Likely. Shto skazat’? Gol’ na vydumki xitra! Maybe we’re getting off-topic but if you’re interested and read German, Der Spiegel has a story this week about a gang in Moldova, led by a police officer, that sells ‘Jewish identities’ to local Russians and Moldovans who want to emigrate to Israël and the EU: http://service.spiegel.de/digas/servlet/epaper?Q=SP&JG=2006&AG=14&SE=122

As for Laurence: “Note the threat to Jews and Koreans in Ataman Rakin’s post. He’s not alone. Anyone who knows what Hizb-ut-Tahrir says in its leaflets, etc. ”

I don’t know what your point is but if my reply is seen as an anti-Jewish/Korean threat by you and enough to have me branded ‘Hizb-ut-Tahrir’ (how original!), fine.

From my side, I base my hypothesis on historical precdents where certain minorities were (perceived as being) in cahoots with/privileged by upopular regimes e.g. the Bahai in Pahlavi Iran, the Chinese in Suharto’s Indonesia; etc. Partly, popular antipathy againt minorities are fueled by difference in wealth and living standards (cf. the Indonesian Chinese); but in other cases, they *were* compromised with the regime.

“The real question is perhaps why the OSCE invited a government editor to a meeting with NGOs”
- Unless you have information that I don’t (which may well be the case), it seems most likely to me at least that the OSCE didn’t invite the government editor; the Uzbek government did.

Anyone who knows what Hizb-ut-Tahrir says in its leaflets, or who has talked to people in the country, knows that there is a real threat to minorities (Jews, Koreans, Armenians, Russians et al.) in Uzbekistan from extremist groups. Anti-semitic stereotypes are widespread. Some of my students believed America was controlled by Jews, even that Yale University was a Jewish school (there is some Hebrew lettering in the logo). So, it is not surprising to read that the Uzbek Jewish community might keep track of threats, as they do in the US, England, France, Russia, and elsewhere–for their own protection.

That tens of thousands of Jews left Uzbekistan since independence because of “rising nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism” is bollocks; the vast majority left for social-economic reasons and the opportunity to start new life in Israël or the West (the US in particular).

This said, I have also the impression that some Jewish community leaders excel in associating themselves with the regime. That is party because most of these so-called ‘national-cultural centres’, to where official community leaders mostly belong, are sycophantic GONGO structures (not only in Uzbekistan BTW); it’s probably also a matter of self-protection/self-censorship; and another explanation is that many Uzbekistani Jews buy into the myth that the present regime is the best guarantee against an Islamist takeover.

There’s also the controversial and shady issue of Israël’s support to the anti-Islamic regime in Uzbekistan.

To what extent all that is based on facts or not, is actually not the most important. To what extent it is *perceived* as such by a substantial number of people, is. It is because on the mid- or long term it can have repercussions on the security of the remaining Jews in Uzbekistan.

See, when the rogue regime in Tashkent collapses — as it sooner or later will — there will, at best, be a number of weeks of street violence and score settling. And part of it may be directed against ethnic minorities who are seen as minions of the regime, i.e. Jews and ethnic Koreans in particular.