chief Rustam Inoyatov is known for violent treatment of protesters and is already 72. Uzbekistan soon evicted the United States from the air base due to criticism from Washington. The group has fought alongside the Taliban and then pledged allegiance to Islamic State which is estimated to have hundreds of Uzbek fighters.
He has always been lambasted by critics for brutally crushing dissent – most prominently the deadly 2005 response to protests in the city of Andijan death, where government forces were accused of killing hundreds of demonstrators.
In that case officials initially denied Niyazov’s death and continued to maintain the president was a alive during the week it took for the elites to choose a successor.
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Karimov has been slow to implement market reforms and Uzbekistan’s economy is still dominated by the state. Independent reports from the country are rare.
