Inventing Antifa

On May 13, 2005, the Uzbek government killed over 700 civilians gathered in the eastern city of Andijon to protest the economic, social, and political conditions of Uzbekistan. Prompted by the imprisonment and subsequent jailbreak of popular local businessmen, the crowd grew to 10,000 people, some drawn by a rumor that their dictator, President Karimov, would address the largest protest in Uzbekistan’s history.

Instead, military forces greeted the demonstrators. According to the Uzbek government, the forces targeted only armed insurgents, 187 of whom were killed. According to nearly all other accounts, the military fired indiscriminately into the crowd, murdering at least 700 people, including children.

At the center of the massacre was a group the Uzbek government called “Akromiya”. According to the Uzbek government, Akromiya armed the militants, Akromiya gave the orders, Akromiya was responsible for the deaths of Uzbek citizens in Andijon. Akromiya was a menace that had to be stamped out at any cost.

There was one problem with this theory: Akromiya — by the accounts of Uzbek and international human rights groups, political organizations, journalists, citizens, and accused Akromiya members themselves — did not exist.

The Uzbek government had invented “Akromiya” in reaction to mounting frustration among the Uzbek public. When protests erupted, Akromiya became the all-purpose label slapped on any Uzbek who dared to dissent. Uzbeks accused of being in “Akromiya” were baffled. “Surely it’s clear that Akromiya is just a myth,” exclaimed Abdulboiz Ibrahimov, a businessman imprisoned for being an Akromiya terrorist.

It was clear, but it did not matter. What mattered was the power to create propaganda and use force. Against this, the average Uzbek citizen was helpless. Over twenty years later, there has never been justice for the slain of Andijon.

But it did not take long for the myth of “Akromiya” to be debunked. I know, because I was the one who debunked it.

When I was a graduate student in an Indiana University MA program that the Trump administration defunded despite the university’s willingness to put snipers on the roofs during student protests, I published a paper, “Inventing Akromiya: The Role of Uzbek Propagandists in the Andijon Massacre,” in the peer-reviewed academic journal Demokratizatsiya.

That paper got me got banned from Uzbekistan. It angered US think tanks. It helped some Uzbeks get asylum — though as the West turns autocratic, I wonder what good that did them.

“You’re killing your career ...